Nigeria: ‘SIM Cards success determines Number Portability success’

Left: Mr. Okechukwu Itanyi, Dr. Eugene Juwah, and

Mr. Tony Ojobo, Director, Public Affairs of NCC at the event

The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah has said that the success of the Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards registration would determine how success the Number Portability (NP) soon to be introduced would be.

He made this known at a recent media session with some IT Reporters and media chiefs at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, even as over 110,433,976 SIM cards have been registered as at the time of filing this report.

According to him, the success of Number Portability also rides on successful registration of SIM Cards and creation of SIM card data base of integrity.

He also disclosed that NCC is currently in the processed of harmonizing the process.

“… We are doing that at the moment,” he declared, saying that the data is undergoing 

through processing and cleaning at the NCC.

Juwah maintained that without a doubt, mobile Number Portability will impact on the quality of service on various networks although other cardinal steps are being taken to ensure that the service providers are constantly kept on their toes to make them give the best services to their subscribers.

He said that to this end, the Compliance and Enforcement Unit has been strengthened to enable the Commission enforce its regulations and directives.

Noting that recently the unit had embarked on a lot of enforcement activities nationwide, he said it’s a painful action to take but NCC realised that if it has to confront some key problems facing the industry like quality of service, some organisations and individuals must be pulled into line, which process would invariably cause some discomfort and corporate embarrassment, not to mention financial loss.

“However, that notwithstanding, going forward more vigorous enforcement actions are continuing,” he warned.

Just as he recalled that a fortnight ago, precisely on February 17, 2012, the Commission’s Enforcement Unit carried out enforcement actions against some mobile device dealers who flood our markets with non type approved devices, which in turn affect quality of service of the various networks.

“We have laid out comprehensive plans to further excite the Communications sector,” he promised, saying that NCC has broad plans for broadband deployment to enable it create and impact in the whole nation.

The EVC said that to implement this, NCC has adopted the open access model as platform, in addition to resuscitating the Fixed Line sector by giving out new licenses and in doing this to increase telephony penetration.

The success of this twin action, he said, would give Nigerians an enhanced choice of products and services to reduce overreliance on mobile services and encourage internet usage.

The EVC was accompanied at the occasion by Mr. Okechukwu Itanyi, Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, and Mr. Tony Ojobo, Director, Public Affairs of NCC among others.

Remmy Nweke
 
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Cisco predicts 8bn handhelds by 2016

The latest Visual Networking Index (VNI) from Cisco Systems has predicted that 8 billion handhelds would be in the market by 2016, even as Cisco’s Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast says that there will be an 18-fold increase over the next five years.

Extracts of both the Cisco’s Visual Networking Index (VNI) and Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2011 to 2016, made available to ITRealms Online indicated that worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 18-fold over the next five years, while 8 billion handhelds must have been in people’s homes.

The VNI latest report on ‘Impact of Mobile Devices/Connections’ showed that the increasing number of wireless devices and nodes accessing mobile networks worldwide is the primary contributor to traffic growth.

Hence, by 2016, VNI stated that there will be more than 8 billion handhelds or personal mobile-ready devices and nearly 2 billion machine-to-machine connections, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) systems in cars, asset tracking systems in shipping and manufacturing sectors and medical applications for making patient records more readily available.

Smartphones, laptops and other portable devices, the report stated, will drive about 90 per cent of global mobile data traffic by 2016. This is in addition to Machine-To-Machine, which is predicted to represent about 5 per cent of 2016 global mobile data traffic, while residential broadband mobile gateways will account for the remaining 5 per cent of global mobile data traffic.

On the impact of traffic offload from mobile networks to fixed networks, the VNI reported that in order to address the rise in demand for the mobile Internet, service providers are increasingly looking forward to offload traffic to fixed and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) networks.

Therefore, Cisco’s VNI noted that in 2011 alone, about 11 per cent or 72 peta bytes, per month of total mobile data traffic were offloaded.

This, the report pointed out that by 2016, 22 per cent, or 3.1 exa-bytes, per month of total mobile data traffic will be offloaded.

“Without offloading, the 2011-2016 global mobile data traffic based on Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) would be 84 per cent instead of 78 per cent,” part of the statement read.

Adding that should all aspects of mobility be taken into consideration, such as cellular traffic, traffic offloaded from cellular networks and fixed cum Wi-Fi traffic generated from portable devices, the total amount of mobility traffic would be more than four times the Cisco Mobile VNI forecast’s 2016 cellular traffic level.

As said by the VNI in 2011, the sum of cellular traffic; cellular offload traffic; and fixed/Wi-Fi traffic from portable devices totaled 11.5 exabytes per month:

Cellular, the report showed is 5.2 per cent or 597 peta-bytes per month, while cellular Offload is 0.6 per cent or 72 peta-bytes per month. Even as Fixed/Wi-Fi is 94.2 per cent or 10.9 exabytes per month, the 2011 index had reported that fixed/Wi-Fi traffic was more than 18 times greater than cellular traffic.

Therefore, in 2015, VNI reported that the sum of cellular traffic; cellular offload traffic; and fixed/Wi-Fi traffic from portable devices totaled 44.1 exabytes per month; with cellular recording 16 per cent or 6.9 exabytes per month; cellular offload is four per cent or 2.0 exabytes per month and fixed/Wi-Fi is 80 per cent or 35.2 exabytes per month.

The Virtual Networking Index maintained that in 2015, Fixed/Wi-Fi traffic will be more than five times greater than cellular traffic.

Remmy Nweke

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Comviva leads global support for MasterCard’s Mobile Money Partnership

Acclaimined leader in mobile solutions, Comviva, is leading a strategic partnership with MasterCard to launch a first-of-its-kind open loop Mobile Money Partnership Programme.

ITRealms Online, gathered that Comviva would be working MasterCard to help over 2.5 billion financially underserved consumers globally to gain access to mainstream financial services – via their mobile phone.

A press statement made available to ITRealms Online, showed that the partnership would leverage on building upon its leadership in technology to create a solid ecosystem of trusted business relationships and symbiotic partnerships.

This, the company also stated has enabled Comviva to deploy a large number of mobile commerce solutions across the globe, even as Comviva’s mobiquity is a multi award winning mobile financial solution that has already crossed over 55 deployments, 490 million subscribers in 38 countries.

With mobiquity, the official statement added that mobile users could quickly, easily and safely access a range of financial payment services. It also provides multiple proven integrations, including payment, banking, credit card and Automated Teller Machines (ATM) switches and systems.

The chief executive officer, Comviva, Mr. Manoranjan Mohapatra, was quoted as saying that with the firm’s established leadership in empowering mobile money technology across geographies, they are thrilled to support MasterCard’s first-of-its-kind open loop Mobile Money Partnership Programme.

“Our dominance in emerging markets makes us as an unequivocal partner of choice for MasterCard to cater to underbanked segments with intuitive financial services. With mobile financial services turning into a key business strategy for banks and telecom vendors, this program will also give the right impetus to financial and social inclusion,” he said.

Equally commenting, the Group Executive, Mobile, MasterCard Worldwide, Mr. Mung Ki Woo, noted that with about 5 billion mobile phone users globally, this partnership programme provides powerful, smart and convenient new payment options to people through a device that is already in the palm of their hands today.

“To ensure success of this programme, MasterCard has partnered with the leading players in the mobile money ecosystem. Comviva was a key partner of choice to empower billions of underserved segments in the developing market,”  he said.

He explained that the partnership would address the need of consumers in developing markets through a readily accessible device, the mobile phone.

Hence, Comviva would work with MasterCard to enable global consumers to purchase goods and services via their mobile phone at millions of physical and online merchants, as well as transfer funds and pay bills.

 
ITRealms Online recalls that according to recent Juniper Research, the combined market for all types of mobile payments is expected to reach more than $600B globally by 2013, double the current figure.

Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D