CDMA BlackBerry: Another first from Visafone across MEA

The largest Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) mobile network in Nigeria, Visafone Communications, has again become the first CDMA network to offer BlackBerry smartphones in the whole of Middle East, Europe and Africa.

DigitalSENSE Business News recalls that Visafone Communications in partnership with Research In Motion (RIM) launched three brands of BlackBerry smartphones; Bold 9930, Curve 9310 and Curve 9370 respectively, which are to be made available from October 29th, 2012.

Speaking at the formal launch of the devices in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer of Visafone Communications, Mr. Srinivasa said that the partnership with RIM brings the wide range of smartphones on demand by the Nigerian market, especially BlackBerry.

He also said the unique selling point of the company in terms of the BlackBerry devices and its after sales services is the company’s flagship shops which numbered up to 88 across the nation. And the rating of the company by the government’s regulatory agency, the Nigerian Communications Commission as the number one in terms of quality of service.

“The moment is here to ping on Visafone network,” he declared.

Also speaking, RIM Regional Director for East, Central and West Africa, Mr. Waldi Wepener revealed that RIM chose to add Visafone to its list of partners in the country as a result of Visafone’s good quality of service.

Wepener further disclosed that RIM presently has 5 partners in Nigeria including Visafone as the only CDMA network on the list. He expressed RIM’s pride in supporting Visafone with the launch of BlackBerry solutions to their existing and new customers across the nation.

“BlackBerry solution from Visafone offers customers a strong selection of smartphones and a wide range of services that connects them to people and information,” Wepener said.

According to Wepener, the BlackBerry Bold 9930 on Visafone has a high performance keyboard, a 5.0 megapixel camera with a responsive high-resolution touch screen and Wi-Fi as its special features while the Curve 9310, a 3.2megapixel with an inbuilt FM radio. The Curve 9370 has an optical trackpad for easy and one-hand navigation with inbuilt GPS and Wi-Fi support.

The three devices, like any other BlackBerry devices allow users to easily interact with their social network in real time. They can also support external storage memory expansion up to 32 GB.

The Chairman of Visafone, Mr. Jim Ovia in his address said the network has an amazing call rate alongside its supersonic data experience, and that users of Visafone BlackBerry can roam everywhere in the world which is going to give users an edge.

“This launch is a major boost to the NCC’s efforts to achieve growth of data usage and quality of services to Nigerian,” Ovia said, that the partnership denotes a big step forward in the continent’s mobile history.

Ovia equally said that Visafone has the right strategies in place that would enable to the company to operate in the future, urging the general public to support the merger of telecommunications companies.

According to him, merging of telecommunications companies does not imply that all is not well with either of the parties.

Visafone has some records to its name, from being the first network operator to have 1 million subscribers in 6 months on inception to also being the first to get 2 million subscribers in 9 months in the nation.

 
Visafone is also the first telecommunications company to be Open Market Handset (OMH) compliant and the first to offer prepaid and postpaid roaming opportunity across Africa.

Remmy Nweke & Yinka Awosanya

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Team Jim unveils Visafone Blackberry on CDMA

The team of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) investors led by business mogul and chairman of Visafone Communications, Mr. Jim Ovia, on Wednesday in Lagos unveiled BlackBerry smartphone on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA).

This was facilitated by a partnership deal struck between Visafone Communications and Research-In-Motion (RIM), the owners of BlackBerry brand.

According to the chief executive officer of Visafone, Mr. K.V. Srinivasa, said the telecom company and all its outlets nationwide as well as accredited retail shops would offer on sale the Blackberry series as from October 29th, 2012.3

Regional director at RIM for East, Central and West Africa, Mr. Waldi Wepener expressed excitement on the development and promised to support Visafone in achieving the objective in offering Blackberry on CDMA.

Some of the smartphones penciled for the deal and on offer includes BlackBerry Bold 9930, Curve 9310 and Curve 9370.

Ovia told ITRealms that he is satisfied with the partnership, hence he as an investor backed the deal 100 per cent.

 

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1,800 participants took part @ ICANN 45 meeting

A total of 1,800 participants may have taken part in the just concluded public meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Director of Global Media Affairs, Mr. Brad White, disclosed this to ITRealms, saying that people from around the world registered for the meeting, making it the second largest in ICANN history.

Over the years, ICANN has established market competition for generic domain name (gTLD) registrations resulting in a lowering of domain name costs by 80 per cent and saving consumers and businesses over US$1 billion annually in domain registration fees.

 ICANN implemented an efficient and cost-effective Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which has been used to resolve thousands of disputes over the rights to domain names.

 Working in coordination with the appropriate technical communities and stakeholders, ICANN adopted guidelines for the deployment of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), opening the way for registration of domains in hundreds of the world's languages.

    Verisign, ICANN and NTIA jointly completed deployment of Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) for the root zone in July 2010. These extensions make certain kinds of cyberfraud much more difficult to perpetrate. As of 30 June 2011, 70 TLDs had adopted DNSSEC, including two of the largest TLDs -- .com and .de.

    ICANN created the New gTLD Program, so that any established entity in the world can apply to operate its own top-level domain. Many of these new gTLDs will go online in 2013.

    The world broadly accepts ICANN as the place to work out Internet governance policies. As 2011 ended, the Governmental Advisory Committee represented 109 nations (plus the European Union and the Vatican). The Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) represented more than 120 country code domains. The At-Large Advisory Committee represented 134 At-Large Structures (ALSes) from all geographic regions.

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A lession for Canadian Embassy on what ICANN is?

DigitalSENSE News: Canadian Embassy in Nigeria says 'ICANN 45th meeti...: The Canadian Embassy in Lagos, has described the 45 th public meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICAN... Since Canadaian Embassy in Lagos described ICANN public meeting. For the benefit of doubt, below is what ICANN is and its public meetings?

What Is ICANN?

To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer – a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet.

ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers.

ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.

ICANN meetings!

• ICANN meetings are held three times each year in different regions of the globe to enable attendees from around the world to participate in person. One meeting each year is also the organization's annual general meeting, during which new Board members take their seats.
• ICANN meetings are free and officially run five days (Monday to Friday). There are also a few pre-meeting workshops and working sessions when the volunteer members of our supporting organizations and advisory committees initiate their work.
• ICANN meetings offer the best opportunity for face-to-face discussions and airing of opinions among knowledgeable people dedicated to the continued stable and secure operation of the Internet.
• ICANN meetings offer a variety of sessions such as workshops, open forums, and working meetings on the development and implementation of Internet policies.
• Remote participation is possible while the meetings are going on. We offer several tools such as streaming live audio and video, chatrooms, and online question boxes.
• Detailed logistics and information about each meeting venue, registration, and remote participation can be found at the dedicated website created for each meeting.
• ICANN’s Fellowship program supports attendance at ICANN meetings by selected individuals from stakeholder groups around the world.

Where and when do ICANN meetings take place?

ICANN meetings are held three times a year in different regions, with the Board typically choosing the actual location at least a year out from the meeting. You can see the list of regions and countries of past and upcoming ICANN meetings at http://meetings.icann.org/calendar.

NCC denies frequency racketeering

Nigerian Communications Commission  (NCC) on Thursday denied news report that its officials have embarked on frequency band racketeering, saying there is no truth in the story.

According to the head, public relations at NCC, Mr. Reuben Muoka, the report insinuated that the management of the Commission has sold a frequency slot belonging to the Nigerian police to a private firm, Open Skys.

Also, the report alleged the current leadership of the Commission has issued frequencies to one Smile Communications without due process.

 

"There is no truth in both allegations," he declared in response to the allegations.

 

NCC, he insisted is an independent National Regulatory Authority for the telecommunications industry in Nigeria, therefore, making it responsible for creating an enabling environment for competition among operators in the industry as well as ensuring the provision of qualitative and efficient telecommunications services throughout the country. 

 

"The Mission of the NCC is to support a market driven telecommunications industry and promote universal access," he said.

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Emirates scores another first with inflight communications

Customers connect onboard the A380.

The Emirates has set yet another industry standard by launching an inflight communications in its A380 aircraft.

Emirates seems reputed for setting industry standards and with the latest inflight innovations and connectivity; including being the first airline to equip entire Airbus fleet with in-flight phones in 1993.

A year later, Emirates’s became the  first airline to equip entire Airbus fleet with in-flight fax machines; 2003: First airline to offer live BBC text news headlines on its aircraft; 2006: Personal in-seat email and Short Messaging Service (SMS) installed throughout the fleet, in all classes. 

Also in 2008, Emirate was reportedly the first airline to offer onboard mobile telephone services in collaboration, while in 2011 Emirates unveiled Wi-Fi internet access on A380 in conjunction with OnAir.

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