News

Top stories South Africa: Neotel to scoop bandwidth boon Access to internet highlighted by new global report South Africa: Corporate governance and ICTs South Africa: Acces boom full steam ahead South Africa: National broadcast slammed again South Africa: Icasa delays mobile TV policy South Africa: Mobile penetration increases steadily Broadband "glut" predicted in Africa Mobile(ising) Africa Senegal: Linking up through technology IGF gets under way in India East Africa prepares for global IGF South Africa: Where to now with universal access? South Africa: Nothing new with Neotel Nepad e-schools on the blink

APC editors select the latest news on ICT policy in Africa and internationally. Recommended news articles are marked with a star.

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 'Tow the line' APC tells Telkom
07/04/2008 -- APC has called on South Africa's regulator to take immediate action to counter the anti-competitive behaviour of Telkom, the country's fixed-line operator. “Telkom’s sole control of submarine fibre-optic cables such as the SAT3/WASC/SAFE undersea cable, the landing station at Melkbosstrand, as well as the land-based fibre optic cables has resulted in anti-competitive practices and consequent exploding telecommunication costs,” it said in a statement. |

 KENYA: What could have been done better?
07/04/2008 (Michael Ouma - KICTANet) -- The ethnic violence in the wake of Kenya's disputed elections has caused actors in the ICT industry to ask what they could have done better. The violence has claimed the lives of over 500 people and displaced over 250,000 across the country. Michael Ouma reports on a KITCATNet online discussion on the issue. |

 Nokia launches recycling initiative in East Africa
06/04/2008 -- Nokia has launched a recycling initiative in East Africa that offers consumers a structured way to dispose of old mobile phones and accessories. The move comes amid fears that cast-off mobile phones are posing an increasing risk of hazardous toxic chemicals in the developing world. |

 Kenya gets consumer protection
14/03/2008 (HANA) -- The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), the telecommunications industry regulator in that country, has stepped up consumer protection following the creation of a Consumer Affairs Division. |

 NIGERIA: Duties to tackle e-waste
10/03/2008 -- Nigeria is to introduce import duties to stem the influx of substandard and unserviceable computers, electrical and electronic appliances posing health and environmental hazards in the country. "They are bringing them in droves because they are classified as educational materials which attract zero duty," said Information Minister John Odey.
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 ZIMBABWE: Booting through sunlight
05/03/2008 -- In the absence of a reliable supply of other energy sources, the Zimbawean government has launched a programme to promote the use of solar energy as an alternative source of energy for computers in schools. |

 EGYPT: Renewed calls for release of blogger
05/03/2008 -- One year ago, Egyptian blogger Karim Amer was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for publishing on the internet material critical of Islam and President Hosni Mubarak. Amnesty International has reiterated calls for Karim Amer's immediate and unconditional release. |

 SOUTH AFRICA: Shuttleworth launches telecoms advocacy focus
04/03/2008 -- Improving access to telecommunications in South Africa is as much a policy challenge and it is a technical challenge. This is according to The Shuttleworth Foundation’s Steve Song who was speaking at the launch of the foundation’s four new focus areas, one of them being telecoms. Song said there are three key areas of telecommunications focus for the foundation: the democratisation of telecommunications, connected cities and policy issues. |

 Kigali protocol pushed through
19/02/2008 -- The NEPAD e-Africa Commission says the protocol on the policy and regulatory framework for the NEPAD ICT Broadband Infrastructure Network, known as the Kigali protocol, is now in force. That's after Malawi became the seventh country to put pen to paper. |

 UGANDA: ICT sector set for strong growth
18/02/2008 (New Vision) -- The restructuring of the ICT sector in Uganda is having a dramatic impact. The sector accounted for 9% of the country's GDP for 2007, and a surge in employment. |

 South Africa: How can feminists use ICTs to their advantage?
16/02/2008 (APC) -- The first-ever Feminist Tech eXchange (FTX) held recently in Cape Town brought together more than 100 activists from around the globe. Organised by the APC women’s programme in the run up to the massive women’s movement forum AWID, the capacity-building and information-exchange event explored various technologies such as video, audio, social networking platforms and other emerging ICT tools. |

 Bloggers take on Kenyan crisis
15/02/2008 -- The post-elections crisis in Kenya has resulted in what is being called a "media blackout". As some bloggers report, the censorship has spread to the internet, with some cyber-activists apparently being shut down. But now a new blogsite, Ushahidi.com, has been set up to document and protest the violence. |

 KENYA: Nokia tackles e-waste
21/01/2008 (eWasteguide.info) -- Leading mobile phone handset maker, Nokia, has announced it will set up waste dumping centres across East Africa to reprocess old mobile phone waste, including batteries. |

 KENYA: e-Waste study and network launched
03/01/2008 (KICTANeT) -- A baseline study into e-waste in Kenya has been launched at a meeting held in Nairobi recently. The meeting, on November 21 at the Jacaranda Hotel, was organised by the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANeT), and attended by over 30 representatives of business, government, the non-profit sector and the media. An e-waste network was also set up at the meeting. |

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 South Africa: Neotel to scoop bandwidth boon
18/03/2009 (Mybroadband.co.za) -- The country's second national operator, Neotel, has become the anchor tenant on the broadband marine cable Seacom. The fledgling operator is now poised to deliver vast quantities of cheaper bandwidth to South Africa. |

 Access to internet highlighted by new global report
12/03/2009 (APC) -- How do we ensure access to the internet is a human right enjoyed by everyone? This is one of the critical questions asked by an annual publication that highlights the importance of people’s access to ICT infrastructure – and where and how countries are getting it right or wrong, and what can be done about it. |

 South Africa: National broadcast slammed again
11/03/2009 (Mybroadband.co.za) -- THE SABC has again been criticised in a report on corporate governance prepared by Deloitte & Touche for Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri. The report says there is a lack of accountability at the broadcaster. |

 South Africa: Acces boom full steam ahead
11/03/2009 (Mybroadband.co.za) -- South Africa is set for an access boom. That's according to industry analysts who suggest that last year’s court case between the Department of Communications and Altech, which allowed local network operators and smaller businesses to roll out their own networks, combined with the imminent landing of the SEACOM sub-marine cable on South Africa’s East Coast has set the scene for a major shift in the local access landscape. |

 South Africa: Corporate governance and ICTs
11/03/2009 (Mybroadband.co.za) -- A draft of the Third King Report on Corporate Governance (King III) has been released for public comment. Unlike previous reports, King III deals with ICT governance in detail for the first time. However, some lawyers are not impressed. |

 South Africa: Icasa delays mobile TV policy
26/02/2009 (MyBroadband.co.za) -- The Independent Communications Authority (Icasa) unexpectedly withdrew an invitation to apply for mobile TV licences recently. |

 South Africa: Mobile penetration increases steadily
17/02/2009 (MyBroadband.co.za) -- Cellphone penetration in South Africa has gone up, but average spending has continued to dwindle as a result of various pressures on consumers. According to the latest figures from the South African Advertising Research Foundation, 67% of adults in the country have cellphones. This was up from the previous survey, which showed that 60.5% of South Africa had cellphones. |

 Broadband "glut" predicted in Africa
16/02/2009 -- Industry pundits argue that it's unlikely that all the fibre-optic cables planned for Africa are going to succeed. And, perhaps for the first time, projections of a "capacity glut" are being made. |

 Senegal: Linking up through technology
12/02/2009 (APC) -- Seven women and thirteen men from Anglophone and Francophone Africa and the Caribbean met during the last days of September in Gorée Island, Senegal. They have many things in common, but one in particular is their ability to make innovative connections between gender, agriculture and ICTs. This ability has led them to be finalists of the Gender, Agricultural and Rural Development in the Information Society (GenARDIS) small grants fund... |

 Mobile(ising) Africa
12/02/2009 (Balancing Act) -- Three hundred and eighty people gathered from all over the world in Johannesburg recently to discuss how mobile phones might be used for social and political purposes in developing countries. The topic clearly touched a nerve, writes Russell Southwood. |

 IGF gets under way in India
12/01/2009 (KICTANeT) -- The First East African Internet Governance Forum was inspired by the realization that there was a need to address the limited participation of African stakeholders in global internet governance debates. That's according to KICTANeT's Alice Wanjira, who was speaking at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) currently taking place in India. |

 East Africa prepares for global IGF
26/12/2008 (Computerworld) -- Representatives from Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda have gathered in Nairobi to discuss common issues regarding internet governance, in preparation for next month's global Internet Governance Forum (IGF). |

 South Africa: Nothing new with Neotel
01/11/2008 (Mybroadband.co.za) -- Businesses are complaining that South Africa's second national operator is not promising much - at least right now. |

 South Africa: Where to now with universal access?
01/11/2008 (SANGONeT) -- In recent weeks the CEOs of two national development agencies in South Africa, the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) and Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA), were fired or suspended for incompetence or misconduct. These incidents raise serious questions about the integrity and intent of the people entrusted with guiding development efforts in the country, writes SANGONeT Director David Barnard. |

 Nepad e-schools on the blink
30/10/2008 (MyBroadband.co.za) -- The e-schools satellite learning programme, run by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), has linked less than 100 schools in Africa to the internet. That's after promising to connect some 600,000 schools on the continent in 2003.
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 TIGA awards for ICT and government delivery
30/09/2008 (UNECA) -- The Economic Commission for Africa and the the Canadian Fund for Africa have launched the Second Technology in Government in Africa (TIGA) Awards. The awards aim to recognise the work of African governments in the effective use of ICTs for public service delivery. |

 South Africa: Citizen journalism under the spotlight
16/09/2008 (Highway Africa) -- More than 700 journalists from over 40 African countries were expected to attend the 12th Highway Africa conference in Grahamstown, South Africa. The conference is the world's biggest gathering for African journalists and took place on 8 - 10 September. This year's theme was citizen journalism. |

 Google edges into Africa
16/09/2008 (BBC) -- Google is helping develop a system to bring high-speed internet connections to three billion people in developing countries in Africa and elsewhere. The 03b Networks system aims to use satellites to provide broadband services at the same speeds as those on offer in rich countries. |

 SAT-3 reinforces market monopolies in Africa - Study
08/09/2008 (APC) -- An APC study examining the impact the SAT-3 fibre optic submarine cable has had on telecommunications in four African countries has found that the potential of the cable has not been properly exploited. Instead, ownership of the cable by telecoms incumbents in the countries researched has reinforced their market positions. |

 South Africa: Court rules on free networks
02/09/2008 (The Weekender) -- A landmark ruling set to shake up the telecommunications sector has been issued by a South African high court. The ruling effectively ends the incumbent Telkom’s lingering monopoly by decreeing that technology company Altech has the right to build its own network. |

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