Oluniyi D. Ajao » Business

Airtel Ghana upgrades network for faster broadband

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:36:17 +0000

Airtel, Ghana’s second national operator announced an upgrade of its cellular network to a newer/faster mobile broadband technology called 3.75G earlier this week. 3.75G, otherwise known as HSPA+, is the latest iteration of the 3G mobile broadband technology.

The launch makes Airtel the pioneer of 3.75G in Ghana, and the fastest mobile broadband service in Ghana presently. Airtel is promising a maximum theoretical download speed of 21Mbps. Its other (GSM) competitors MTN, Tigo and Vodafone currently run HSDPA cellular networks offering download speeds ranging between 7.2Mbps and 14.4Mbps.

I am yet to experience Airtel’s 21Mbps promise. A screenshot of my best speed test result using a Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone is below:

Airtel Ghana speedtest

It is possible that many of their cell sites are not upgraded to 3.75G yet.

It is noteworthy that Airtel launched a 3.5G network from their début. Their arch-rival MTN upgraded to 3.5G soon after and an aggressive broadband competition soon followed. Also, I am inclined to believe the timing of Airtel’s 3.75G launch is to preëmpt Glo Mobile’s launch. Glo Mobile launches in less than a month from now and one would expect Glo to launch with the very latest mobile broadband technology follow their many promises to offer a world-class network from day 1.

Glo Mobile soft launches in Ghana

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:02:45 +0000

After several false starts, Glo Mobile Ghana appears to have taken its most remarkable step yet, towards a commercial launch. The cellular network obtained its operating licence since 2008 but had failed to launch its service to the public, citing logistical difficulties. Its last false start was 17th November 2011. A much-publicized commercial launch slated for that date was postponed at the last minute.

glo

Today 19th January 2012 was another publicized date but again, Glo Mobile did not fail to disappoint. Instead of launching its network and opening for business, Glo Mobile only opened-up its number reservation system to the public promising to launch “between 2 and 4 weeks“.

Mr George Andah, Chief Operation Officer of Glo Mobile Ghana told Ghana News Agency:

“Glo Ghana had deployed the state-of-the-art infrastructure to give premium service, including the latest broadband technology, Next Generation Networks, over 1,600 Base Transceiver Stations, four ultra modern switches with capacity for up to 10 million lines with congestions free service.

This, he said, would be complemented by Glo-1, the high capacity state-of-the-art submarine cable connecting West Africa to Europe and a dedicated extension to the United States.”

How to reserve your number on Glo Mobile

The network code for the new cellular network is 023. Glo Mobile is making about 1 million telephone numbers in the series 023-3xx-xxxx available for reservation at this time. Some 4,000 numbers in this series are excluded from the regular reservation. The 4,000 vanity numbers would be available at a premium price of 100 or 200 Ghana cedis.

To reserve your Glo Mobile number, simply text the number you want reserved to 023 001 0100. Example: if you want to reserve 023-333-9999, text 0233339999 to 0230010100 from your current phone. The reservation system would respond within minutes with the results. Where the reservation was successful, a reference code would be included in the confirmation text message. You would need this reference code to claim your Glo Mobile number when the network goes commercial. Each person is limited to a maximum of 5 reservations.

I was able to reserve a phone number by sending the text message from an MTN number. My attempt using Airtel failed as the SMS was not delivered.

In the meantime, enjoy this Glo Mobile video ad:

Toshiba shines with world’s thinnest tablet at CES 2012

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 07:41:49 +0000

The 2012 edition of Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas USA did not disappoint. Being the biggest platform for tech companies to show-off their latest innovations, a lot of new tablets (mostly running the Android OS) were among the announced.

I have followed the news reports and one tablet that stood-out of the crowd was Toshiba’s Excite x10. It is exciting.

From PC World:

This 10.1-inch tablet distinguishes itself as the only model that can be called both the thinnest and lightest: It measures just 0.3-inches thick and weighs 1.18 pounds. It has a Texas Instruments 1.2-GHz OMAP 4430 multicore processor, 1GB of memory, and a 1280-by-800 resolution IPS display. The display looked good, with a minimal air-gap and a wide viewing angle; but text and graphics weren’t as sharp as on the higher-resolution displays. Toshiba hopes to be able to ship the tablet in the middle of the first quarter with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Toshiba says it will cost $530 for the 16GB model and $600 for the 32GB version.

Toshiba Excite™ X10 Tablet

Other features include:

0.3″ thin
1.2lbs
10.1” AutoBrite™ Multi-touch Display
Scratch-resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass
Powered by Android™
Dual-core processor
Micro HDMI® port
Micro USB port
Micro SD Card Slot
Stereo Speakers
Two HD Cameras

Be aware that the device does not support 3G nor any cellular connectivity. Instead, connectivity is via wifi only.

TEDxDzorwulu to be held in Accra, Ghana

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:42:53 +0000

TEDxDzorwulu comes-up in Accra Ghana this Saturday 10th December 2011. Find the full press release from the organizers, below:

On Saturday, December 10, 2010, from 8:00AM – 5PM GMT, the inaugural TEDxDzorwulu conference will be held at the African Regent Hotel in Accra Ghana on the theme: Think, Create and Innovate.

TEDxDzorwulu will focus on innovation that has taken us beyond traditional thinking and is producing budding Entrepreneurs from across Ghana whose inventions and ideas are becoming income generating ventures and also providing solutions for today’s modern societal problems.

TEDxDzorwulu 2011

TEDxDzorwulu speaker line up will feature five forward thinking Ghanaians from different disciplines. Wanlov the Kubolor, Fred Deegbe, Sheila Bartels-Sam, Kinna Likimani and a surprise speaker, who will be announced on the day.

The event hopes to bring together innovators, explorers, bloggers, technologists, academics and entrepreneurs who embraces and encourages collaboration, conversation and interaction. Our aim is also to create a network of doers & achievers who are ready to break through their own borders that have limited them from been able to Think, Create and Innovate.

TEDxDzorwulu will be a carefully curated event of a 100 of your smartest and most curious young innovators/entrepreneurs, CEO’s, Managers and Idealist. This is an opportunity to explore new ideas, get inspired by visionary thinkers, and gain exposure to new concepts, an afternoon of intellectual adventure.

ABOUT TEDx

In the spirit of “ideas worth spreading,” TED has created TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxDzorwulu where x = independently organized TED event. At TEDxDzorwulu, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.

Fly540: the budget airline for African destinations?

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:25:40 +0000

Too many people in Africa happen to fall within the low-income bracket. Thus, one would expect budget airlines to be commonplace on this continent, catering for the masses. This is not so. Budget airlines are rather common in high-income countries of Western Europe, North America, India and many Asian countries.

The relatively few airlines that ply major African cities do so at rather exorbitant fares. As of 21 Nov 2011 7:30am GMT:

a return flight (19 to 26 Dec 2011) from Accra (Ghana) to Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) costs $538 on Emirates or $567 on ASky Airline (an Ethiopian Airline subsidiary). The distance is only 259 miles and the flight duration only 1 hour.

Compare this to a return flight on the same dates from London Stansted Airport (UK) to Dublin (Ireland) for a fare of only $78 on Ryanair (a budget airline) or $173 on Aer Lingus. The duration of this flight is 1hr 10 mins.

The very low fare offered by the Irish budget airline, RyanAir, demonstrates how low air fare can go when the market conditions are right.

A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (also known as a no-frills, discount or budget carrier or airline) is an airline that offers generally low fares in exchange for eliminating many traditional passenger services. (Wikipedia). There are very few of them in Africa with most catering for domestic destinations within their respective national boundaries only. They are:

Egypt: Air Arabia Egypt
Kenya: Fly540
Nigeria: Aero Contractors
Morocco: Jet4You, Air Arabia Maroc
South Africa: Kulula, 1Time, Mango, Velvet Sky
Tunisia: Karthago Airlines

A change in the status quo?
Fly540 seems ready to position itself as a pan-African budget airline. As of now, Fly540 already flies to about 20 destinations in these East African countries: Burundi, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

In 2008, the airline opened-up its pan-African ambitions in a report by Ugandan newspaper, The Monitor:

“…we will open up Kigali and then head to West Africa. Ghana will be the hub for West African region. In Southern Africa, we shall use Angola as our hub, so it will become a pan African low cost airline”.

I didn’t give much weight to their lofty dream until I saw a Fly540-branded jet take-off on the runway of Kotoka International Airport in Accra Ghana on 18th November 2011. While Fly540 Ghana has not commenced revenue flights as of now, they plan to do so by the end of 2011 and have already taken delivery of aircraft, recruited staff and obtained the necessary licences.

Senegal and Equatorial Guinea are among the first destinationsto be serviced by Fly540 Ghana.

Fly540

Have smartphones become indispensable business tools?

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 06:21:31 +0000

I have used smartphones (mostly Nokia) for a few years now but started using BlackBerry since July 2010 and have never been a day without a BlackBerry ever since – until now. The BlackBerry device became the central point of my daily communication routine. I could read, forward, reply personal and business emails quickly. I could follow the conversation streams on Facebook and Twitter apps when I was idle. I could take photos at events and post same to Twitpic without waiting till I got to my laptop. I could chat with friends far and near via BlackBerry Messenger or some of the other chat apps installed on the device. I used phone calls and SMS only where extremely necessary, thus saving costs. I could manage my blogs from the device: moderate comments, publish new blog posts, view traffic stats etc. I could grab trophies from FourSquare as I explore new places. I could find my way around using Google Maps. I even completed hotel bookings on the device, using BlackBerry Travel app. Granted, the BlackBerry smartphone could never replace the full experience of a laptop for me, but it made me much more efficient as I had a lesser workload to tackle when I sat behind my laptop.

A BlackBerry Curve 8900

You can thus understand how frustrating it has been in the past 10 days that I have been without the full benefits of my BlackBerry smartphone. Most personal emails remain unread, I’m struggling with a piling workload, over 150 comments are pending moderation on my personal blog alone, I’m out of touch with friends I normally chat with regularly. I’m unable to share the fun of: Cape Town, WordCamp, how I celebrated my birthday, and other escapades in South Africa. In a nutshell, life has not been so frustrating in recent days.

Yes. I have tried very hard to fix this problem. I’ve subscribed to BlackBerry Internet Service from two cellular operators: Vodacom SA and MTN SA. I’ve contacted MTN Nigeria where I last used the device successfully and they confirmed my device is not tied to their network, I’ve called MTN and Vodacom customer service over 16 times, I’ve visited MTN offices in Cape Town and Jo’burg 3 times, I’ve wiped the device and re-installed the operating system in case any of the installed apps is causing the problem. MTN is suggesting the device is the problem, I’ve entered the settings they gave me and diligently followed all their suggestions. All to no avail. Now I am in touch with RIM, manufacturers of BlackBerry smartphones.

This little experience I am still going through has emphasized how much many of us have come to rely on smartphones, for running our personal and business lives. It is quite normal fiddle with the smartphone before falling asleep and it is the first thing we grab before brushing our teeth in the morning or saying those morning prayers. Ah, I use the Bible app on my smartphone more than my bulky physical Bible.

Business life is much easier with a BlackBerry but when things go wrong, life can be hectic. Very hectic.

Have you been separated from the joy of using your smartphone for a long period? Share the experience in the comment area.

Google introduces Hotel Finder

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 06:18:44 +0000

Google, despite being the number 1 destination on the web today, keeps diversifying so much that its hard to keep up with all the real estate it owns on the Internet. Over its 13 years of existence, Google has evolved from being a simple search engine, into being the monolithic juggernaut that dominates all the key aspects of the Internet: search, email, chat, maps, advertisement, social networking, video streaming, photo hosting, blogging, web-based office suite, browser software, operating system etc. Google has eventually dipped its long fingers into the key components of computing and the internet. Google’s latest enterprise is the experimental tool it calls: “Google Hotel Finder”.

This move puts Google in competition with web-based travel websites like Kayak, Expedia, Hotels.com etc. Google Hotel Finder is currently restricted to the United States. It can only find hotels based in the US and is only available at http://www.google.com/hotelfinder/

Google Hotel Finder

The service though quite basic for a hotel finder, still offers some of the key functionalities for a website of its class. Users can filter or rank their searches by check-in/check-out dates, price range, hotel class and user rating.

The real impact of Google Hotel Finder would be felt when the service goes global by offering listings from every part of the world.

MNP in Ghana: over 6,000 mobile subscribers ported so far

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:25:13 +0000

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) launched in Ghana on 7th July 2011, enabling mobile subscribers to move from one mobile network to another, whilst still retaining their full mobile number. It has generated some buzz in the Ghana’s mobile communications sector with all the mobile providers offering mouth-watering incentives to woo subscribers from other networks whilst keeping their existing subscribers.

As of this morning (18th July 2011), over 6,000 subscribers had ported from one mobile network to another, with most of them being hassle-free, according to the statistics released by the industry regulator National Communications Authority (NCA). Clearly, Ghana had learnt from previous implementations of MNP in other countries around the world, and had carefully planned the MNP system to be very successful by avoiding all potential pitfalls. Whilst, it has not been 100% perfect, the mobile operators are cooperating with the NCA to quickly resolve the problems as they come, with some operators going ahead to open a special desk to handle MNP issues.

There are 5 active mobile networks in Ghana: MTN, Tigo, Vodafone, Airtel and Expresso while the licensed Glo Mobile is yet to begin operations.

Find the full press release below:

——————————-<<<<>>>>——————————-

MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY – THE FIRST TEN DAYS

The National Communications Authority (NCA) is pleased to announce that as of Saturday night, July 16, at the end of the tenth full day of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in Ghana, 5,631 subscribers had successfully moved from one mobile service provider to another while retaining their mobile number. By Monday morning, the number had surpassed 6,000.

NCA’s analysis of the data for these first ten days shows that of the porting requests completed:

12% were completed in 15 minutes or less
22% were completed in 30 minutes or less
36% were completed in 1 hour or less
72% were completed in 4 hours or less
14% completed between 4 and 12 hours
13% completed between 12 and 24 hours
Less than 1% were completed in more than 24 hours

The fastest port recorded so far in Ghana took place in a mere 1 minute, 31 seconds. The average porting time for the first ten days was 4 hours, 17 minutes.

This performance compares very favorably with recent MNP implementations in other countries, where porting a mobile number can take up to seven days. Even in Europe, porting can take considerably longer than it does in Ghana, and the EU is only now moving toward the 24 hour maximum that applied in Ghana from launch.

Ghana also stands out by another measure: thanks to the collaborative and concerted effort by all involved, Mobile Number Portability moved from decision to launch in just 17 months. Ghana is also among the very few countries which have launched the service in the month first promised.

Ghana mobile phone subscribers are reminded that when they sign the porting request form and send the validation text message, they are moving their number from their current mobile service provider to a new one. They are closing their account at the old network, and when the porting is completed, they will no longer be using the old SIM. It appears that in some cases, the customer did not clearly understand this, and believed they were receiving an additional number. We therefore wish to summarize again the steps taken in the porting process:

If you wish to leave or quit your current mobile service provider but keep the same phone number, you should go to a shop or agent for the service provider you wish to join, bringing your photo ID and your phone.
You will be asked to sign the porting request form, your ID information will be recorded, and you will be asked to send a free text message to validate the request.
As soon as the agent or shop has submitted your request via computer and you have sent the validation text message, you will receive a text message. “Your porting request is being processed. Thank you.”
If the request was not submitted by computer or the validation text message you sent was not received, then two days later you will receive a text message, “Your porting request could not be submitted.” In this case, you should contact the service provider you intended to join to learn what has gone wrong with the process.
If for any of the few permitted reasons your current service provider declines to approve your request, you will receive a text message, “Your porting request was not approved. Please contact your new operator for details.” You should contact the network you intended to join.
If all goes well, in less than 24 hours you should receive a text message, “Your number is being ported now. Please switch to the chip or service from your new operator.” However, if you do not receive that message and your current SIM stops working, it is possible that the porting request has been completed, but you did not receive the text message. In that case, you should try your new SIM to see if it can now make and receive calls.
Any problems or inquiries during or after the porting process should be directed at the service provider you joined or attempted to join.

NCA is pleased with the public response to MNP so far, and we are diligently monitoring the process to ensure that rules are followed and that the process is serving the public interest as intended. In the future, we intend to release general statistics on a monthly basis.

Members of Facebook are invited to join our group page, “MNP Ghana”, to learn more and join the discussion.

DIRECTOR GENERAL

NCA-GHANA

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BB OS 6 on your BlackBerry 9700 (follow-up)

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:43:23 +0000

Research in Motion (RIM), makers of BlackBerry smartphones, released the current version of their operating system (OS 6) along with the BlackBerry Torch smartphone. They later released official versions of OS 6 for some of their earlier smartphones: BlackBerry® Bold™ 9700, BlackBerry® Pearl™ 9105 and BlackBerry® Curve™ 9300.

I blogged about running OS6 on BlackBerry 9700 and promised a follow-up. I’ve been too busy to publish a detailed sequence. Since I have been overtaken by events, I would simply highlight some of the latest updates.

BlackBerry 9780

If you don’t have a BlackBerry and are considering buying BlackBerry 9700 with the mind of upgrading the OS to version 6, don’t. Launched in November 2010, BlackBerry 9780 is essentially an upgrade of 9700. It comes with double the memory capacity of 9700, a better camera and more importantly, it is preloaded with OS 6.

BlackBerry Bold 9900 and BlackBerry Bold 9780

BlackBerry 9900

Slated to be released before this year 2011 runs out, the BlackBerry 9900 is the latest smartphone in the BlackBerry Bold family. It would come with a fast processor, lots of memory, a bigger storage, better camera, a touchscreen, in a good-looking body. It would also be pre-installed with BlackBerry OS 7. The new OS 7 would not be compatible with existing BlackBerry smartphones.

OS6 on BlackBerry 9700

If for any reason you are stuck with a BB 9700, upgrading to OS 6 would improve your BlackBerry experience drastically.

The first step would be to check if your mobile network operator already offers OS 6 for 9700. If they do, you can upgrade over-the-air from the BlackBerry by going to the software update setting. Either way, it’s better/safer to upgrade using a PC.

Simply visit http://uk.blackberry.com to download OS 6 to your PC or Mac. Also, you need to download and install the latest version of BlackBerry Desktop Manager. Install the OS 6 on your computer and then connect your smartphone to the computer. Then, upgrade through the Desktop Manager. The detailed steps are listed here.

Be sure to back-up your BlackBerry smartphone completely using the Desktop Manager before upgrading!!! You can restore your apps, messages and settings after upgrading.

Challenges of Shopping Online in Nigeria

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:15:57 +0000

I got the following message from a reader of this blog:

Good day Mr. Ajao.
I am a post graduate student at the university of Northampton, United kingdom, studying MA International Marketing Strategy. I am really proud as I see a Nigerian like you writing good articles on current issues on the internet. I have read about 4 of your articles and I must that I am very impressed. You are making us proud here in the United Kingdom.

After reading one of your articles I had the urge to write on how internet can be improved in the Nigerian economy. I have now decided to write on the challenges of online shopping in Nigeria. My objective is to propose ways in which most of our Nigerian companies and major retailers can engage in online shopping. As you rightly said in one of your articles online shopping has a lot of opportunities in Nigeria which can be carried out at minimal cost.

Sir, please can you take part in my topic “challenges of online shopping in Nigeria”.

I will be very grateful to hear from you.

To address this issue, I would list some of the challenges to e-commerce in Nigeria.

A. Lack of Trust

Trust is a very rare commodity, especially in Nigeria. There are multitudes of stories about scams and betrayals. Since trust is in short supply, many find it impossible to sit behind a computer to buy online by sending money to a strange company or person.

E-commerce has not reached its full potential in Nigeria. Photo by BTO Educational.

B. Credibility

This is still a human reason but is different from Trust because this reason hinges on the merchant.

How credible is the Nigerian e-commerce merchant? This is a hard question to tackle. While there are multitudes of genuine Nigerian merchants online today, some are reckless with customer service whilst others are deliberately out to fleece Nigerians, and have no intention of shipping the good nor delivering the service.

Poor customer service scenario:
A good friend of mine in Nigeria bought a textbook over the internet from a leading online book store. The textbook was delivered on schedule to her office via courier in a very attractive package that impressed me. With this experience, she ordered another textbook from the same store another time. The second time, the book was not delivered on schedule. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months. By the time the book was eventually delivered, she had lost faith in Nigerian e-commerce.
Scam scenario:
Some online stores appear with no intentions of shipping anything. The scam is to disappear after getting paid. There are too many complex examples of this.

C. Shipping/Delivery

NIPOST (postal) system is not as efficient as it can be, and courier services are not cheap. Would you buy a DVD online for N2,500 and have it shipped to you in Kaduna for N5,000? Unless it’s a “How to make Millions of Naira from oil ~~bunkering~~ business” DVD, I am not sure many would be eager to spend that much on courier delivery. Thus, there is a question mark on timely delivery to every nook-and-cranny of Nigeria.

D. Online Payment

The Nigerian online payment systems that exist are not effective, for varying reasons. Examples:

Interswitch: their financial & technical requirements are too steep for most Nigerian sole entrepreneurs and small businesses. Despite forming the bulk of Nigerian online enterprises, this market segment steers clear of the ‘almighty’ Interswitch.
Etranzact: the grandfather of online payments in Nigeria – launched in 2003 – is still alive and kicking. The company is not exploring its full potential successfully, thus making it unattractive to most Nigerian e-commerce merchants.
ValuCard Nigeria: despite being Visa International’s official acquirer in Nigeria, they are hardly visible in the e-commerce payment processing arena. They seem solely focused on being the power behind all Visa cards and Point Of Sale terminals issued by Nigerian banks.
There are a multitudes of smaller payment systems like CashEnvoy, dudupay, NetNaira, SurePay etc. Each of them is trying to fill the void, by catering specially to small business owners and entrepreneurs. Sadly, none of them seem to have the muscle to massively impact a big market like Nigeria. They have not gained widespread usage – yet.

One might then wonder, why are the merchants not using international payment processors?

Well, Nigeria-based merchants are not welcome on Paypal (the global leader in online payment) and most international credit card processors do not do business with anything that contains the word “Nigeria”.

In summary, e-commerce despite its huge potential in Nigeria, seems stuck in the crawling phase.