The spate of kidnapping in the country can be curtailed by embracing the use of telecommunications technology.

The acting vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) expressed this view yesterday, following the release of the four recently abducted journalists.

Bashir Gwandu, addressing chief executives of the GSM, CDMA, and other major network operating companies in Abuja, lamented that kidnapping has become a serious threat to lives and businesses in Nigeria over the last one year, especially in the South-East and South-South zones of the country.

Mr. Gwandu said that “with just about 1000 naira, a multitude of crimes can be committed by purchasing multiple sim cards and misused them to threaten others via voice or text messages, and also commit other phone-assisted crimes. This has to stop.”

Holding a person against his/her will is a criminal offence anywhere. Kidnapping is a despicable act. Having said that, let’s analyse Bashir Gwandu’s further statements.

He said the NCC has “plans to issue subsidy to telecommunications operators to install equipment on every mast and tower that could be used for triangulating between sites in order to identify real-geographical location of both GPS and None GPS-enabled mobile handsets.”

Google Maps for mobile can already generate estimated location coordinates of mobile phones that have it installed, without relying on special equipment.

Assuming NCC can really pull that off, what happens to the privacy of mobile phone users? Did they sign-up for their movements to be tactically monitored by telecom operators? Why does anything need to be installed anyway when existing cell masts can already be used to triangulate the estimated location of any mobile phone (GPS-capable or not)? Google Maps already uses cell mast triangulation for its Google Map for Mobile service. Is this “subsidy” another plot to squander tax payers’ money?

Mr. Gwandu stated that in addition to the triangulation project, all GPS-enabled handsets can also be tracked by low earth orbit satellites. He further stated that there are other equipment that could be deployed to tract and identify the locations of handsets being used to solicit for ransom.

This is ludicrous. Telecom operators are now law enforcement agencies. Even if the NCC was allowed to implement this absurdity, how would they access the GPS coordinates of a mobile phone since the GPS feature needs to be explicitly activated by the phone user before the phone can be tracked? Do they plan to hack phones and turn on GPS on the phones remotely? Or, are they counting on phone users to voluntarily leave their GPS feature on all the time? By the way, GPS drains phone batteries. Tracking keeps the phone’s microprocessor very busy and so consumes a lot of energy.

According to him, “once ownership of numbers can be identified, handsets can be tracked, and their geographical location becomes identifiable, then any call made to solicit for ransom will help to locate the kidnappers.”

I can’t help laughing. Hardened criminals like kidnappers would voluntarily register their SIM cards with their real personal details in other to make the job of law enforcement easy. Too bad, we live in a real world where that fantasy is hardly possible.

In addition to this, NCC has initiated a project that will block stolen handsets once they are reported as being stolen. The project will also be helpful in stopping criminals from using snatched handsets in perpetrating such act.

How many times are we going to read things like this? Haven’t we heard this before? How many times does the NCC want to attempt blocking stolen phones? Is it not the exact responsibility of the phone owner to promptly report a stolen phone to the service provider for the SIM to be promptly deactivated? A country that cannot generate adequate power supply, that cannot hold free & fair elections, that cannot properly conduct a population census now wants to track and block mobile phones. How noble!

It is very obvious that the acting boss of NCC is pulling this stunt, to create an impression on the Nigerian public that he is very competent and on top of his game. Whilst I would not question his competence, this particular act can only be counter-productive in any enlightened society since such information (useful or not) is best shared directly with the law enforcement agencies. The Nigeria Police, the State Security Service (SSS), the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) etc, are the best to be tutored on technology meant for tracking criminals and NOT the head of telecom companies who already understand the technologies (else, why would they be in business?) nor the media.

Is the NCC on the right track or not? Share your thoughts in the comments area.

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… a young 20 year old Nigerian serial entrepreneur who founded of Yarnable, an elegant micro-blogging platform and YRN.ME a URL shortener.

I recently granted him an interview after meeting him at BarCamp Nigeria 2010. He shared the motivation behind his social networking websites, his plans for the future and a little bit about his personality. Enjoy…

Ahmad Mukoshy of yarnable.com & yrn.me Image: davidajao.com

Oluniyi: What was your exact motivation for developing yrn.me?

Ahmad: Well, it was the idea of building yarnable that ignite yrn.me. During the early thoughts I had to build Yarnable, I forecasted the need for a URL shortner hence a tally name Yarn Me!

Oluniyi: So why was yrn.me unveiled weeks before yarnable.com?

Ahmad: I began building yrn.me first while putting down the parent site. More especially, the yrn.me core system took me about a week to build while 3 months to build Yarnable. I was also a user of URL shortening service, so I thought I and my twitter friends could make use of yrn.me not just for Yarnable, that was how I made it public.

Oluniyi: How has the response to yrn.me been so far?

Ahmad: It is quite appreciable and I was more than surprised how the usage picked up so fast. When I built it, I never thought the hype or the public usage will be this good. So, I now I am building the system better with personalized keywords, user accounts and statistic report.

Oluniyi: Would you say you have achieved your aim of building yrn.me?

Ahmad: Well, not yet. Because, now I plan to have it on the top of African URL shortening services. I set to compete well with major brands like bit.ly and tinyurl. With the more home keyword, Yarn Me. I believe I have a chance to have Africa use Yrn.me especial when it’s getting better.

Oluniyi: You have quite laudable plans and I take it for granted that you have a strong strategy to make that impact. Right?

Ahmad: Yes, surely I will make the big impact. I have the passion for it, I use it and my friends do so it is here to stay.

Oluniyi: What is your current market share of the URL shortener space for Nigeria?

Ahmad: No such data has been available to me, however the market is not so competitive to me. Yrn.me has shortened over 300links since launch!

Oluniyi: Could you describe yarnable in your own words?

Ahmad: Yarnable is a micro-discussion platform that allow users to share topics of interest in under 140 characters.

Oluniyi: Hmn. With a glance at Yarnable, the obvious word that comes to mind is “Twitter”. How does Yarnable compare with Twitter?

Ahmad: It also allow other users to pick topics that interest them the most and share their own thoughts as well making it a real conversation tool. We share one basic thing, the 140 character limit. Aside from that, Yarnable has its own vision which has no relation to being a twitter clone as most people assume.

Oluniyi: Hmn. What sets Yarnable apart?

Ahmad: Yarnable stands aside twitter to build a discussion platform, while twitter stands to update you on timely activities. Yarnable will soon be the hot cake when it comes to sharing thoughts and views on general daily activities. It will also serve as a basic tool to unite like minded people.

Oluniyi: Who is your target audience for Yarnable?

Ahmad: Well, I aim at the general public more specifically young adults who’re more passionate about discovering people sharing ideas and building a useful social relationships.

Oluniyi: Are you eyeing any geographical location? Nigeria? Africa? Or the world generally?

Ahmad: Yes, I aim the world at large. But for now, my main focus toward growing the platform is Africa, a place reachable and marketable for me.

Oluniyi: Nice. So, why should an average user in Africa choose yrn.me over bit.ly?

Ahmad: Yrn.me is tiny, compared to bit.ly, but I offer custom feel for African community.

Oluniyi: Do you have any plans for new features to yrn.me and are you able to share some of them?

Ahmad: Yrn.me portray more of the African community, specifically Nigeria. I also plan to add more features that will overlap the bit.ly competition with me. Yes, so many features I plan to include to the shortening service like the newly launched statistic report which I will optimize to a more useful detailed feature. I also plan to make it social, in the sense users can discover interesting links from other users.

Oluniyi: Impressive.

Ahmad: In a nutshell, it will be a unified service of things like Digg and StumbleUpon.

Oluniyi: The login credentials for yrn.me and yarnable.com don’t seem to be linked. Why is that so? Wouldn’t it be much more convenient if users could login to either services using the same login details?

Ahmad: Yes, the reason why I didn’t link the two is that yrn.me uses a single stream of both username and links making shortened link block username accessibility. But, I will soon link the two using another algorithm.

Oluniyi: Ok. So what is your motivation for both services? What’s your aim/objective? Money? Fame? Both?

Ahmad: I am a growing programmer, I explore things and my quest led me to this two startups. However, I take them to be my most precious labs to improve my skills and make them bigger and better. Both Yarnable and Yrn.me I plan to lead them to success zone, and I am doing so with some day they outgrow the founder and maybe acquisition, merger or incorporation will follow.

Oluniyi: That is quite ambitious. Where do you see both services in 5 years time?

Ahmad: Well, I see yrn.me as the most widely used URL Shortner in Africa and Yarnable as the leading social discussion site. During my research to build Yarnable, I figured it’s the first of its kind regarding my plans for it. I know it will be discovered more soon and when it runs out of beta, a lot of people will discover my long time picture of it.

Oluniyi: I look forward to that. Tell the readers of this blog a few things about Ahmad. Who is Ahmad and what do you do at your leisure?

Ahmad: Uhm… I am 20yr old born in Northern Nigeria (Sokoto). I love programming and business, I like reading books, playing chess and listening to music. I started web development not long ago, professionally in 2008 when I began building interactive sites. That’s all I can say for now.

Oluniyi: Thanks for your time Ahmad and I wish you all the very best with your online endeavours.

Ahmad: Thank you, it was my pleasure.

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Today, in fulfillment of the promise I made at the 26th convocation of the University of Port Harcourt on Saturday, 15 May 2010, I have created a facebook fan page to interact with Nigerians. As I said on that day, there is an unchallengeable power of good in the Nigerian nation and her youth and through this medium I want Nigerians to give me the privilege of relating with them without the trappings of office. GEJ

A snapshot of President Goodluck Jonathan's page on Facebook as at 4th July 2010.

Not only are his brief messages read with rapid attention, but thousands of Nigerians are freely giving their feedback to his messages as well. Much as his messages potray him as a humble man with a genuine drive to serve his country Nigeria, it obvious that this is a calculated attempt to win the heart and minds of Nigerians who are active on Facebook, in a bid to secure electoral victory to continue in the Office of the President of Nigeria after Election 2011. Whilst there is nothing wrong with him standing to be elected or with him driving his way into the hearts of Nigerians, one cannot help wondering if any drastic & positive change can really come out of his party – People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Yesterday 3rd July 2010, President Jonathan wrote on his Facebook page and I quote:

I want to assure you that your feedback and comments on this page are important. I read them and they have influenced government’s policy. On Monday, a young Nigerian named Tuokpe Onuwaje who is resident in California made a comment on this page expressing disappointment that though California has the 7th largest economy in the world Nigeria does not have a consulate there yet we maintain one in Atlanta, Georgia which has a smaller economy. This youth further informed me that Nigeria had a property in California which was abandoned in the 80s. Upon receipt of this information, I instructed the Nigerian Ambassador to the U.S to visit the property immediately and report back to me with a view to reopening our consulate in San Francisco California. I am pleased to tell Tuokpe Onuwaje and all fans of this page that the visit was concluded today. I am also looking at other request made here and will within available resources and time take action or respond to your questions. Thank you. GEJ

An objective mind would ask how much a Facebook page launched less than a week ago could have influenced his government’s policies. One can overlook it and understand that a man eager to win a Presidential election would say & do just about anything. After all, then-candidate Barack Obama said so many lofty things when he was seeking election and now seems much more moderate now that he is in the hot seat and drowned by reality. As good as President Jonathan’s intentions might be, some of his recent actions do not leave one convinced that he is out to influence any radical change in Nigeria. How does one explain some of the funny characters he would soon be decorating with national honours?

Nonetheless, his attempt to reach out to Nigerians directly is laudable. If only he would keep reading as many comments as time would allow, he would surely be on the right path as he would be reading directly from some of the people he is leading. I am assuming he has a mind that can mentally filter out the sycophantic comments though. As to the sustainability or his real intentions, time would tell.

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DStv decoders are designed, manufactured and sold to receive Multichoice services only. Therefore, I offer no guarantee that all the channels I am sharing would necessarily work on your DStv decoder. The DStv HD decoder for example, does not offer a “Public bouquet” and even for the single view decoders that do, one might be unable to watch the unencrypted channels once subscription is overdue. It would thus make the most sense to simply buy a good MPEG4-compatible digital satellite receiver and connect same to your satellite dish. There would be more on that later.

Some unencrypted TV channels currently available on Eutelsat W4 & W7. Image: davidajao.com

The free channels from China

The easiest unencrypted channels to watch are the following 3 TV channels from China Central Television (CCTV), the major state television broadcaster in mainland China:

• CCTV News (formerly CCTV 9): this channel is targetted at an English-speaking international audience and mainly broadcasts news and current affairs programmes
• CCTV-F: programming targetted at a French-speaking international audience
• CCTV-4: an international channel broadcast in Chinese language

Any DStv decoders can view the CCTV channels whether your subscription is expired or not. So long your satellite is pointed towards 36° East.

If you are using a good Free-To-Air (FTA) digital satellite receiver, a blind scan should reveal the CCTV channels. Else, enter the following parameters to your receiver:

• In South Africa – Frequency: 11637 Symbol rate: 22000 Polarization: Vertical FEC: 3/4
• Rest of Africa – Frequency: 11940 Symbol rate: 27500 Polarization: Horizontal FEC: 3/4 and Frequency: 11862 Symbol rate: 27500 Polarization: Horizontal FEC: 3/4

The free channels from East Africa

In recent times, a few channels have emerged on Eutelsat W7 from Kenya, and beamed at the African continent:

• NTV Kenya: a leading TV channel in Kenya offering news and general entertainment
• KBC Channel 1: a TV service from the wholly-state owned Kenya Broadcasting Corporation
• K24: a news and current affairs channel from Kenya
• KTN Kenya: an all-round channel in Kenya. Arguably the leading TV station
• NTV Uganda: a general entertainment channel targetted at Uganda

Parameters:

• Frequency: 11731 Symbol rate: 8751 Polarization: Vertical FEC: 3/5
• Frequency: 11716 Symbol rate: 3141 Polarization: Vertical FEC: 3/4

The free channels from Francophone West Africa

A bouquet of mostly French-speaking African channels exist on Eutelsat W4.

• La Chaîne de Futur (LCF): a tv channel from Togo
• Mboa TV: an entertainment TV channel based in France and exclusively dedicated to black-afro artists
• RTS 1 (Senegal): Radiodiffusion Télévision Sénégalaise (RTS) is the Senegalese public broadcasting company
• 2STV: a TV channel in Senegal broadcasting mainly cultural programmes, interviews with local music and other artistic stars, and talkshows
• Touba TV: a privately-owned TV channel in Senegal
• ORTB TV: Office de Radiodiffusion et Télévision du Bénin (ORTB) is a the mainstream terrestrial television channel and radio operator in Benin
• LoveWorld Plus: Christian-themed programming in  English language from Nigeria

Parameters:

• Frequency: 12437 Symbol rate: 23437 Polarization: Horizontal FEC: 3/4

Kindly note that the channels are subject to change without notice. Thus, re-scanning your receiver regularly ensures that you are constantly in the loop as to the current channels.

As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome.

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With the Ghana versus USA match being about two hours away, I am compelled to reflect on the abysmal performance of the African teams that have been dropped like a pack of cards from the tournament.

South Africa
Being the host nation, expectations of South Africans was very very high, and justifiably so. President Jacob Zuma was widely reported as saying his hands were itching to touch the World Cup trophy. Considering that South Africa has never been very good with football, I thought President Zuma’s expectations were a bit unrealistic. In South Africa’s first match, they could only manage a draw against Mexico despite the hailing home group and deafening vuvuzelas. South Africa was soon edged out of the tournament by Mexico, on goal difference despite the former’s gallant performance against France.

Nigeria
The Super Eagles’ performance would not come as much of a shock to any close observer of Nigerian football. Nigerian football suffers a myriad of problems that mostly revolve around the football administration, Nigerian Football Federation (NFF). Allegations of bribery & corruption are rife, and the incompetence of the NFF is pretty obvious. Poor planning/organization preceded the South Africa 2010 tournament. Hiring a coach a few months to the world’s greatest football tournament was the final straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. After loosing to Argentina and Greece, Nigeria was still clinging on hopes of goal difference to stay afloat.

This analysis would not be complete without mentioning the brave efforts of the Nigerian goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama. His many timely saves kept the goals against Nigeria minimal considering the severe attacks by Argentina’s strikers and the confused Nigerian defenders. In that match, Vincent made six fine saves, four of them from Lionel Messi, and was the major reason for Nigeria coming so close to almost pinching a draw against the two-time world champions. Despite the loss, he was named Man of the Match.

Algeria
Despite beating Angola 2010 champions Egypt at the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, Algeria failed to shine in South Africa 2010. After loosing to Slovenia and playing a goal-less draw with England, a 1-0 loss to the USA nailed Algeria’s exit from the tournament. I can’t help thinking Egypt would have done much better in South Africa if they were luckier to have qualified.

Ghana's head coach Milovan Rajevac (centre R-in red) and his players gather during a training session at Mogwase stadium in Mogwase, north of Rustenburg, on June 10, 2010 ahead of the start of the 2010 World Cup football tournament. Image courtesy: ghanafa.org

Ghana
Despite the fact that Ghana is the only nation proceeding to the second round of South Africa 2010, their performance so far has been short of satisfactory. A 2-1 victory of Australia over Serbia pushed Ghana into the next stage alongside Germany. Ghana qualified based on goal differences despite having the same 4 points as Australia. It is also instructive to note that the only two goals scored by the Black Stars of Ghana so far are based on penalty shots as a result of foul play by Serbia and Australia respectively.

Many Ghanaians lowered their expectations of the Black Stars’ performance following the news that Chealsea-striker Michael Essien was not to take part in South Africa 2010 due to injuries he picked-up during Angola 2010.

Cameroon
The central African nation is currently the highest ranked African national team by FIFA World Rankings. The Indomitable Lions are Africa’s most successful senior national team having qualified to participate in World Cup tournament 6 times and having reached the quarter final in Italia ’90. Despite their enviable records, a stream of losses against Japan, Denmark and the Netherlands saw Cameroon crash out of South Africa 2010 with no single point to their name.

Cote d’Ivoire
In all fairness, The Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire had a little chance of dribbling past Brazil (current best football team in the world) and Portugal (3rd best team in the world) to qualify to the second round. Despite drawing against Portugal in their opening match and beating North Korea 3-0 in the last match, The Elephants were knocked out by Portugal’s overall better performance.

What are your views on Africa’s poor performance in South Africa 2010? Do well to share your comments here and now!

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The technology behind DStv Mobile is simple enough. The Mobile TV service is not streamed over the internet. Though one of the promises of 3G was Mobile TV, streaming live TV over the internet turned out to be impractical. Pushing a data-intensive service over a cellular network would simply result in a very congested network.  Broadcasting mobile TV over the airwaves is much more efficient and cost-effective. In comes DVB-H. I summarized the following DVB-H definition from Wikipedia:

DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting – Handheld) is one of three prevalent mobile TV formats. It is a technical specification for bringing broadcast services to mobile handsets. From March 2008, DVB-H is officially endorsed by the European Union as the “preferred technology for terrestrial mobile broadcasting”. DVB-H technology is a superset of the very successful DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial) system for digital terrestrial television, with additional features to meet the specific requirements of handheld, battery-powered receivers.

Getting on board

I obtained the Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition from MTN Ghana in Accra for 270 Ghana Cedis (about $193). The 5330 obtained directly from MTN comes with a complimentary DStv Mobile license valid 31st March 2011. Activating the service with MTN Ghana was a herculean task. At the time of buying the device, the DStv Mobile service was down and so the service could not be activated by MTN support staff. Subsequent calls to their customer service number yielded nothing as they insisted they could not give me the settings on phone. Incidentally, I arrived Lagos Nigeria a few days later. MTN Nigeria pushed their internet settings to the phone as soon as I inserted an MTN Nigeria SIM into the 5330. I accepted and activated the MTN NG internet settings. On my way out of the airport, I simply re-scanned the airwaves and was able to easily activate the DStv Mobile service on my own. NTA International was soon beamed to me from the tiny screens of the 5330.

DStv Mobile is currently available in selected cities in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Namibia and Ghana.

The mobile TV service

In Nigeria, the DStv Mobile service comes with 11 channels in the following order:

1. NTA International – a TV service from Nigeria’s state-owned TV broadcaster targetted at an international audience
2. SuperSport Blitz – a sports update channel for Africa offering content from live sport to result updates
3. SuperSport 9
4. CNN International – news & current affairs from a world-class broadcaster
5. Magic World Africa – African general entertainment
6. Africa Magic – mostly movies, series and general entertainment from Nigeria
7. Channel O – musical videos from Africa and across the world
8. Cartoon Network
9. Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) – broadcast Christian related programming
10. SuperSport 3N – Africa’s premier football channel, broadcasting national and international football events
11. SuperSport 4

The service currently covers 4 of the biggest cities in Nigeria: Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja and Port Harcourt.

Coverage in Lagos: the service is transmitted from 4 transmitters in the Lagos metropolis. I was able to enjoy it indoors and outdoors in Ikeja, Festac, and on the outskirts of Lagos as far as Redeemers’ Camp on Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.

Coverage in Accra: the service is transmitted from 3 transmitters, covering Kasoa, much of Accra and Tema as well as the neighbouring towns.

Since the phone earpiece doubles as the antenna for the 5330, the quality of TV reception depends on the position of the earpiece. In rooms, where the reception was patchy, re-positioning the earpiece helped.

Clearly, an attempt has been made to balance the variety of content offered. Replacing one of the 4 sport channels with one that offered western movies would have offered much more balance.

The service also comes with an Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) that offers information about the programme on air and scheduled programmes for 24 hours. Should you connect to the service using a Nokia phone, you may also download & install an app from Nokia’s Ovi Store known as DStv Mobile Guide. It offers a detailed EPG.

The Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition

Nokia.com describes the 5330 as follows:

TV goes mobile
Taking mobile entertainment to the next level, the stylish Nokia 5330 Mobile TV edition is a television, music player, and digital camera – all in one.

Aside the Mobile TV functionality, the 5330 is a basic 3G phone. It is cute and attractive whilst being small enough to fit into any standard-sized pocket. Sliding the screen upwards reveals an elegant numeric keypad that makes texting a pleasure due to its sturdiness.

An in-built FM stereo radio (comes with RDS) and an in-built media player make the 5330 an attractive entertainment device. 3 dedicated music keys make the media player & mobile TV application even more effective. Other keys are dedicated to increasing/decreasing audio volume with another for locking/unlocking the keys. Slot in a Micro SD card (maximum 16GB allowed) and you’re in for a musical bliss as the 16GB would easily accommodate thousands of audio clips from your music collection. Note however that the 5330 is bundled with only a 1GB Micro SD card.

The in-built camera is pretty basic. It comes with an automatic flash and can take photos with a maximum resolution of 3.2 megapixels. The video camera can record at a maximum resolution of 320×240. If you do not have high expectations, you should not be disappointed by the basic camera.

The 5330 comes with 4 games pre-installed: Block’d, Diamond Rush, Rally Stars and Real Football 2010.

Other DVB-H compatible phones

DStv Mobile is not an exclusive preserve of the 5330. A few other phones have in-built capability for receiving DStv Mobile signals. Leading the pack are the following N-series phones: Nokia N92, Nokia N77 and Nokia N96. Others are: ZTE F900, ZTE F912. From Samsung: SGH-P910, SGH-P920, SGH-P930, SGH-P940, SGH-P960, SGH-F510. From LG: U900, KB620, KU950, U960, KB770, HB620T.

With the aid of an external mobile tv receiver known as Nokia SU-33W, a few more Nokia phones can join the party via bluetooth. The compatible phones at the time of writing are: Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia E75, Nokia N73, Nokia N85, Nokia N86 8MP, Nokia N97, and Nokia N97 mini.

Note that you might have to seek the assistance of your service provider directly, if the devices do not receive the DStv Mobile service on their own.

Availability

DStv Mobile is currently available through MTN in South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana, through Safaricom in Kenya, and through MTC in Namibia.

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MTN is an official sponsor of 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™

AfricaUnited is MTN’s way of backing all 6 African countries that are competing in South Africa 2010. Incidentally, MTN has a presence in 5 of the 6 countries: South Africa, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon. The 6th is Algeria.

This will be the first time that the tournament has been hosted by an African nation, after South Africa defeated Morocco and Egypt in an all-African bidding process. This in itself is an acheivement. Expectations are high and many wish any of the 6 African countries would win the tournament so the cup could stay in Africa.

Well, I’d say never say never. Go AfricaUnited!

Which of the participating teams are your favourites? Share your thoughts in the comments area.

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The world cup fever is upon us and now couldn’t have been a better time to enjoy the ultimate in TV entertainment. With electronics stores offering discount on flat panel (LCD & plasma) TVs, with DStv ready to beam the World Cup to Africa in HD, there couldn’t be a better time to get on the HD bandwagon. The future of TV is already here.

DStv HD PVR

To enjoy the high quality broadcast, you need the following:

• HD PVR (connected to the TV via a HDMI cable)
• A Full HD or HD ready TV
• Satellite installation (minimum twin LNB)
• Home Theatre System (optional)

The good side

Picture quality: the quality is about 5 times better than standard definition TV. In plain terms, HD is a digital television broadcasting system with higher resolution than traditional Standard Definition (SD) television systems. Instead of using the conventional 625 lines to plot a TV picture, HD uses 720 or 1080 lines. In addition, the pixels in each of those lines are smaller and closer together, resulting in hugely improved picture quality, clarity and colour definition. The pictures are so clear you would not mind re-watching movies you already watched before.

Audio quality: most of the HD channels currently available on DStv offer audio in Dolby® Digital format. Dolby® Digital is a surround sound technology that beams at least 5 discrete channels of excellent audio quality. To experience the full magic of HD content with high quality sound you will need a compatible 6 speaker Home Theatre System.

Content variety: DStv currently offers the following HD channels, 24 hours every day:

1. MNET Africa HD: this is a channel that currently broadcasts a mix of reality shows, series, blockbuster movies and some musicals. Most of the programming is available in surround sound as well as stereo. Channel 170.
2. SuperSports HD: broadcasts a wide variety of sport events all in HD. Audio is in Surround Sound and stereo. Channel 171. This channel is NOT available to subscribers in Nigeria.
3. Discovery HD Showcase: provides documentary programming focused primarily on popular science, technology, and history. All the broadcasts are available in Surround Sound only; no stereo.
4. iConcerts HD: a music channel from Europe broadcasting music from a wide range of genres including blues, hip-hop, jazz, pop, soul, reggae, rock, classic and more. Audio is in stereo only.
5. TVCine HD: a Portuguese premium movie channel that showcases recent movies and premieres from all the major studios, as well as comedy, action, classic and old movies. This channel is available to Portugese bouquet subscribers only. Audio is in Surround Sound only.
6. SuperSports Extra HD: this is a new channel that is not yet broadcasting at the time of writing. It appears to have been setup to augment Channel 171 during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Channel 174 will be the HD Extra channel. This will include World Cup matches that occur simultaneously, plus other HD sports programming. The channel will run until the conclusion of the World Cup and will be re-activated in August.

The decoder: The DStv HD PVR is a sophisticated piece of hardware that offers the following features:

• the HD PVR allows you to view one channel, while recording two other channels simultaneously, as well as:

1. record 150 hours of standard definition TV or 50 hours of HD TV
2. pause live TV programming
3. rewind programming
4. play recorded programming in fast forward or slow motion modes
5. XtraView capability: allows dual viewing on another XtraView-compatible decoder
6. “Favourite channels” – once a set of channels as selected as favourites, one can enjoy:
   • a personalised TV guide, listing the schedules of just those channels.
   • a personalised viewing environment which includes only your selected channels. No more hopping over unwanted or unavailable channels.
7. 24 hour i-Plate: the i-Plate on the single view and dual view decoders have information for 2 programmes (that is, now & next). The i-Plate on the HD PVR improves on this and shares information on programming for the next 24 hours allowing you to easily browse the programming schedule and set recordings without leaving your existing channel.

The not-so good side

Not cheap: the whole setup doesn’t come cheap.  I paid over 500 Ghana cedis for the HD PVR decoder alone. Add the cost of a HD ready TV & home theatre system, and you would get the full picture. Installation alone costs $50 flat. I later found out the $50 was worth it because it took the installer about 2 hours of meticulous work to setup.

More complicated setup: the HD PVR decoder comes bundled with a new LNB. The LNB passes signal to the decoder via 4 separate coaxial cables. For an existing DStv installation, the LNB on the satellite dish has to be replaced and the additional cables connected. Considering the more complicated setup, the HD PVR comes with a guide offering suggestions on how to connect to the TV and/or home theatre system.

No subtitles: the HD PVR currently does not support subtitles on any channels.

Bye bye to FTA channels: unlike older decoders, the HD PVR displays only one matrix of channels and does not offer access to “public bouquet”. As such, one is unable to view the few free-to-air channels currently available on W4 and W7 satellites. Note however that CCTV4, CCTV News & CCTV French are currently available free-to-air.

No genre or searches on TV Guide: Due to current technical limitations, the HD PVRs have a much simpler TV Guide. Currently, there are no search facilities (ie. A-Z, theme search or 24 hours) and no genres. The TV Guide will get additional features in future releases of the software.

No DMX DJ service: The HD PVRs do not yet support the DMX DJ service and so doesn’t display the song title and musician information on DMX channels.

Too few HD channels: there are only 5 active HD channels at the time of writing. There is no news channel in HD.

Summary

Though DStv’s HD broadcast is still work-in-progress, the advantages far outweigh the shortcomings and thus makes it a must-have for movie lovers and sports enthusiasts in Africa. The up-coming FIFA World Cup makes it even a more compelling experience.

Your comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome. Share them in the comments area.

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infinity tv, a new direct-to-home digital satellite TV service for Nigeria

A press release announcing the service in September 2009 read in part:

Pathfinder Launches Premium DTH Service across Nigeria with SES WORLD SKIES

Uniquely positioned to enable the rapid expansion of television broadcast services across Africa, SES WORLD SKIES, a division of SES S.A., today announced Pathfinder Communications has signed a multi-transponder, multi-year deal to deliver its new Infinity TV package over the ASTRA 2B satellite to homes throughout Nigeria.

Pathfinder has secured two full Ku-band transponders to deliver its premium DTH lineup, which offers 45 channels of movies, music, sports, lifestyle, news and children’s programming.

Since Infinity TV is still in testing transmission phase, the following channels are subject to change:

1. Click – a cartoon channel targeted at children
2. Movie Express – a movie channel focused on western genres
3. Kilonsele – a cultural channel focused on Yoruba language
4. Springboard – musicals, talk shows, electronic tutorials, comedies, dramas, quizzes etc all aimed at the youth
5. Infinity Sports – a sports channel
6. Voxafrica Africa – a Pan-African, bilingual and independent TV channel
7. LoveWorld Plus – a Christian faith and lifestyle channel
8. African Movie Channel – a channel focused on movies from Nollywood, Nigeria’s movie industry
9. Setanta Africa – an international sports channel
10. Odenigbo – a movies and lifestyle channel in Igbo language

Considering the current phase, do not be disappointed that some of the channels broadcast certain movies in a constant loop.

There is no harm in enjoying the free service while it lasts. If you are currently watching Multi TV channels, simply enter the following parameters to your Multi TV decoder to enjoy Infinity TV:

Frequency: 12543
Symbol rate: 20800
Polarization: Horizontal

Re-scan your Multi TV decoder after entering the parameters.

If you need a detailed help with the steps, read: How to add more TV & Radio channels to your Multi TV decoder. If you are using an MPEG4 decoder that supports blind scan, simply scan your decoder to reveal Infinity TV.

Enjoy the free channels while they last…

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A cross-section of the male-dominated participants at BarCamp Nigeria 2010

The two keynote speakers received rapt attention and loud ovation as they shared their knowledge and experience about web technology and web/mobile content development. Simdul Shagaya is a Co-Founder of E-Motion Advertising while Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu  is a Director of a number of influential ICT and Youth/Leadership Development organisations.

In addition to the knowledge sharing, there was a lot of networking as well. I got to meet some people I had hitherto only known by name. The sessions were lively as some participants gleefully sent out updates from the event and also engaged in conversations via Twitter.

The event was streamed live in video and audio via UStream.tv while others outside the venue engaged some participants via a live web chat channel.

Participants at a break-out session at BarCamp Nigeria 2010

Encipher, an Android-based tablet & a creation of a Nigerian tech firm, was on display at the event. The device is yet to be released to the mass market.

Sheriff Shittu O. of webtrendsng.com who is also one of the organizing team seized the moment to introduce Tech Hub Nigeria. The project is modelled after Tech Hub Europe, iHub Kenya and Silicon Cape. From techhubng.com:

Tech Hub is simply a location for technologist, programmers (Mobile, Web, PC, Linux etc), technopreneurs, Investors and any one interested in technology. It’s a two way platform; online and offline. The online is to help technologist who are far from the physical hub to interact with others seamlessly! Facilities (Power, PC, Internet, Meeting room etc) at the Hub will be “free”, so you can start you startup without thinking of all the cost.

See also: BarCamp Nigeria 2010 photos.

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