technology

Business/Investment
Tourism
Weather
Cars
Technology
Education
Religion
Health
Entertainment
Gorvernment/Politics
Learning/Research
Sports
Home Ownership
GhanaLink (internet access)
Internet Directory

Africa ONE, the 32,000 kilometer submarine fibre optic cable project which is to ring the African continent has hit a snag.Land-locked countries have voiced concerns that they may not be able to benefit from it.
The $1.9 billion project was being implemented then by Africa ONE Ltd but now by Columbia Technologies of New Jersey.
An official of ZAMTEL(Zambia's Telecom Administration on condition of anonymity said "There appears to be still no tangible plan for the landlocked African countries."
Glenda Jones,who is one of those responsible for the project however said that Independent terrestial cables, microwave & satellite facilities will provide direct links between coastal landing points & landlocked countries.

The project which is a 7-year concept, though has been bedeviled by delays.

Mobile phone company,Scancom would soon be rolling out its Short Message/Mail Service (SMS) says Fouad Chalabi, commercial manager
of Spacefon(subsidiary of Scancom).
This is to become available to both

Tech Indicator

prepaid and direct line subscribers & would ensure that they are immediately notified when they receive mails in their email boxes.As to whether Spacefon had plans to introduce WAP(wireless application protocol),he said that studies undertaken show that the market is not yet ready for it thus he said he believed that Ghana was not WAP-ready for at least a year.He however hinted that if the market so demanded they might jump straight to GPRS(global positioning roaming system).

Global IT giant, Hewlett-Packard(HP) is to begin a new initiative that will see Africa benefitting from a new range of custom built products as well as new pricing.Mr. Thierry Boulanger, Market Development Manager,SMB Business-Africa Territories said this when he lead a team of HP experts to Ghana in the first quarter of the year.This is because HP has come to the realisation that most of its products were being designed without Africa in mind.In relation to this, HP's new approach has seen the creation of 2 new offices,one for the Anglophone- African speaking countries in South Africa & another for French-speaking Africa located in Morocco.
Plans are also far advanced to establish a West African regional office to oversee business for the west african sub-region.
Customer needs for a warranty that is comparable to that anywhere, is one of the things HP is desirous of achieving.
Technical support to be provided will lead to a positive impact on skills & knowledge transfer.

African ISPs recently gathered in Accra for a forum (AfNOG/Afrinic conference) to exchange technical information ,coordination and cooperation among themselves to ensure the stability of service to the enduser.
During the forum, they were urged to come together and cooperate with each other and form internet exchange points.

They looked at how Africans can develop their own internet regulatory body that deals with the allocation and registeration of domain names called African Regional Network Information Centre(AfriNIC).Currently the American Registry for Internet Numbers(ARIN) has been responsible for administration of Internet Protocol address space for Africa among other bodies such as RIPE for Europe,North & West Africa.

Mobile Phone Operator, Mobitel the first cellular
operator in Ghana has designed an expansion programme to sustain its market leadership in the cellular industry in the country.It has therefore invested over $12 million in its new G.S.M network - the latest version of the Ericsson GSM 900 series Global System Mobile communication over the past 6 months.
The M.D of Mobitel, Mr.Sobhan Pasha said in an interveiw in Accra that "..with the introduction of the G.S.M service, Mobitel will continue to expand & improve upon the quality of its network.Mobitel would shortly be the only cellular company in Ghana to offer its clientele access to two systems (Analogue/G.S.M) simultaneously. Existing clients will benefit greatly as they would be able to speak to all others in the larger Mobitel family at special & much lower "Mobitel' rates.
Milicom Ghana Limited,operators of Mobitel ia a subsidiary of Milicom International Cellular(MIC) S.A a leading international operator of cellular telephone services worlwide with its headquarters in Luxembourg.MIC S.A is quoted on the New York & London merchantiles(Stock Exchanges).
Among other services Mobitel also offers the Mobitel's Post Pay service - Call Plan, offers 4 exciting tariff plans - Silver, Gold, Diamond & Platinum with numerous features & benefits such as call diverting & waiting, Conference calling & MobitelNet.com which entitles every Mobitel customer to free email addresses to send & receive mails totally free of charge.

An African Electronic Shopping Mall primarily to cater for African art & craft was recently launched in Accra.eshopafrica.com is a business to business ecommerce site which basically is tailored-measured to the selling of indigenous African manufactured products online to retailers and resellers worldwide.