The Bonfire of TELCO Vanities

By E.K.Bensah Jr.

I do not for a second doubt the intelligence of any of our musicians, but when their utterances defy common sense, it can only make you wonder if sense is so common, why doesn’t everybody then have it?

A term so platitudinous it is not funny—and often used by all and sundry— is the term “global village.” In other words, we are believed to be all connected in many more ways than we can imagine—and social networking tools like that of Facebook and Twitter exemplify this closeness to sometimes frightening proportions. This means that our understanding of issues have reached a point where most of us –thanks to online point-of-reference Wikipedia – accept a consensus on definitions.

Last time I looked, an ambassador is someone who is supposed to carry the aspirations—i.e. represent—his nation or the beliefs encapsulated in a cause, hence the role of UN Ambassadors, such as the newly appointed Stevie Wonder. Such ambassadors are not UN officials, but carry and advocate the UN’s view of alleviating the scourge of war and promoting peace.

So when a few weeks ago 16 artistes – actors and musicians alike – were made ambassadors for the Nigerian telco GLOBACOM, I thought it was evident that the whole package involved more than the money, and that it was more a case of these artistes representing GLOBACOM—and no other telco in the Ghanaian landscape. Even without recent reports alluding to some complaints about a so-called “exclusivity clause”, that they are ambassadors for a company speaks volumes about how they are expected to conduct themselves with these telecommunication companies.

If all this seems like a black-and-white affair, let us pause and reflect for a nano-second: is it not great to have telcos come into the country to provide services and jobs for Ghanaians? Is it right, however, that they come and lure artistes with money to the extent that their space for performance is seriously inhibited by an exclusivity clause contract?

Some might say “who cause ‘am? I can only scream “regulation!”

The Three MuskITeers?

So Accra Mall now has no less than three Internet cafes: the Apple shop, powered by Vodafone; BusyInternet; and now very recently, Vodafone Ghana. I do not think that anyone will now be quibbling about accessing their emails for that all-important mail, as for the price of GHC2.50/hr, one can access any of the three cafes. I guess the jury might be out for a while on the speed of the internet connections of these three places, but on the significance of the cafés, the verdict is out—and it is in favour of choice.

Much like the presence of the five telcos in the country, consumers are being given choices to make on what comparative advantages any of the companies have that would be less expensive for the pocket, but I cannot help but wonder a bt about the presence of the three cafes.

Granted, the novelty of the Apple shop café is that it is, frankly, classist: only those sufficiently audacious to try their luck on a Macintosh would want to try the Internet a la Mac. Looking at the role of Busyinternet is like looking at nothing at all—after all, Busy has been the industry leader for a good nine years. But then there’s Vodafone Ghana.

I cannot for the life of me understand why the erstwhile Ghana Telecom that pretty much has a monopoly on the provision of broadband provision through its broadband4u does not simply bring down the cost of broadband so that many more new Vodafone Ghana users might get access. Is it just me or is the provision of a service to the public by a provider that has monopoly of that service, but fails to bring down the cost of that service to existing customers not sound like an idea turned on its head?

In short, why is Vodafone concentrating on competing with an industry [read: internet café] leader like Busyinternet (especially when it already has a presence through the Apple Shop which it powers) when its existing BROADBAND customers have been paying the same rate since they appeared on the scene in August 2008? Why not focus on bringing down the cost of broadband provision for those subscribers, while simultaneously inviting new subscribers to BROADBAND4U through a promotion?

Unless Vodafone Ghana is planning on doing some strange things to the BROADBAND4U service and telling its customers, I shall be asking more of these hard questions!

Will The Elusive Globacom Offer us Better Value for Money?

Let us be clear: if you promise me that you will be arriving in a country in September, yet two months later, you have not made your presence known, might you not be considered to represent the word “elusive”? If so, then you might want to join me in tagging Ghana's sixth operator Globacom as a fitting candidate. Consider this. As far back as March this year, its website on gloworld.com read: “Glo Mobile Ghana is set to change the face of communication in Ghana as it engages ZTE, a highly-rated international telecoms vendor, to deploy additional access network infrastructure including hundreds of indoor and outdoor Basic Trans-receiver Stations (BTS) for its imminent roll-out.” Given the lengthy delay of Globacom's entry into the country, could cynics be blamed for becoming weary at a combination of tardy Nigerian services with Chinese technology feared as sub-standard to be a harbinger of bad tidings for the festive season?

Tigo far from Trailing the Telco Competition

On a more serious side, given the serious competition going on off late, might Globacom not have arrived on the bad side of telco competition? If you are scratching your head in wonderment, you must have missed something: Zain has gone in overdrive to reward--and appease--all those new customers that have been complaining that they do not enjoy the bonus all those older customers get at the end of every two months. You can now send a message to a number, which will enable you enjoy all you spent in the day the following day.

Tigo might have stolen Zain's thunder, if truth be told, for it's value-added-service of paying 3.99GHC for a month to one Tigo number is doing wonders for those who have subscribed. Although you can add only one number at a time, imagine how much money you would have spent had you been calling a regular number without this promotion? In my book, Tigo is winning in so far as many others join the Tigo revolution.

Vodafone Vodoo!

For a person who has more erstwhile ONETOUCH chips than sense, you could say I have become a sage!

I have decided to abandon my vodafone chips. I just don't feel I am getting value for money. Last month, I got my bonus credit from
Zain, looked at my Vodafone chips and shrugged.

"Just not worth it" I thought.

These days, using a mobile phone is not just about convenience, it is also about accommodating the necessary headache of buying units. Given the relatively execrable quality of lines these days at peak times (read: saturation!), you are likely to have dropped calls, which inevitably lead one to consider using secondary networks--which all cost money to maintain. Promotions do not a telco make, but when the only one they are also offering is as elusive as the arrival of Globacom into the country, then I begin to wonder whether it is not time to offer some TLC--tender loving care-- to my disposable income!

Tech Appeal 191

• Despite the fact that the Spintex Road is undergoing fresh tarring, given the execrable number of potholes there, tro-tros, more than any other kind of commercial driver, is behaving badly by overtaking and stopping on the shoulder of the roads when they could simply follow the queue. This morning, one of those Ashanti-bound American cars illegally overtook us as we were slowing down and, without warning, moved in front of us. This kind of intimidation does not help tempers in the morning. Does NRSC have a number to call to check these types?
• I humbly submit that ALL news stations--from GTV through to METRO TV to TV3--set up numbers--either Multimedia messaging service (MMS) numbers or simple emails--where the Ghanaian public can either send pictures of bad driving of social ills, such as parked cars without triangles, etc. This way, every Ghanaian would feel involved in helping make Ghana a better place. More importantly, the spate of camera phones would be put to better use now that many people are beginning to feel the pinch of buying new phones in these hard, economic times.
• Will the Ghana police consider joining FACEBOOK, or having a twitter account? Imagine informing twitter “followers” and Facebook users that there is traffic up ahead on the Spintex Road? The service should think about the wonders that would bring to road management! Their website on ghanapolice.info is this side short of bad, with latest news giving information posted in March 2009!

ekbensah@gmail.com / 0268.891.841 / http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com

*this piece will originally appear in upcoming edition of WEEKEND WORLD, to hit newstands this weekend

Why I'm bored with Vodafone Ghana

For a person who has more erstwhile ONETOUCH chips than sense, you could say I have become a sage!

I have decided to abandon my vodafone chips (numbering 6!--don't ask how come?!). I just don't feel I am getting value for money. Yesterday, I got my bonus credit from
Zain, looked at my Vodafone chips and shrugged.

"Just not worth it" I thought.

Vodafone's promotion for the ridiculous $1m prize/Trassaco valley and shit just reflects the values of the new management that feel most Ghanaians want to be chauffeur-driven in a 4X4 jeep, and live in a mansion, where there will be no regular stipend for its upkeep.

Just plain foolish.

I'm so mad with Vodafone I'm not even linking them--go and google them yourself. I always said Ghana Telecom should not be sold.

It is only history and posterity that will judge the NPP administration for selling off Ghana's major communications service.

Long live Ghana Telecom!

West Africa--the New Telecom's Frontier?

West Africa--the New Telecom's Frontier?

By E.K.Bensah II 

From Ghana Telecom to Nigeria Telecom, the privatization bandwagon is on course in the ECOWAS region. If you recall that last week we touched on the West African neighbour of Mali's landline set for privatization by the end of the year, you might also remember that NiTel was broached. Although incoming Globacom made some noises a few weeks ago supporting GT's divestiture, the country itself has kept rather mute on what lessons the GT/Vodafone debate might hold for the regional giant. 

It has always often been said that if Ghana is the gateway to West Africa, Nigeria is the destination. This much was confirmed when a couple of editions ago, we broached the issue of Stanbic Bank's acquisition of a Nigerian bank after having missed the Ghanaian one - Agricultural Development Bank --by a whisker. In the telco industry, the situation is not that much different. The exception in the drama that has unfolded over GT is that Vodafone has itself kept mute over its potential acquisition of NiTel. There has been little in the press to suggest that it remains interested in NiTel.  

Nonetheless, the Nigerian parliamentarians are unperturbed and have set the pace - unlike in Ghana - on ensuring some degree of accountability. 

Judging from the Nigerian press at least, the debate has been non-existent to the fever-pitch degree here in Ghana. Instead, the lawmakers, accepting a major contention of NiTel having failed, have sought to find out why. To this end, the Senate Committee on Communications is to probe the roles played by concerned stakeholders in the fall of NiTel. 

Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper reports that some of those that contributed to the downfall of NiTel virtually defrauded the company of billions of naira in dues. Chairman of the committee Senator Sylvester Anyanwu at a press briefing alleged that the private operators were using as much as 75% of the capacity and infrastructure of NiTel for free, with some of them "enjoying a two-year rides in the company". 

Concrete steps have been taken to hold such people accountable, including a letter to the President of the Republic Umara Yar'Adua asking him to turn down the appointment of BNP Paribas as consultants and advisers in their repeated attempts at selling NiTel. Secondly, the Committee has managed to trace the origin of NiTel's downturn to 2003 when a putative Dutch company-Pentascope--managed it [does Telenor in GT come to mind?] turning NiTels "profit profile into a loss despite the inflow of a N40 billion unsolicited loan for the company." Third, unlike the lack of accountability surrounding Ghana's National Communications Authority (NCA), the Committee has asked the latter's Nigerian counterpart--better known as the Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC)--to "get off the fence and take a position in this ongoing debate and investigation  of the irregularities in NiTel." Finally, the Chairman of the Committee listed MTN Nigeria; Starcomms, Globacom; Shell; Ericsson; First Bank; Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas among many others who have failed to give account of their financial obligations to Nitel. This is no different in Ghana, where many companies owed GT millions, but was never broached in the contemplation of the sale to Vodafone. 

In order to ensure that there is significant movement, the committee has asked the security agencies "to ensure that current and former staff of companies which played a role in the past botched privatization of NiTel were made to account for their deeds." These include the Bureau of Public Enterprises(BPE), which has claimed to have played no role in the whole affair--despite the fact that, as the paper avers, "former staff of the BPE…played inglorious roles in the …sale of NiTel". Unlike in Ghana where the NCA issued a fine and left no room for enforcing the fine, Nigeria has gone a different way. Failure to respond to the above queries, the paper continues, will force the Committee to invoke its powers under certain sections of the Constitution to ensure that they comply.

Vivian Reding's Unwitting Push of Vodafone to Africa?

Like a bad smell, the ramifications of the acquisition by Britain-based Vodafone will not go away. Although most Ghanaians seem to be tight-lipped now about the sale, especially because they have been put before a fait accompli, elsewhere, the news is not so bright for Vodafone. 

Forget the fact that Vodafone is in court in India over tax issues at the moment. Let's just troop down to the UK itself for a while. According to Mobile News, the UK and Spain used to be Vodafone's "cash cow". Now, the revenues in those markets are not so hot. This is the reason why it's been necessary for Vodafone to expand into Eastern European and African markets. The article reports that in its own home market of the UK, it has "shed customers." With its churn up, "its voice revenues were down."  

On top of it all, the so-called combative European Commissioner for Information Society Vivian Reding - characteristically hot on the heels of creating opportunities for consumers - has managed to sideline a number of the mobile phone operators with her campaign on termination rates and the cutting of roaming charges that have normally been rather prohibitive. Companies like Vodafone have seen the future as not being bright, and jumped the pond to escape the wrath of Reding. As a consequence, 140,000 customers have been added to the Vodafone giant in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa.  

The coming of Vodafone to these markets have however coincided with phenomenal developments in the mobile phone, or telco industry--and no where has this been more significant than in West Africa. 

Mali's Privatisation Process Unclear

It is a fact that come the end of 2008, Mali's landline SOTELMA will be privatized. Apart from the fact that we now know that BNP Paribas is a consultant/transaction adviser for the process--much like in the NiTel process above--little else is indicated in the press about the state of play. It appears that although the francophone press has touched on it, the Anglophone press probably could not care less! 

Burkina Faso's Landline Goes for IPO

Meanwhile, also in West Africa, the small ECOWAS country is pursuing an Initial Public Offer(IPO) for a (private) 20% stake in its state-owned ONATEL. The francophone online paper lesafriques.com reports that the state will retain 23%, whilst personnel will get 6%. It's unclear what happens to the remaining 51%! 

Regulating Guinean Telcos, Re-Nationalising Soltelgui

The small ECOWAS country will be getting its equivalent of Ghana's NCA in a regulatory authority that has yet to be named. Tibou Kamara, the Guinean Minister of Communication and New Technologies, has indicated that the month of August will see the country's first regulatory body. It is interesting to read that the Minister believes that a lack of a regulatory regime and a body that can play its rightful role is a "handicap" in the "normalization of services rendered by operators." He says that it is not a witch-hunt, but an opportunity to ensure that all actors [in the industry] have a level playing field. 

In the meantime, the country has the distinction of being the first out of Mali, Nigeria; Ghana; and Nigeria listed here to have 60% of its shares sold back to it by Telekom Malaysia by the end of September 2008 in a Settlement and Transfer agreement (STA). TeleGeography maintains that Soltelgui--Guinea's state-owned company--was established in 1993, only to be privatized in the same year that Ghana Telecom was born--1995, when Telekom Malaysia purchased 60% of a stake for $US45million. After a decade of ownership, it seems the Malasyian telco has had enough and is up and leaving "as part of a broader review of its international investment strategy to

focus on geographic regions closer to home. Could the same happen some day in Ghana? 

Ends

Vodafone’s Purchase of Ghana Telecom: Matters Arising

The 70% acquisition by Vodafone of state-owned Ghana Telecom may be a done-and-dusted deal, subject only now to parliamentary approval in the august house. There are, however, serious issues arising that merit some consideration.

First of all, one would have to be from Mars not to know that this is an election year. After the announcement was made in 2006 to privatise, why is it only now that the putative sale has gone through, some five months before general elections? Secondly, despite the fact that there was a breather after France Telecom and Portugal Telecom were rejected some months back, at what point did Vodafone up and decide to make the bid, which, if we believe the opposition, was a non-starter, on account of the fact that there were other bidders ready to pay more than the $960million?

In December 2007, Kenya, where Vodafone operates as a mobile operator under Vodafone Kenya, was in the concluding stages of privatising state-owned Telkom Kenya, with the winning bidders France Telecom taking control by 21 December, 2007. The uncanny similarity of an opaque bidding process coupled with a privatisation so close to general elections makes for an explosive coincidence that is so serious it’s not funny. One might be tempted to think that this has nothing to do with Vodafone, till we read that an offshore-registered company by the name of Mobitelea was offered an opportunity to acquire 25% of Vodaphone Kenya Limited at the same price Vodafone had acquired them. This prompted civil society groups in Kenya to argue that “the privatisation of Telkom Kenya cannot…be deemed regular until the true picture of its ceding of [mobile provider] Safaricom shares to Vodafone Kenya is unravelled and rectified.”

Here, there is little proof that anything irregular has gone on despite the manner in which the sale went through so quickly, but reading the *Financial Times* account of the sale was sufficient to prompt speculation that given that the country is experiencing a budget deficit, the government might have seen a sale so close to the election as an opportunity to make amends around the economy.

Practices elsewhere
Still, whilst Kenya can talk about Vodafone Kenya bidding for a part of Safaricom, Ghana cannot even talk about a Ghanaian consortium ready to buy GT. This is one of the unique things about this privatisation. The online encyclopaedia Wikipedia tells us that Vodafone has three networks in the Middle East and Africa that are majority-owned: Egypt, Qatar and now Ghana. In the first case, state-owned Telecom Egypt owns 45% of Vodafone Egypt. In the Qatari case, Vodafone went in as a mobile operator, securing a 45% stake in Qatar Telecom, the Middle Eastern country’s second mobile licence provider. When we come to Ghana, a significant 70% was not only at stake, but also of our state-owned provider, prompting one to wonder why such a high figure, and why the land-line provider? Reports in the Ghanaian media indicate that Globacom had also made a bid, but had to settle for second best through a mobile service.

Questions Unanswered
Those are not the only questions. Reports in the media suggest that the minority’s concern was that Vodafone comes in as a strategic investor with little experience in landline provision. That it is setting up new services in New Zealand, where Vodafone also operates, that look like landlines and mobile lines combined should not be sufficient to assuage our fears of how it will manage our broadband services, national fibre optic system, and others. What of our national security? There is anecdotal evidence of our state security – BNI -- monitoring landlines; how far will the security services go in allowing a mobile provider with plenty of capital to share the monitoring of our landlines? Thirdly, all mobile providers have had to pass through GT for their operations. Now that Vodafone’s acquisition is semi-complete, will Vodafone’s supreme interest be in the regulation of the other providers, or a rough-and-ready competitor alongside them? Will the lines be indefinitely blurred on all these issues?

Making Gmail Safer
The London-based Guardian newspaper reports that Google is out to make life easier for all of us—at least those using gmail.com. Though the service has not been wholly rolled out yet, the new feature aims to make using sending and receiving emails through gmail a safe experience, especially for those using Firefox and Internet Explorer 7. The official Gmail blog says that “at the bottom of your inbox, you’ll see information about the time of the last activity on your account and whether it’s still open in another location.” There is also a link that will show “Recent activity”, indicating when and how you logged on (either POP3 or Mobile), as well as your IP address. It will also enable you sign out of all sessions remotely.

I can say from personal experience that many a time, I’ve been able to simultaneously access my gmail account through the computer at work; through my mobile phone through ONETOUCH’s GPRS; as well as through an external device that can connect to the internet. It’s even possible to open two pages in gmail, where you can compose a message in one, and view incoming mails in another. This new system might clearly put paid to such practices which can only be the boon to a potential scammer.

I can say for Yahoo that when you log into messenger online, it indicates to all of your friends that you are “mobile”. Anytime I have tried to access it on my work computer, I’ve had a prompt warning that I am logged in elsewhere. Such 2.5G services of GPRS enable us do more than we could ever dreamt of…

…including MMS on ONETOUCH
Given the discussions over the acquisition of Ghana Telecom, it was very easy for one to speculate that the bad service that ONETOUCH was providing was due to sabotage. That calls to the 24/7 hotline produced a degree of mendacity or ignorance by the call-service people that there was nothing wrong with the network only went to fuel speculation that sabotage was in the works. We may never know what caused ONETOUCH to provide customers with irregular service from the beginning of July up to a few days ago until they tell us. What I can say, though, is that despite the irregular service, which included the signals being at their very lowest, and beeps from phones that there was “no service”, the multi-media messaging service seemed to start working at that same time!

I know only because when I took my sim card from my phone to put in another one, I received a message asking me to accept “multimedia settings”, which I reluctantly did. Deciding to test the waters, I sent my other GPRS-enabled ONETOUCH number an MMS. Within minutes, it had been sent, and I had received it on the other number. This was rather ironic, considering the ONETOUCH network itself was working poorly. Still, not one to complain too much, I tried again, and again. The MMS does work now. Contrary to the promotions that had gone out a couple of months ago about free MMS, which spun mendacity to its highest when it claimed that the servers were down, when in actual fact, the system had not been set up properly, the promotions that came with July have revealed a promising ONETOUCH user experience—provided we can make those calls!

US airports lose more than 12,000 laptops a week
Whether you believe this information to be hyped up by computer manufacturer Dell or not, bottom line is that according to a survey by the Ponemon Institute, around 637,000 laptops are lost every year at US airports. The report maintains that “close to 10,278 laptops are reported lost every week at 36 of the largest US airports, and 65% of those lost are not reclaimed.”

Dell has used this data to launch a security service that uses technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking to recover lost laptops. Furthermore, the US Federal Trade Commission has produced a leaflet “Keeping Laptops From Getting Lost or Stolen”. A website is also available to this effect: http://www.OnGuardOnline.gov

ENDs