The text messaging service which was introduced on Wednesday will enables feature phone owners expand their communications and contacts.

To use the Gmail SMS service, users will have to first register their phone with Google to link the email messaging service. Mail will be forwarded directly to the phone through SMS after that, and the forwarding can be disabled at any time. By texting commands, users can take action on their inbox and reply to emails through their text message client.

According to a report from Next web, “The implications of this are pretty big, as it means mobile Internet access isn’t required, and users don’t need a new-fangled Smartphone with 3G or WiFi capabilities either. For emerging markets, where iPhone and Android uptake may not be what it is in the Western world, not to mention limited Web access, Gmail SMS (available locally) is an interesting launch.”

Explaining how the service works, Product Manager of Emerging Markets at Google, Geva Rechav, said “Gmail SMS automatically forwards your emails as SMS text messages to your phone and you can respond by replying directly to the SMS. You can control the emails received by replying with commands such as MORE, PAUSE and RESUME. Additionally, compose a new email as an SMS and send to any email address recipient – who will find your message in the right email conversation thread.”

Here is a step by step procedure to activate the Gmail SMS:

• Log in to your Gmail account
• Click on your profile at the top of the page and then hit Account.
• Access your settings in the “Phone and SMS” section
• You will then have to link your mobile phone number to your account to be able to send and receive emails from your handset:
• When you click to send a verification code to your mobile phone, you then enter that number you receive into the box on the set-up page.
With Google SMS solution, consumers are not charged extra except for the messaging rate billed by the mobile operator.

The post Google Introduces Gmail SMS In Three African Countries appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

According to ZTE, better telecom networks will help narrow the digital gap between Africa and developed countries as the availability of qualified telecom networks will enable African people to gain access to a vast volume of information on various subjects, including education, agriculture and healthcare.

A recent report released by the Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology, had asserted that doubling a country’s average broadband speed tends to boost its GDP by 0.3 percent. As a result of this ZTE believes that the rapid development of mobile broadband will benefit African countries economically.

Founded in Shenzhen in 1985, ZTE is the world’s fourth-largest mobile phone manufacturer by shipments and the fifth-largest telecom equipment maker by sales.

ZTE began marketing operations in Africa in 1997. Today, it has offices and branches in 51 African countries. More than half of its employees in Africa are locals.

In 2011, it developed a partnership with major African telecom carriers, and its sales in Africa last year rose by 20 percent year on year.

ZTE was also recognised alongside South Africa’s Cell C, in November 2010, as the fastest provider of broadband services in South Africa, in a broadband survey.

The post ZTE To Invest More In Africa appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

This will help Avnet which serve customers and suppliers in more than 70 countries to accelerate partners’ business growth in the region while providing support and enablement services to help them quickly address local opportunities.

Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c creates business value from IT by leveraging the built-in management capabilities of the Oracle stack for traditional and cloud environments. Using this solution, customers have reported 12 times faster achievement of IT-business alignment.

According to Senior Director Oracle business MENA, Avnet Technology Solutions, Hani Barakat, “Enterprises in the Middle East and North Africa region can increase their efficiency and responsiveness while reducing costs and complexity for traditional data centers, virtualised, and cloud computing environments with the help of Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c.”

Avnet plans to include Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c in its recently launched proof-of-concept demonstration facility in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to help Avnet’s business partners in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region address the business and IT challenges of their end-user customers.

Avnet’s expertise in pre-sales and technical support combined with logistics services, innovative marketing and training programs as well as a selection of financing solutions helps its partners gain a competitive edge, while reaching into new territories to broaden its market reach.

The key capabilities of Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c include: A complete cloud lifecycle management solution allowing users to quickly set up, manage and support enterprise clouds and traditional Oracle IT environments from applications to disk; Maximum return on IT management investment through the best solutions for cloud stack management, intelligent management of the Oracle stacks and engineered systems with real-time integration of Oracle’s knowledgebase with each customer environment; and best service levels for traditional and cloud applications through business-driven application management.

“Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c brings together management capabilities for the entire cloud lifecycle that includes consolidation and capacity planning, self-service, testing, monitoring, and metering and chargeback.”

The post Avnet To Supply Oracle Enterprise Cloud Management Solution In MENA Region appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

 
The deal will immediately expand Westcon’s presence in the Latin American, Iberian, and North African marketplaces.

Headquartered in Madrid and Miami and founded in 1990, Afina conducts business across Latin America, the Caribbean, Iberia, France, and Morocco. Focusing on distribution of security and data center solutions, Afina’s vendor portfolio includes VMware, Citrix, Riverbed, and Symantec – as well as many firms currently among Westcon’s portfolio in other regions. Afina Group additionally offers specialized services to support its resellers, including: post-sale support, value-added augmentation, and training.

 
With this acquisition, Westcon expands its presence in Latin America, Iberia, and North Africa and adds an augmented focus on customer-led services. In addition to bringing greater consistency to the Westcon line card, the agreement will add such strategic vendors as VMware, Symantec and Citrix to Westcon’s portfolio.

 
“The Latin American market is now entering a highly robust period of IT spending driven mostly by Brazil and Mexico. Most analysts estimate the region will generate more than $310 billion in IT spending in 2012,” said Dean Douglas, President and CEO, Westcon Group. “With the acquisition of Afina, Westcon is very well positioned to capture this momentum – driving market leadership in the local arena and expanding our portfolio of data center and security products.”

 
“When Afina was launched, the goal was to become the premier distributor in the Latin American and Iberian markets, offering the most comprehensive solutions and services in security and infrastructure,” said Pedro Galatas, Afina Group CEO.

 
“Westcon has proven time and again its reputation as a distributor with unmatched market expertise and global reach. The acquisition is the right fit at the right time for the company and partners – an agreement that will dramatically power our next stage of growth.”
Westcon Group provides all the necessary elements enabling customers to develop end-to-end data center and security technology solutions.

Its security, compliance, data center and cloud offerings include complementary best-in-class products — supported by a comprehensive suite of professional support, operational, marketing and financial services. Westcon’s global presence and expertise provides unique support and benefits to partners’ global projects.

The post Westcon Announces Acquisition of Afina Group appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Out of the world’s top 10,000 sites, only thirty-three are hosted in Africa, and among the top 100,000 sites, two hundred and fifty webs are hosted in Africa.

This report came at the heel of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) report which revealed that out of nearly 1,500 applications of new gTLDs, there are only seventeen applications from Africa which many suggested was a result of the cost of the applications being costly at $185,000 a pop.

According to Pingdom, Africa with its over 1 billion people, has reached a 13.5 percent Internet penetration rate, and there are plenty of big websites about the continent.

 
Of the 2,670 websites in Africa, South Africa accounts for over 69 percent (1,852 sites) of the sites in the top million, with Egypt in second place at over 10 percent (276 sites) followed by Morocco with 97 sites. Thirty-four countries in South Africa host one or more sites in the top 1 million sites.

Although Egypt lead the pack occupying the top two position with masrawy.com and ahram.org.eg respectively; South Africa accounts for five of the top ten website in Africa. The biggest site hosted in South Africa is news24.com, which lands in the number 3 place in the top 100 sites in Africa.

 
Altogether, fifty-eight of the top 100 biggest sites hosted in Africa can be found in South Africa. Egypt is in second place with 22 sites, followed by Seychelles with 7, Morocco with 5, Nigeria with 4, and Algeria, Kenya, Libya and Sudan each with one site, Pingdom reported.

It is however worthy to note that the top 100 sites hosted in Africa were identified and each of those sites were checked again before publication. Pingdom stated that web hosting is a “constantly moving target” and the location from where a particular site is hosted may have changed by the time of publication.

The statistics of the report are based on a collected data from June 6-8, 2012, with a Pingdom-developed script that scanned 945,472 out of Alexa’s top 1 million sites. The remaining sites failed for various reasons, Pingdom explained.

 
Pingdom noted that one encouraging conclusion that can be drawn from the study is that Africa is clearly capable of hosting busy websites, and not just in South Africa.

 
“So often when we see Africa mentioned in the tech headlines, it’s related to mobile technology and how it has taken off across the continent, And that’s a great development, but it’s worth remembering that however great that is, it still requires backend infrastructure, including web hosting” Pingdom says.

 
In an interview with Moneyweb; Pingdom’s Magnus Nystedt asserted that “It’s good news actually that we can either see that Africa and actually several countries in Africa are actually capable of hosting the websites. At least in some parts of the continent the infrastructure is there to support it.

It’s not as extensive as it is in North America, for example, in Europe and other parts of the world – but there is infrastructure there to support it. That side of it is actually good news, even though the percentage is very small.”

Source: Pingdom blog

The post Africa Records Low In Web Hosting appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Previously available on a trial basis in markets across Africa, Office 365 is now commercially available in Nigeria. Businesses can try it for free for 30 days by signing up at www.office365.com or from Microsoft’s 31 leading local Nigerian service providers, which will integrate Office 365 with other offerings and market the service to the hundreds of thousands of small and midsize business customers in Nigeria.

Office 365 brings together Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online in an always-up-to-date service, at a predictable monthly cost. The service was introduced in limited beta last year with enthusiastic response, particularly among small and midsize businesses.

Over a few months, more than 10,000 organisations around the world, many of which were small and midsize businesses, signed up and began testing Office 365, creating one of Microsoft’s largest global beta programs for businesses.

“Today, we are evolving from the information age to the collaboration age, where the ability to take action on information will set successful businesses apart from the rest,” said Emmanuel Onyeje, General Manager, Microsoft Nigeria.

Speaking further at the launching of the product, Onyeje affirmed that “Today’s launch of Office 365 in Nigeria will accelerate that evolution by delivering enterprise-grade collaboration for all businesses – large and small.”

A Game-Changer for Businesses of Two to Two Hundred Thousand with Office 365, moving to the cloud does not require people to change the way they work because it’s based on the familiar, industry-leading productivity tools people know and trust. People get new ways to work together, on virtually any device, using the familiar Office applications they already know.

In addition, business owners get the reliability, security features and IT controls they need in the cloud. “We thoroughly evaluated other cloud productivity offerings in the market before choosing Microsoft,” Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer, ATB TechSoft Solutions, Abiodun Atobatele said.

“Office 365 is the right choice to help our company support the way people work today and encourage a more mobile work environment. With the service, we have the added benefit of working together with familiar tools on almost any device and can make quicker decisions when needed,” he affirms.

Office 365 Partners Microsoft is building a strong partner ecosystem around Office 365 in Nigeria, which includes new ways of partnering with service providers such as telecommunications and hosting firms. Combined, the partners will integrate Office 365 with their existing services –from Web hosting and internet connections to finance solutions and mobile phone services. These partners will then be able to deliver integrated packages to their customers, creating a one-stop-shop for small and midsize businesses seeking business services.

“When AlliedSoft learned about Office 365, we knew this was the way businesses would work in the future,” said Chuma Chukwujama, Chief Executive Officer, AlliedSoft.

“Not only can businesses save money, but our Nigerian customers are going to be able to work together better —no matter where they are.”

Office 365 Partners With Office 365 for small businesses, professionals and small businesses can be up and running with Office Web Apps, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and an external website in just 15 minutes, for $6 per user, per month. Office 365 for enterprises has an array of choices for midsize and large businesses, as well as government organizations, starting for as little as $2 per user, per month for basic email.

Office 365 for enterprises also includes the option to purchase Microsoft Office Professional Plus desktop software on a pay-as-you-go basis, for the first time. For $24 per user, per month, organizations can get Office Professional Plus,along with email, voicemail, enterprise social networking, instant messaging, Web portals, extranets, videoconferencing, web conferencing, on-premises licenses and 24/7 phone support.

Established in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potentials.

The post Microsoft Announces Availability of Office 365 in Nigeria appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

 
The Smartphone is GPS enabled and will run Android 2.3. Android is a Linux-based operating system used in mobile devices including Smart phones and tablet computers.

 
However, while there are speculations that the device will cost about ETB 6,000 to ETB 8,000 ($334 – $445); Ethiopia Tecno Mobile said it is currently carrying out a research on the pricing of the new product.

Although the Tecno T3 features will include Ethiopian major native language as it was in other phones that were earlier released from Tecno stable, the General Manager of Tecno Mobile Ethiopia, Henry Yu, said the new phone will only support the Amharic language for the time being.

“Tecno already has several models on the market, all of which support Amharic, Oromiffa, and Tigrigna languages. The new phone will, for the time being, support only Amharic,” Addis Fortune quoted Yu.

 
The phone Amharic application which will work on all Android operating systems was developed by an Ethiopian company, Information Technology Transfer Services (ITTS).

 
CEO and founder of ITTS, Ayalew Aseffa, indicated that the software, Amharic Soft Keyboard and Messaging Application, works on all phones supporting Android. Tecno T3 also supports SMS, email and other information transferring systems, he added.

 
Tecno Mobile Ethiopia was established in 2006 before launching its operations in Ethiopia in September 2011 with a capital investment of more than $1 million from its parent company Tecno Telecom Ltd.

The post Ethiopian-Assembled SmartPhone Set To Hit The Market In July appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Goldstuck posits that from his findings, about twenty percent of formal small business and medium enterprises cannot exist without their websites.

“We measured the impact of Internet use on small businesses and we were able to show that something like 410-thousand small businesses have got websites in South Africa. And, of those, 150,000 wouldn’t be able to exist as businesses, without those websites. So that gave us a very important insight into the impact of the Internet economy on small businesses and on employment in this country,” he said.

South Africa is Africa’s leading economy with about 50 million people. However, the research revealed that despite this mass population, only 8.5 million are actively using the Internet. This figure is slightly higher than the 6.8 million accounted for last year.

The high figure recorded this year was attributed to the wave of smart phones usage, which brings the number of Internet penetration in the country to seventeen percent.

“The figure we came up with was R59-billion ($7 billion) as the value of that economy. And, we then equated it to a sector of the economy in terms of impact of GDP. And, the percentage we came up with was 2 percent of GDP. So the Internet economy in SA represents 2 percent of South Africa’s GDP.”

Comparing Internet penetration statistics on the continent, South Africa is behind Nigeria that has a high Internet penetration at twenty-nine percent. Kenya and North African countries are also ahead of South Africa, Goldstuck says.
At the moment, only 9.6 percent of African residents are web- active compared to sixty-five percent of those living in Europe.

“There are two major differences between the countries that are ahead of South Africa and South Africa itself – cell phone penetration and the use of the Internet on cell phones. So, if you look at Egypt and Nigeria in particular, it’s purely a function of their population size. So, as that population embraces cell phones and then the Internet on cell phones, it’s natural that their connectivity base would shoot ahead of SA’s. … The truth of the matter is that the quality of their Internet access is far poorer than your average South African user’s,” he said.

Goldstuck posits that governments’ attitudes towards the importance of Internet access play a big role.

“… Particularly in countries like Morocco and Tunisia you see it at play, also Indian Ocean islands like Mauritius, you see a far greater eagerness from regulators and government itself to have technologies rolled out, to bring communications to the widest possible range of people, as opposed to looking after vested interests. And, it’s those vested interests, or policy interests that tend to hold us back. It becomes a political process, instead of a technology and licensing process,” Goldstuck said.

With the importance of Internet access to small businesses highlighted, Goldstuck says a number of recommendations have been made to South African government on how to possibly boost the country’s Internet economy.

Goldstuck implore the South African government to hasten regulatory process.

In addition, it is expected that the arrival of an undersea fiber-optic cable, which has about 11 landing points in Africa, will address some of Africans’ Internet access problems.

The post South Africa’s Low Internet Penetration Explained appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

The four-day event will also discuss various models on how African countries can improve the use of the ICT to prepare Africa for the next ICT revolution. The ICT Indaba is organized by the South African Government’s Department of Communications and endorsed by the International Telecommunications Union.

It starts from 4th to 7th June at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. It is envisaged that it will be held annually for the next five years.

Its major themes are “Connecting Africa to Development with ICTs” and “Bridging the Digital Divide”. The ICT Indaba 2012 has identified six critical sectors in driving the ICT as a tool for development in Education; Health; Infrastructure; Agri Business; Trade and Extractive Industries.

During the indaba, there will be several exhibitors showcasing futuristic technological innovations and interactive workshops.

Scores of African Union Regulators, communications ministers and representatives from the Pan African Parliament and SADC and BRICS countries have been invited the event.

In one of the 11 sessions, speakers from nine countries will deliver papers under the topic of “Africans Learning from Africans. These include:
• Jessica Caloco, iHubs Research Kenya, who will speak about the applications and content related best practice;
• Apalia CEO, Guy Badjoko, will deliver a paper on Integrated Telecommunication Services via cloud computing;
• Victor Agbenenou of Togo in Burkina Faso, founder of Smart Tablet Africa, will talk on “Performing Tablets Made in Africa”.

In the session entitled “Lessons Learned from Successful African Tech Entrepreneurs”, speakers will be Kris Senanu, the CEO of Access Kenya, Yerim Sow, founder of the Telcel Cote d’Ivoire and Teylium Group and Alain Ba Oumar Founder and CEO of Internet Gabon.

The indaba will also discuss the “Digital Africa: A Vision for the Future and Preparing Skills and Create Jobs that will enable the Emergence of the Knowledge Economy.” In this session, the keynote speaker will be Mr Houlin Zhao, the ITU’s Deputy Secretary General, who will present a paper “The Powerful Dynamic Role of ICTs in Socio-economic Development.”

Under the topic of “Digital Africa – A Vision for Africa”, a session is to be devoted to on “Developing Smart Cities in the African Context.” Mr Vijay Tharumartnam of Multi Development Corporation will speak on the Malaysian Silicon Valley Experience. There will also be presentations on Bangalore, Indian’s Silicon Valley, Mexico’s Guadalajara and Egypt.
Five speakers from Rwanda, China, India, Malaysia, and Cuba will present papers on the development models under the theme of “Sourcing, Building and Retaining the necessary Skills Force for a robust ICT Industry.”

Crystal Rugege of Rwanda will present a case study on “How Rwanda is currently training a globally competitive ICT skills base.” Dr Jun Xia, of School of Economics and Management at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, will speak about the Chinese Model of “Advancing Rural Development through ICTs.”

The Indian Model will look at how to conceptualise and run “eSkills Development Programme in Developing countries” while the Cuban Model will share experiences for “Producing Industry-ready Graduates.”

One of the highlights of the first day is a session on Crystal Ball Exercise with Technology Gurus that will feature eight international experts from several countries. They will discuss a number of strategies including “How technology will shape Africa and the world within the next 15-20 years and “What should African entrepreneurs focus to capitalize on coming opportunities.”
The speakers on this topic include Mr Sam Pitroda, adviser to the Prime Minister of India Public Information. Infrastructure and Innovations; Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah McKinsey, who will look at the Understanding the African Digital Consumer; and Mteto Nyati, Managing Director of Microsoft South Africa.

Some of the sessions will focus on “Critical policies that must be accelerated to advance Africa’s Knowledge-based Economy and “Developing Clusters to drive local ICT Industry development”.

Another key session will focus on “Using the Africa Infrastructure Development Corridor as a basis for integrated ICT Initiatives”.

Participants will include speakers from the World Bank and African Development Bank.

Communication Minsters from Botswana, Mr Nonofo Molefi, and his counterpart from the Republic of Congo, Mr Thierry Moungalla, will deliver papers on “Opportunities and Challenges for Broadband Deployment”.

A Ministerial Forum involving African ministers will reflect on some of the key components of the ICT Indaba including innovations across Africa, the challenges and opportunities facing the continent. Other discussion points will include:
• International Connectivity: Development, challenges and constraints
• Funding and investment in Broadband: A platform for the growth of the Information Society and Knowledge economy in Africa
• Building productive capacity to become Information Society and Knowledge Economy in Africa
• Africa Infrastructure for Telecommunications, Broadcasting for the Internet keeping regional traffic regional, and
• Building on Regional Development Initiatives: Connect Africa

Communications Minister Ms. Dina Pule said the ICT INDABA seeks to ensure the ICT sector played its role as primary enablers of economic growth and job creation throughout the continent. ”I take pleasure in inviting our compatriots across the Diaspora, to our country, to partner with us, the ICT Industry, labour, and civil society as we enter a bold partnership that seeks to shape the development of the continent.
“By hosting the ICT Indaba 2012, the South African government is sending out a bold word to the world that Africa is ready to be the next boom market for ICT services. Africa is a minefield of opportunities for communication services providers because it has a population estimated at one billion people. But many of them do not have access to affordable communications services,” she said.

The post Bridging The Digital Divide: Africa’s First ICT Indaba Kicks Off In June appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

The countries will work together on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, which may reveal whether there is life beyond Earth. The SKA member countries that decided that both of the shortlisted candidate nations should host the project made public the news about this initiative on Friday.
The SKA telescope project, which is expected to be completed by the year 2024 is the most advanced scientific project in recent times.
When completed, the telescope will be made up of 3,000 dishes, each 15 metres wide, together with many more antennae, that will altogether give a receiver surface area of a square kilometre.
According to the SKA website, the telescope will be 50 times more sensitive while giving more opportunity to be able to survey the sky 10 000 times faster than any existing radio telescope. It will also allow astronomers study the formation of the first black holes, stars and galaxies.
Apart from this, the telescope will be able to observe complex molecules on distant planets, raising the possibility that it may detect life in another galaxy. It will also be able to collect signals from the origin of the universe when it’s completed.

The two biggest components of the SKA will be built in Africa, while one will be built in Australia – about 70 percent of the facility will be built in Africa.

The majority of the first phase dishes will be built in South Africa, which is considered a “preferred site”, SKA group affirmed.

The decision to split the location of the $2 billion “Square Kilometre Array” followed intense lobbying by the two leading bidders, South Africa one side and a joint bid from Australia and New Zealand on the other. South Africa accepted the decision to share the e1.5 billion (R11bn) project.

“Factors taken into account during the site selection process included levels of radio frequency interference, the long-term sustainability of a radio quiet zone, the physical characteristics of the site, long distance data network connectivity, the operating and infrastructure costs, as well as the political and working environment,” the SKA Organisation said.

Director-General of the Manchester, England organising body, Michiel van Haarlem, said “It’s an international, global project and one of the important things we seek to achieve is the broadest possible support for it.”

“In 2024 we expect to be able to look back at the first stars and milky-ways formed in the universe,” Van Haarlem said. “We’ll look for extraterrestrial life and try to uncover the role of magnetic fields in the forming of stars.”

“This hugely important step for the project allows us to progress the design and prepare for the construction phase of the telescope,” said Michiel van Haarlem.

“The SKA will transform our view of the universe; with it we will see back to the moments after the Big Bang and discover previously unexplored parts of the cosmos.”

On winning the deal, the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma said, “Africa is indeed rising. South Africa is confident that the country will deliver on the expectations of the continent and world.”

He acknowledged that this vast achievement was possible because of the African Union endorsement and support from partner countries, namely, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia and Zambia.
The SKA is more than just a scientific bauble. Global tech companies are already earmarking development funds linked to the project, which will rely on computing technology that does not even exist yet to process the flood of data it will collect. Scientists estimate that the SKA will need processing power equivalent to several million of today’s fastest computers, a report from MSNBC said.

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