Mobile solutions beyond Value-Added Services firm, Mahindra Comviva has partnered with Vantrix, a pioneer in mobile video optimization and delivery solutions in a bid to effectively manage, optimize and monetize the explosive growth of video traffic that service providers are experiencing in their markets.

According to their release statement, the deal will see Vantrix’s advanced video optimization solution, Bandwidth Optimizer integrated with Mahindra Comviva’s Mobile Data Platform (MDP), targeted at addressing the broadband traffic and specifically Video Traffic for Policy Management, Optimization and Monetization (MOM).

The parties expect the  solution to enable service providers to manage, optimize and monetize their mobile broadband video traffic while offering their subscribers a high performance and rich media experience, leading to increased data adoption and reduced network congestion.

Madan G. Onkar, Vice President, Internet and Broadband Solutions, Mahindra Comviva said, “Given the explosive growth in the video traffic and the increase in broadband subscribers globally, it’s imperative that video traffic is managed and delivered intelligently, in the most optimal manner. It contributes to a significant portion of the service providers’ data revenue today. We are excited to extend our partnership with Vantrix to jointly offer the policy-based video optimization solution to our customers worldwide.”

A recent study shows that mobile video traffic exceeded 50% in 2012 and it is predicted that by 2017, video will generate 66.5% of all mobile data traffic. Globally the internet video users will be 2 billion by 2017. At the same time, mobile video traffic in Africa is predicted to grow 27 fold from 2013 to 2017 at a compound annual growth rate of 93 per cent. Video will be 72 per cent of Africa’s mobile data traffic in 2017, compared to 47 per cent at the end of 2012.

“Today, it is evident that video content consumption is the key driver for data traffic growth on service provider networks. These providers need to manage the growing costs of this demand, offer a compelling experience to their customers and enable new revenue opportunities,” said Alex Staddon-Smith, Sr. Vice President, Global Sales and Business Development, Vantrix. “We are delighted to partner with Mahindra Comviva to deliver a best-in-class solution to address these challenges.  Our solution, Bandwidth Optimizer, is designed to improve the overall end user experience, while at the same time optimize the delivery of video content and enable monetization opportunities for our clients.”

Mahindra Comviva has more than a decade of experience in managing mobile data pipes for over 80 service providers across 40+ countries globally while Vantrix solutions are deployed in over 75 mobile networks, serving more than one billion subscribers in five continents. Vantrix has worked with Mahindra Comviva with their media transcoding for its Multimedia Messaging Service Center (MMSC) suite and RCSe compliant IMPS suite.

Verve International, the firm behind Verve payment card brand has partnered with First Registrars to launch FirstDividend Plus Prepaid Card,   a ‘first of its kind’ prepaid card issued to shareholders into which dividend amounts due to them are automatically credited.

Mr. Bayo Olugbemi, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of First Registrars Limited, said,“Our organisation has committed tremendous human and financial resources to the creation of strategic IT enabled products and services that are geared towards making share registration management and procedures seamless for all stakeholders in the business.”

The launch of FirstDividend Plus Prepaid Card is also expected to address unclaimed dividend (especially amongst retail shareholders) which has been a challenge in the capital market.

The partners add that the Verve branded FirstDividend Plus Prepaid Card was designed to support the financial inclusion drive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as part of the cashless policy. It addresses a local challenge with an innovative solution, which is critical to the adoption and acceptance of e-payment services.  Hence, all shareholders, whether with bank accounts or not, are able to receive their unpaid dividends.

The card works simply.

Once the shareholder receives the card, the shareholder is ready to receive dividends, which is credited to the card immediately the payment is authorized.

The beneficiary of the dividend can then withdraw the funds at an ATM, transfer it to his/her preferred bank account, or spend the funds at any of the 130,000 POS terminals and 1,000 websites where Verve is accepted in Nigeria.

Mr. Charles Ifedi, Chief Executive Officer, Verve International, said:“Verve is proud to have been selected to support this new product which is the first of its kind. Verve and First Registrars are both market leaders and provide innovative homegrown solutions to address Nigeria’s e-banking needs. This revolutionary new product will ensure all shareholders, including the unbanked, do not suffer lost income.”

A new report by ReportsnReports suggests that the South African Healthcare IT market will grow at 8.8 percent by 2016.

“One of the key factors contributing to healthcare IT market growth in South Africa is the increasing need to store patient information and use it to provide appropriate/better healthcare services,” the report said.

“The healthcare IT market in South Africa has been witnessing the increased application of mobile technology. However, the high capital needed to adopt IT systems/technology could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.”

The country has seen many developments that merge mobile technology with health care. Vodafone has come up with programmes that aim to improve the health sectors. From patient management service to tools that help medical practitioners.

Huawei introduces the Huawei S12700, which is an agile network architecture technology and agile switch.

Huawei is the global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. The S12700 has a design developed from a service and user experience perspective and supports higher reliability and larger ethernet frames.

This technology features the key attributes required to support new industry trends including: cloud computing, bring your own device (BYOD), software-defined network (SDN), internet of things (IoT), and big data-related analytics for business use.

In launching the first service and user experience, centred agile network architecture, Huawei has for the first time introduced SDN architecture into campus networks. This has enabled networks to provide more efficient and agile services, and evolve from single-node service processing into full-scale management and control. Huawei S12700 switch forms part of the industry’s most advanced series of agile switches and is expected to lead a new revolution in Ethernet switching technology and network construction. Featuring automatic network deployment and management, the S12700 supports end-to-end (E2E) security collaboration with the flexibility for fast-changing services and full programmability.

The inevitable trends of broadband services, multimedia, mobility and social networking are shifting the focus of networks from technologies and devices to services, users and experiences,” said William Xu, CEO of the Huawei Enterprise Business Group. “Huawei is committed to customer-centric innovation and open collaboration with the industry, and leveraging our 10 years’ experience in enhancing IP network capabilities to best meet the needs of our customers. With the launch of the industry’s first agile network and agile switch that focus on service efficiency and user experience, I am confident that we will change the future of next-generation enterprise networks.”

Some of the challenges that the S12700 is bound to experience in the first changing era of internet usage include, insufficient service processing capability, fault location difficulties, and slow service responses.

“Campus network infrastructure is experiencing a rapid evolution due to the dynamic nature of enterprise mobility and BYOD roll outs, cloud services and applications, real-time multimedia and unified communication applications, as well as the need for a comprehensive approach to security across enterprise IT infrastructure. These innovation trends urge enterprises to enhance their abilities to support business and application needs. Huawei’s next-generation network architecture is aligned with these trends, which, along with its built-in programmable chip, will enable enterprises to meet future network requirements through emerging networking architectures, such as SDN,” said Rohit Mehra, vice-president of Network Infrastructure, IDC.

Niger, Enugu and State of Osun as well as Akwa-Ibom and Kano, all states in Nigeria, can boast of its information Technology (IT) as each state is implementing its own policy, of course depending on their level of technology.

Dr. Ashiru Sani Daura, the acting director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), revealed this at the just concluded second meeting of the National Council on Communication Technology (NCCT) in Akure.

He said that he was looking forward to working with the other states across the country to develop their respective IT policies, and was looking at the possibility of having done some great deal by the end of tis year.

Dr. Daura added that is was encouraging that NITDA made effort to include the development of IT policies in the states and worked with the current budget and added that Rivers State was in preparation for joining the league of States with IT policies before the third NCCT.

The Director- General also said that his expectation was that in less than two years NITDA along side that collaboration of the states government will finish the development of IT policies across the nation.

“We are collaborating with them to develop the IT policies. Now, we have put in our budget to have more states to collaborate with. And even if you can recall, Rivers announced at the Council section, they will like to be among the next set. They requested that and if we can, We will like to have more states and this will be over, may be in the next two years or few years, so that this will be over,” he declared.

Adding that already, Akwa-Ibom and Kano have their policies in place and there are others like that in some parts of the country.

The Federal Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson has commended the Ondo State government for what she described as the most progressive state leveraging Information Communication Technology (ICT) to deliver socio-economic benefits to citizenry.

Renewable energy firm, Abengoa has unveiled South Africa’s first solar tower in the first phase of the project known as Khi Solar One.

Khi Solar One, a 50 megawatt (MW) superheated steam solar tower with two hours of thermal storage, represents an important technological advance in tower efficiency by using higher temperatures and an innovative dry cooling system. This advancement is the result of the R&D work done by Abengoa in its research centers and pilot plants, the company denoted.

The unveiling was attended by South African government delegation and project partners, Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Khi Community Trust.

Khi Solar One and KaXu Solar One, Abengoa’s 100 MW parabolic trough plant also under construction in the Northern Cape, will be the first concentrating solar power plants in operation in South Africa.

The department of energy intends to have 17,800 MW of power from renewable sources by 2030. This strategy has benefits such as having long term energy dependence and also creating numerous jobs.

The strategy hopes to create 1400 jobs per year and having 70 permanent operation jobs.

Abengoa designs, constructs and operates its own plants, and is one of the few companies that use both parabolic trough and tower technology. It currently has 21 plants in operation with a total installed capacity of 843 MW, as well as 810 MW under construction worldwide

Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda have a new partner in there internet circles as Google Afrca has expanded the YouTube partner programme.

This comes after the introduction of YouTube domains in those countries. Google says in its Africa blog that it had been ‘amazed by the quality and creativity’ of content producers in those countries.

It now offers the YouTube partner programme, which enables content producers to make money from their videos by allowing ads to run alongside individual videos, thereby generating revenue. To earn money and receive payments from these advertisements, content producers must associate an AdSense account with their YouTube account.

Mobile security market has become strong, growing sub-market of Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM).

As Mobile Device Management (MDM), apart from evolving around application and content management, but the core driver for this evolution is the demand for greater security around corporate assets, wherever they may reside and regardless of format.

Concerns for data leak prevention; access control, compliance reporting, and monitoring are pushing EMM providers to increasingly provide more security-based mobility features to their existing solutions.

“While MDM will continue to provide the largest share of revenues, growth rates from other sectors, and, in particular, security and content management will increasingly account for a much larger portion of the market,” says Michela Menting, ABI Research’s senior analyst in cyber security.

The demand for security is enabling vendors to differentiate their offerings and stand out from the competition. But the window for MSM is short; security will become a basic requirement for all EMM solutions and successful differentiation will demand a long-term sustainable strategy. This could be through mergers and strategic acquisitions, or investment into other EMM submarkets, such as mobile network and identity management.

ABI Research estimates the current MSM market to total $560 million by the end of 2013 globally.