This year will be a year of transformation, suggest Pyramid Research. The research institute says, in a report that there will be increased competition and innovation, particularly around mobile broadband and media.

The new report; Pyramid Research Predictions 2014: Global and Regional Trends in the Information, Communications and Technology Industry provide key insights into top market trends.

“We anticipate that 2014 will be a year of transformation. The introduction of sub-$50 Smartphone is one of the most transcendental events we expect will take place in 2014, as mass availability of Smartphone’s will mean empowering underpenetrated populations and bringing them one step closer to the networked economy and its benefits,” explains Daniel Amparán, Managing Director at Pyramid Research.

This new report says that globally, over 40 percent of some 7bn mobile subscriptions will be on 3G+ networks by year-end 2014; LTE will make up merely 4 percent of the total. Across emerging markets, Chinese device vendors led by Lenovo will make strong gains outside their home market, disrupting Apple’s and Samsung’s positions in the mid-range and high-end smartphone segments.

This year almost one in every three mobile subscriptions in Africa and the Middle East will be on 3G or more advanced networks. Pyramid expects that the 2014 world cup in Brazil give a 15 percent boost to mobile data revenue in Brazil and that nearly 4m new pay-TV subscriptions will be added during 2014.

“Pyramid Research is the only firm in the industry with a heritage of more than 25 years in emerging markets. We are proud to be considered the partner of choice of industry leaders in the converged global communications, media and technology industries, and look forward to sharing our top predictions for this exciting year ahead,” says Amparán.

Pyramid Research offers practical solutions to the complex demands our clients face in the global telecommunications, media and technology industries. Our analysis is uniquely positioned at the intersection of emerging markets, disruptive technologies and innovative business models, powered by the bottom-up methodology of our market forecasts for more than 100 countries—a distinction that has remained unmatched for more than 25 years.

visitor contact us at info@pyr.com

Ericsson and Unitel, Angola’s top telco have demoed LTE Advanced (LTE-A) Carrier Aggregation technology with 1800MHz and 900MHz spectrum bands live in Luanda, Angola, carrying commercial traffic.

LTE-A is said to be the next step in the evolution of high-speed mobile broadband services, enabling operators to make the most of their existing spectrum assets by combining multiple spectrum bands to enable higher mobile broadband download speeds.

In a release statement, Amilcar Safeca, Deputy CEO of Unitel said, “With the global leap toward higher data access speeds for sophisticated video and mobility services, we are enhancing our network to ensure we continually provide high-quality services to our high-demanding subscriber base.”

Safeca said the demo promises the launch of the service in Angola soon. If it goes live this year, Unitel won’t be the first to launch the high speed spectrum bands, especially in Australia, Portugal and South Korea.

Why launch LTE-A in Africa? Over six African countries already have LTE, therefore move to LTE-A is the welcome.

Magnus Mchunguzi, Vice President, Ericsson sub-Saharan Africa says LTE-A technology will help operators increase their network capacity and enhance the mobile broadband user experience with speeds up to 1Gbps.

“This demo places Unitel on the very limited list of operators in the world to demonstrate LTE-A in a live network using a commercial terminal. We are very proud to have partnered with Unitel in this achievement, further extending our long-standing relationship with Unitel,” Mchunguzi said.

The very first African Think Tank Studies are set to take place in Pretoria on the 3-5 Feburary which is brought to us cutesy of The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the University of Pennsylvania.

The Summit will be held under the University of Pennsylvania’s Think Tank and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP), with the aim to provide a regional forum to engage and discuss challenging policy and organizational issues facing think tanks in Africa.  

The summit’s main focus will be the policy level and institutional issues; they will tackle the national and regional policies, programs and strategies that address the current and emerging security threats for the continent and opportunities for Africa to become a major global trade and investment partner.  On the institutional issues, the summit will deal with the long-term sustainability of think tanks and the sharing of best practices for research and resource mobilization.

ACBF has vast experience in the establishment of think tanks in Africa, currently supporting 29 policy think tanks in 22 countries.  Central to this support has been the conviction that policy analysis and research are critical to economic management, thereby leading to improving public policy for growth, equity, employment and poverty reduction.

 ACBF has achieved three main results, namely limited policy reversal on the continent, equipping governments with relevant skills for economic policy analysis and improving policy planning and monitoring for development frameworks such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

It is hoped that the First African Think Tank Summit will establish learning alliances between African and global think tanks including the development of a ranking baseline which ACBF supported Think tanks can utilize to improve performance and maximize impact.     

Master the Mainframe is here with us, thanks to IBM students have yet another chance to prove their capability. The company has unveiled the competition in Kenya to allow the Kenyan students to showcase their talent and explore future employment possibilities.  

Through the contest, students learn everything from how to log onto mainframe environments to developing code and problem solving.

The master mainframe competition has no limitations as it is open to students from all Kenyan universities, has already attracted entries from students at local universities.

As a three-part contest which is taking place in a number of countries, Master the Mainframe serves as an introduction to programming and application development and students require no initial mainframe experience to participate.

“Mainframes have always been at the center of the global economy as well as the backbone of most cities infrastructures. Today, mainframes are growing in popularity as technology evolves, demanding more open, scalable and secure solutions and platforms for cloud, mobile and big data analytics,” said Felix Orondo, Team Leader for the Master the Mainframe initiative in Kenya.

The fact that 90 percent of the world’s data has been developed over the past few years will mean that advanced systems such as the mainframe continue to be critical tools of success for businesses, especially for those in growth markets such as Kenya.

Contestants in the Master the Mainframe competition will gain hands-on experience with a wide array of mainframe technologies, including REXX, Java and Linux on System among many others.

Students will be evaluated in each part of the competition and a reward will be given to any that proceeds to the next round which involves more challenges. The goal of the contest is to provide students with the mainframe skills necessary to find those unique and exciting jobs.

In 2013, IBM trained over 59,000 students worldwide on the mainframe.

Students who enter the competition also have the opportunity to identify job opportunities supporting mainframe environments. To help in this process, IBM has created Systemzjobs.com.

The job board is a resource to link IBM System z clients and partners with students and professionals seeking System z job opportunities and regularly features over 1,000 mainframe-related jobs.

The contest is open to students who are currently taking at least 3 school credits.

Students and teachers can register for the IBM Master the Mainframe Contest by clicking on ibm.com/university/contest

In a statement to the public, Kenya’s leading mobile operator has said no customer data has leaked as purported by a cross-section of Kenyans over the Deposit Protection Fund Board SMS texts, and the messages weren’t a hoax by fraudsters.

Safaricom said the SMS broadcast to subscribers from the Deposit Protection Fund Board, a body under the Central Bank of Kenya was sent by them as authorized by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK). Safaricom said the  authorized SMS Broadcast were sent to its entire subscriber base on behalf of DPFB which holds depositors’ funds with Kenya’s Daima Bank, Trust Bank and Fortune which are since defunct.

“DPFB sought to reach out to the depositors through an SMS broadcast as they do not have mobile records of these depositors so that they can access their funds,” said the firm in a statement. “The SMS Broadcast originates from Safaricom and therefore no customer data has been shared with any external party.”

Ukuvuma Solutions, a provider of engineering, mining and construction market support solutions and a long-time partner to IBM and an IBM Value Added Partner is set to draw more developers to IBM at this year’s IBM Software Connect 2014 Conference in Orlando Florida.

The firm says it has been strengthened through continuous exposure to the latest technology and international best practice from IBM and adds that the value of this information is transferred to the client and this continues to have a profound impact on the local and international development community.

John Jardin, Africa’s first ever accredited IBM Champion and CTO Ukuvuma Solutions, will be attending and presenting at IBM Software Connect 2014 Conference in Orlando Florida. Themed Energizing Life’s Work , Jardin will be speaking on BP209: IBM Worklight Going From XPages Mobile to Native Mobile Applications.

The presentation will cover a number of sub-themes, relevant and topical for developers and would-be mobile developers in 2014, including: XPages Mobile Review, overview of IBM Worklight, building a mobile project and the capabilities and impact of Worklight in terms of XPages. The focus is on applications, mobility and the offer of credible advice to developers in terms of how to optimise resource utilisation.

According to Jardin whilst the presentation will feature a strong technical component, it is designed to be thought-provoking, easily absorbed and offer practical advice. “Our intention is to deliver a realistic yet interesting reflection of the scenario involving these core technologies for developers.”

The Company has been an IBM partner since 2004 and not only implements IBM technology, but uses this technology as a base for business solutions. The alliance is considered a foundation pillar of the business.

 This market success has garnered widespread global industry attention. Ukuvuma Solutions is known for proving concepts on the latest IBM technologies and distributing advice on how to apply and adopt these.

Jardin has been re-elected as one of the IBM Champions for 2014.

“We are recognised for our leadership in IBM technology installation and support,” says Dawid van Heerden, CEO of Ukuvuma Solutions. “In January last year we presented a ‘Birds of a Feather’ session at IBM Connect and in November we presented two sessions at the DanNotes IBM User Group in Denmark.”

 In late 2013, the Company also attended IBM’s “The Future of Mail is Social” event as a guest speaker and demonstrate the power of Application Development using Notes and Domino 9 and OpenSocial.

Participation at the IBM Software Connect 2014 event is another opportunity for the Company to directly engage the global development market and reinforce its leadership position.

IBM is recognised in the market for its innovative, cutting-edge technology for collaboration, social and mobile. It provides a fully featured framework environment and product base that ensures solutions and applications are developed and delivered rapidly.

To enhance and entrench this reputation, IBM requires an experienced and technically competent partner who is familiar with the powerful product stack.

Ukuvuma Solutions ticks all the boxes and is ready to engage with clients who desire and expect nothing but the very best in software solutions and processes.

Smartgov platform, an  identity management and e-payment infrastructure for state governments first deployed in Cross River State Nigeria is set to be used to raise new revenues according to an announcement during the 2014 budget presentation to the state assembly.

First deployed in 2011, Smartgov was developed by Interswitch in partnership with the Cross River State Government (CRSG) in amove to improve governance, accountability and access to social services for citizens.

Speaking during the 2014 budget presentation, Senator Liyel Imoke, Governor of Cross River State, has said that his government will expand ways Smartgov was being used. Smartgov helps state governments automate ministries, departments and agencies, identify all citizens and residents, track and monitor usage of social services, enhance internally generated revenue and automate disbursements and payments by government. This grows revenue, eliminates wastage, simplifies governance and increases access to government services.

According to Mr. Jonah Adams, Managing Director, Smartgov.CRSG Limited, “We are extremely proud of our achievements to date in Cross River State and the renewed commitment from CRSG to extend the use of the Smartgov identity management and e-payment infrastructure to eliminate wastage and grow revenues. It is our mission to help state governments to offer their citizens a more efficient service and better value for money.”

The Smartgov project has enabled CRSG to create a state-wide Identity Management System for residents and corporate in the state (the first state in Sub-Saharan Africa) while biometric-based Identity Cards have also been issued, providing cardholders with access to healthcare, pension, transportation, educational bursaries, social amenities and social benefits. Smartgov has facilitated the automation of key Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) revenue sources and services and the reduction of government processing cost.

Mr. Mitchell Elegbe, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Interswitch Transnational, said the success of Smartgov in Cross River State has given them a greater determination to roll out the solution across all state governments in Nigeria.

“By doing so we can give Nigerians everywhere a more effective and efficient service from government that utilises the latest world-class e-payment and identity management technologies,” Elegbe concluded.

In the verge of trying to merge mobile and desktop user experience, the software king, Microsoft, will soon reveal its latest OS in April, of course this year.

Windows 9 platform will also have to trounce user resistance to a more mobile style layout for desktop devices. The company’s current OS suffered criticism from users when it removed the classic Start menu, and spurred 3rd party software that restored it.

The prominent Microsoft blogger, Paul Thurrott revealed that the Windows 9 OS will be shown off in April, and will also see a return of the old desktop screen.

The new design, which has earned the name “Threshold”, will be unveiled at Microsoft’s BUILD developer conference in April, and will be in the market next year.

The company is also expected to have named its replacement CEO by the time of the conference, enabling the new boss to show off the new software.