Electronics manufacturing company, Samsung, has revealed the industry’s very first collection production of 3GB low power double data rate 3 (LPDDR3) mobile DRAM, the highest density mobile memory for smartphones.

Samsung says that this chip will bring a generation shift to the market from the 2GB packages that are widely used in current mobile devices.

The Samsung 3GB LPDDR3 mobile DRAM uses six of the industry’s smallest 20-nanometer (nm) class four gigabit (GB) LPDDR3 chips, in a symmetrical structure of two sets of three chips stacked in a single package only 0.8 millimeters high.

The ultra slim memory chip will enable thinner Smartphone designs and allow additional battery space, while giving a data shift speed of up to 2133 megabits per second per pin.

“Three gigabyte mobile DRAM will be adopted in the most up-to-date, high-end Smartphones starting in the second half of this year — an initial adoption that will expand to most high-end Smartphones worldwide next year,” said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. “We will develop a new 3GB LPDDR3 solution based on four 6Gb LPDDR3 DRAM chips by symmetrically stacking two chips on each side, which will boost Smartphone performance to the next level by year-end.”

The increased DRAM capacity, customers will enjoy high-quality, full HD video playback and faster multitasking on their Smartphone.

Samsung’s 3GB LPDDR3 DRAM connects with a mobile application processor using two symmetrical data transfer channels, each connected to a 1.5GB storage part. Though asymmetric data flow can cause sharp performance dips at certain settings, the symmetrical structure avoids such issues, while maximizing system level performance.

Current memory storage capacity for PCs is about 4GB, offering 3GB of DRAM memory on mobile devices should help most users enjoy PC-like performance, in narrowing the performance gap between PC and Smartphone computing.

The Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) has invested US$1 million into a new national payment switch that will see financial institutions share payment infrastructure and capitalise on its expansive network of over 600 offices to offer Agency services.

The platform officially launching July 30.

According to Dr. Enock Kinara, the Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer the e-payment system will enable Posta transact several operations electronically on behalf of various stakeholders that include electronic agency banking, mobile money transfers, card-based transactions, e-commerce, online disbursements in agency services, as well as e-payment for utility bills.

“This will create a shared infrastructure and with CBK’s planned National Payment System integration, we are better placed to offer the required platform,” he adds.

Some of its partners that are set to benefit include banks, money transfer service providers, micro-finance institutions, utility payments and mobile money transactions amongst others.

Posta has already inked an agreement with 7 major banks to use it electronic payment where it serves as an agent of the financial institutions. “The technology offers an array of infinite transaction possibilities, from mobile wallets, credit and debit cards to USSD,” explained Dr. Kinara.

Posta is equally seeking approval from the Communication Commission of Kenya to provide wireless internet service in 93 offices in the country, 22 of which will be new offices.

Other key strategic areas that the corporation has focused on include change in PCK’s corporate image and culture to a more vibrant equally competing commercial entity, investment in the human resource capacity through trainings, formation of a comprehensive customer service charter, as well as the formation of a risk management division that will oversee and handle any unforeseen circumstances.

For efficient service delivery, the Corporation is installing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to ensure that all its front office operations are automated. Public-private partnerships Posta is also scouting around for strategic public-private partnerships to drive its revenue base.

Posta is presently realigning its operations and propping up its “profit-centres in order to realise growth by developing new products, reviewing price structures and diversifying its sources of income,” said Dr. Kinara.

The Posta also expects to up its revenue to Ksh20 billion from Ksh5 billion in the next three years in order to meet the targets of its new 2013-2016 Corporate Strategic Plan.

Dr. Kinara said Posta would gradually ratchet up its revenues in order to hit its target. “We are committed to growing revenue from Ksh3.5 billion to Ksh4.5 billion; from Ksh4.5 billion to Ksh6.5 billion and from Ksh6.5 billion to Ksh9 billion in years one, two and three respectively to hit a cumulative target of Ksh20 billion, said Dr. Kinara.

“We require a paradigm shift in the way we conduct our business. It will no longer be business as usual if we are to achieve our set targets and move to the next level as expected by our shareholders,” said Dr. Kinara.

Vivendi, a French Conglomerate, announced that it was in restricted discussions with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) telecom operator Etisalat to sell 53 percent stake in Morocco’s operator Maroc Telecom.

The French company said that if the deal is approved, the sale to the Emirates Telecommunications Corp would fetch USD 5.5 billion cash in total, which includes the 2012 USD 408.7million dividend.

This sale is considered to be part of a bigger strategy by Vivendi to sell-off its telecom holdings to concentrate better on media activities, dominated by its Universal Music unit which is the world’s biggest music group. The two are making plans to close the transaction before the end of the year.

A week earlier the Financial Times reported that Vivendi had abandoned an USD 8.5 billion offer by Japan’s SoftBank for Universal Music.

India’s global leader in telecom values-added services, OnMobile Global Limited, proclaimed that it has succeeded a RBT partnership deal with MTN Group

OnMobile will now start providing RBT services for MTN subscribers for the next three months and will replace the whole service for the next two to two and a half years in selected regions.

Being the RBT pioneer, OnMobile Global was chosen over other companies as it has features which include search and discovery options, live stream content and storefronts. It has the most tested technology in RBT.

Sanjay Bhambri, Chief Commercial Officer, OnMobile Global, had this to say: “We are very thrilled about getting onboard with the MTN Group to migrate their RBT services across 22 countries. This partnership is very important to us, and is a major milestone in making us undisputed leaders in the RBT realm. We will also increase our global footprint by another 14 countries through this partnership.”

“OnMobile is very well known for their successful RBT deployments and managed services offerings. Their deployments globally have given amazing results to telecoms operators, and it is a classic case in point of their expertise and experience. The business model they pioneered a decade back, strong technology backing it up, experience in multiple geographies with complex network integration requirements and changing regulatory environments worked to their advantage during our selection process. However, their understanding of local markets and consumer requirements were game-changers that clinched our decision. We look forward to partnering with them successfully,” said Pieter C Verkade, MTN Group Chief Commercial Officer.

The consumer performance for RBT services has undergone a revolution over the last few years and subscriptions have increased notably.

With years of experience and global for more than ten years, the telecom limited will be af great influence as well as its best practices across the globe will the transition flawless switch for MTN’s 191 million subscriber base.

“As MTN‚ we are always trying to improve the quality of service for our customers. And through this deal with OnMobile‚ we hope to ensure that our customers never hear a boring ring tone again‚” added Verkade.
 

Technology in South Africa has been embraced in the last year as in a period between June 2012 to May 2013 the volume of tablets entering the country has increased to more than twice compared to the year before, with Android OS devices representing more than half its market.

Craig Fleischer, the director of mobile communications at Samsung in South Africa, is responsible for these findings. He said that the tables are fast becoming the device of choice among the residents when it comes to mobility.

“During the first quarter, Samsung has maintained strong position in the mobile supplier race, with great strides made in capturing market share during this period,” Fleischer says. “This achievement can be attributed to Samsung’s continued innovation and flexible approach to consumer needs. This adaptability is underpinned by the variety of screen sizes, hardware options and value-added service offerings available across the range.”

The Samsung director believed that Samsung has produced a product portfolio that caters for a multitude of consumer and enterprise requirements unlike its competitors who focus on one-size-fits all.

The TouchWiz user interface overlaying Android, he says provides a consistent look and feel across Samsung devices as well as meeting consumer needs for personalized and relevant applications and services.

Fleischer also thought that the 7 and 8 inches tables have receive a good response recently because of their miniature nature.

He also noted that new entrants in this space are creating a competitive pricing environment which is changing the market dynamic for leading brands.

In addition to all this, he added that Wi-Fi functionality demand has grown tremendously.

Education too has contributed to the immense growth of tablet device usage, says Fleischer. He said that Samsung supports a variety of initiatives within the education sector by carefully identifying and nurturing relationships with learning institutions, content providers and operators.

Some of the initiatives that Samsung has involved itself in the education sector include Samsung’s Smart School and Solar Powered Internet School programs have been awarded benchmark status by a number of education departments and private school groups.

Orange Money will now be available across the continent at all  TOTAL filling stations in 12 African countries.

The 13 countries are Kenya, Uganda, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger and Senegal as well as Jordan in the Middle East.

According to Marc Rennard, Executive Vice President for Orange’s Africa and Middle-East region, “We are proud to unveil this partnership with Total as we are creating synergies between two major groups in Africa and the Middle-East to better serve consumers. This agreement will add a whole new dimension to the Orange Money distribution network.”

The deal will give Orange customers access to Orange Money services at all TOTAL service stations in African and Middle-Eastern countries where the two groups are present and Orange Money is available. 

Momar Nguer, TOTAL’s Marketing and Services Division Director for Africa and Middle-East said that the firm’s ambition is to take a leading position in mobile payment distribution in Africa.

“I am delighted with this partnership, which allows Total to further expand the range of products and services we offer across our entire distribution network. It’s a new example of our ability to innovate and anticipate our customers’ needs,” added Nguer.

Orange Money is Orange’s payment and money transfer service for Africa and the Middle-East. It enables Orange customers to transfer money from mobile to mobile, to pay bills and even withdraw and deposit money through a network of certified distributors.

This partnership will extend Orange Money’s distribution network to all TOTAL service stations in the 13 countries where the service is available, further improving the service provided to customers of Orange and Total, both in terms of proximity and ease of use. Customers will benefit from the density of the TOTAL distribution network, its service stations open for extended hours seven days a week; they will be able to open an Orange Money account on site and perform withdrawals and deposits.

This deal is already operational in Senegal and Cameroon, and will go live in over 1300 service stations in the 11 other countries where both groups are present in the second half of 2013. A second stage will follow, which should enable Orange Money customers to pay for purchases made in TOTAL service stations using their mobile account.

Orange Money was launched in 2008 and is present in Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Jordan, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Senegal and Uganda and has more than 7 million customers.

Launched January this year, Orange Horizons, an Orange subsidiary has opened physical stores in SA and Portugal in a move that will give the firm new business opportunities and offer support to its customers traveling abroad.

Now present in 7 countries the firm has opened physical stores in partnership with local partners such as Nashua Mobile in SA apart from just selling online.

Orange Horizons  has four own-branded corners in stores in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town. Additional services are provided  to customers travelling from neighboring countries where Orange is already present, such as Botswana, or for customers travelling from France.

Orange expects its roaming customers on tariffs like  “Go Europe”,  to get services such as SIM card replacement, stolen phones notice and replacement, activation of international options, as well as expert assistance in subscribing to the most appropriate roaming pass depending on destination, length of stay and usage.

Orange Horizons stores offer a product range covering the latest smartphones and tablets, as well as high-tech accessories and is also developing over-the-top content country-specific websites to accompany the launch of its e-commerce sites.

The government of the United Kingdom is planning to clean the airway of child sexual abuse images online by inducing, together with the police and internet companies, a campaign to purse both the publishers and those who access the material.

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, anticipated international partnership between police and internet companies to track child abusers and those who viewed images and video online.

He held that from the end of this year all new computers sold would have filters switched on by default; but admitted that the government had first to resolve the problem of  how households with one internet connection but multiple devices could balance the internet browsing choices of adults with restricting access to children.

“There is a triangle. We have to stop the people putting up the images, stop those accessing it and ask the internet companies to do better in stopping access to them,” he said.

The prime minister added that the police will be able to monitor peer-to-peer file sharing, where content is harder to track. Live streaming of abuse has also been identified as a developing problem.

Cameron appreciated consumer’s internet companies for increasing efforts to identify and remove links to offensive material and introducing flash warnings to users who may involuntarily be clicking through to illegal material.

The UK Prime Minister admitted to a row with internet service providers who, he said, were objecting to the plans of filtering content. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection agency (CEOP) had been given more powers and Cameron stated that he had sub-contracted someone from GCHQ to work in his office to help in understanding how best to use the technology to stop this.

He added that he had not seen images of child sexual abuse during the drafting of the plans but had had some material, which he described as evidence of a crime scene, described to him.

Cisco, an international company that designs, manufactures and sells networking equipment is set to acquire Sourcefire, a leader in intelligent cyber security solutions in a move that will make the cloud more secure for users.

The two organizations will merge their exquisite products, technologies and research teams to offer a nonstop and persistent advances threat protection across the entire attack range, which will cater for before, during and after an attack; and form any device to any cloud.

Mobility, cloud and the development of the “Internet of Everything” are significantly changing today’s IT security setting, making traditional contrasting products insufficient to protect organizations from dynamic threats.

Sourcefire delivers innovative, highly automated security through continuous awareness, threat detection and protection across its industry-leading portfolio, including next-generation intrusion prevention systems, next-generation firewalls, and advanced malware protection.

Now that Cisco has gotten hold of Sourcefire it will add a team with a deep security DNA to Cisco and will speed up delivery of Cisco’s security strategy of defending, discovering, and remediating advanced threats. With an up-standard research teams, increased intelligence and expanded threat protection, customers will gain from continuous security in more places across the network.

According to the agreed terms, Cisco is required to pay USD 76 per share in cash in exchange for each share of Sourcefire and assume outstanding equity awards for a collective purchase price of approximately USD 2.7 billion, including retention-based incentives. The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of each company.

The acquisition process is believed to be completed by the end of this year after which Sourcefire employees will join the Cisco Security Group.

The Customs Service of Nigeria has unveiled an android and windows App which is meant to digitize the import and export sector.

The Nigeria Trade Hub (NTH) app was initiated and developed by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) partnering with West Blue Nigeria. This app was to assist in reducing time and cost of doing trade and business in the country.

NTH provides information about all the Nigerian Regulatory Agencies, processing times, documents, contact details, processes as well as fees that an Importer or Exporter will need to liaise with in order to obtain the obligatory import permits and certificates that required ensuring fulfillment.

The app, in addition, has a searchable Document Library providing all the necessary documents that should be downloaded and are relevant to trade in Nigeria, from Regulatory Documents to Official Publications, Legal Information and Customs Procedures.

The Nigerian Trade Hub app tools include the HS Code Classification Tool; this is a sensitive tool that assists the Importer with the correct classification of their products for both import and export.

Once the trader has obtained the correct HS Code for an importation product, the tool will therefore provide the necessary regulatory information about the product including Regulating Agencies, Control Measures, Prohibition Status, ETLS status depending on the Country of Origin, Document Requirements, Related Duties and Fees and Processing times.

As for export products, the exporter on selection of the Country of Export is presented with the Exportation Country’s Market Access information which includes the relevant HS Code and the rates of duty it will attract upon entry.

Other useful tools include a Duty and Fees Calculator, CPC Code Directory and a Currency Converter. 

SEACOM today celebrated its fourth anniversary by reaching out to communities across Africa.

Dubbed as SEACOM’s Foundation Day is about genuine partnership with the community and not just donating money.

SEACOM Mozambique provided a computer lab to the Orfanato de Boane orphanage.

SEACOM Mauritius gave the Mauritius SoS Children’s Village educational material, food, and hosting a fun day for the children under its care and a handover of plants to the 52 children from SoS Children’s Village. SEACOM Mauritius said it will adopt 5 trees in Valley De Ferney for 20 years.

SEACOM Tanzania is set to work with the School to develop a software solution for the hearing impaired while SEACOM Kenya visited S.C.R.E.A.M Africa Orphanage, Nairobi and Linkoni Aids Orphanage, Mombasa with educational material, online tutorials and dry food to each orphanage.

SEACOM South Africa hosted a career day at Tembisa and explained career identification and exploration process, with specific emphasis on learner career assessments.

SEACOM SA also launched The Beehive Youth Life Skills Mxit Portal, an initiative conceived by Tembisa High School learners as part of the SEACOM Solution Quest. The portal aims to bring valuable life skills support and mentoring to disadvantaged youths around South Africa over the next few months.

Etisalat Group today announced strong results for the second quarter of 2013, with an increase of quarterly consolidated revenues and subscribers across its operating markets.

Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar, the Chief Executive Officer at Etisalat Group, said: “The outstanding performance of Etisalat UAE and the positive performance in Asia are reflected in our Q2 results.”

The telco has operation in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Below are the firm’s key highlights for Q2 2013:

•          Interim dividend of 35 fils per share, up 40% from the prior year.

•          Revenue grew 20% per cent to AED 9.9 billion

•          Revenue from international operations grew by 50%

•          Aggregate subscribers grew to 143 million;

•          Maintained financial flexibility with net cash balance of AED 10.9 billion.

•          Etisalat launch “Flous” that offers banking for unbanking in Egypt

•          Etisalat obtained Mobile Network Universal Service License in Benin

•          Etisalat Group joined GSMA and Global Mobile Health Community in battle against diabetes;

•          Etisalat awarded best CSR practices award

Etisalat Group reported strong consolidated revenues during the second quarter of FY2013 reached AED 9,882 million representing an increase of 20% in comparison to the same period of last year and an increase of 3% in comparison to the first quarter of 2013. During the quarter, Group consolidated revenues was affected by the changing in the accounting treatment of the operations in Pakistan, which was consolidated with effect from January 1st 2013.

In the UAE, revenues of AED 6,303 million for the quarter were 12% higher than in the second quarter of 2012 and 5% higher than the first quarter of 2012. The quarterly year-over-year growth in revenues was primarily due to customer acquisition, an increase in the revenues of data and handsets sales.

Revenue from international consolidated operations grew by 50% to AED 3,513 million, representing 36% of consolidated revenues.

Etisalat Group’s first six months 2013 revenue increased to AED 19.5 billion compared to last year’s first six months (H1, 2012) where it was AED 16.5 billion.

Via APO

Kenya’s  electoral commission body, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) wants Safaricom, Kenya’s top telco to reconsider transmitting the Makueni by-election results.

The firm transmitted the country’s March 4 General Election results which were disputed.

Safariocm announced July 4 that it had withdrawn services to the IEBC due to the commission’s level of preparedness for the by-election.

IEBC however is still asking the telco do to the job.

IEBC CEO, James Oswago told the media that the commission was  ready.

Osawgo said: “We designed the system ourselves and it was not bound to fail. The system is working and we expect the technical team set up to work with Safaricom will ensure the company comes on board.”

The Makueni by-election will be held on Saturday July 27 and IEBC is confident the equipment will not fail. The March 4 General Elections Kenyans were disappointed when the electronic system the commission was using crashed before final tally, with many citing inside tampering with the systems to favour one of the presidential contestants.

Safaricom, the firm that was transmitting the live results was blamed by Kenyans for being part fo the ploy but the firm reemphasized its stand on integrity saying the it did not run the IEBC voter system.

The African Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Program has been given a four year funding approval worth $125-million together from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA) which aims at supporting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Africa also granted a $3,98-million technical assistance package.

This programme will provide consistent lines of credit (LoCs), mostly in local currency, and technical assistance to targeted financial institutions, predominantly in low-income countries spread over all five African regions.

The SME Programme will avail important longer-term resources to many SMEs which will have contributed to job creation which is 45 percent growth, poverty reduction and inclusive growth on Africa which contributes to more than 33 percent GDP.

Some studies show that more than 70 percent of SMEs lack access to medium-longer-term finance, creating an SME funding gap of more than USD 140 billion in Africa alone.

60 percent of the available loans are for less than a year. Most of the financial institutions do not have enough knowledge and systems to assess and monitor SME projects they relay on collaterals.

The programme will benefit from the Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA) support that will give USD3.98 million to provide technical support to building capacities of the 25 participating financial institutions to improve their operational efficiencies.

FAPA is a multi-donor thematic trust fund, financed by the Japanese Government, the AfDB, the Austrian Development Bank and the Government of Austria, that provides grant funding for technical assistance and capacity building to support completion of the AfDB’s Private Sector Development Strategy.

This USD 3.98-million FAPA technical assistance grant for the AfDB Africa SME Programme is the highest amount approved in the history of FAPA.

Intel has singled out its policy to renovate its infrastructure which will allow companies and other users to benefit from an increasingly services-oriented, mobile world.

The chip maker corporation has also disclosed other details about its next-generation Intel Atom processor C2000 product family, as well as outlining its roadmap of next-generation 14nm products.

“Data centres are entering a new era of rapid service delivery,” says Diane Bryant, senior vice president and GM of the Data Centre and Connected Systems Group at Intel.“Across network, storage and servers we continue to see significant opportunities for growth. In many cases, it requires a new approach to deliver the scale and efficiency required, and today we are unveiling the near and long-term actions to enable this transformation.”

Bryant pointed out Intel’s Rack Scale Architecture (RSA), an advanced design that promises to majorly increase the operation and flexibility of the data centre to deliver new services.

Rackspace Hosting, an open cloud company, has announced the deployment of new server racks, a step toward reaching Intel’s RSA vision, powered by Intel Xeon processors and Intel Ethernet controllers with storage accelerated by Intel Solid State Drives. The design is the first commercial rack scale implementation.

Intel also introduced Open Network Platform reference designs to help OEMs build and deploy this new generation of networks.

These new products are to deliver four times the energy efficiency and up to seven times more performance than the first generation Intel Atom processor-based server SoCs introduced in December last year.

Intel has been sampling the new Intel Atom processor server product family to customers since April and has already more than twice the number of system designs compared to the generation last.

The company outlined its roadmap of next-generation products based on its forthcoming 14nm process technology planned for 2014 and beyond.

Intel also disclosed a new SoC designed from the ground up for the data centre based on Intel’s next-generation Broadwell microarchitecture that follows today’s industry leading Haswell microarchitecture. This SoC will offer higher levels of performance in high density, extreme energy efficient systems that data centre operators will expect in this increasingly services-oriented, mobile world.

eKitabu, an East African e-book provider in collaboration with Intel Corporation challenged the Kenyan government to prioritize digitizing education in the country.

Danie Steyn, the General Manager of Intel East Africa exhibited a sample of the programs of Math and English subjects that could be inculcated in the school computers. He said that since the world has now gone digital, such programs should be considered in the school curriculum along side the use of text books.

Mr. Lawrence Njagi, chairman of the Kenya Publishers Association (KPA), in agreement with Intel East Africa GM said that digitizing education is now a necessity and no longer a debate. He however said that the e-books publisher should ensure that the programme should make it more local.

“When an illustration is made in the e-book it should show what is available in the country. If an illustration says Matthew slide in snow, the local version should be Kamau, or any other local name, slide in mud. That will make more sense to the Kenyan child because teaching comes from the known to the unknown,” said Njagi.

The Mr. John Temba director of  ICT, Ministry of Education confirmed that the ICT development in the education sector is being worked on.

“we are working n improving the ICT situation in the sector, we have  advised the cabinet secretary though a memo, on how to implement  the software material in the system and are waiting for response which had been delayed by the teachers strike,” he said

Temba added that added that training of the teachers will also enhance ICT growth as well as acquiring the learning resources in the education sector.

Lawrence Njagi also said that ICT growth is beyond laptops for class one but involves computers for each student. This he said will help students to grow intellectually

“Students from such schools in most cases have higher literacy skills as compared to their counterparts with no computers in school,” he said.

 Former SA President Nelson Mandela is the first South African to receive the country’s new smart ID’s.

Delivered to him during his birthday last week, Madiba is among the first group of South Africans-over 80 years dubbed the ‘Mandela Generation’ who will receive the smart ID’s in phase one. They will be invited to South Africa’s Home Affairs offices according to their dates of birth. The first phase of the ID’s will be processed in 27 Home Affairs’ regional offices. Other offices  will gradually do so over the next three years.

Madiba’s new Smart ID card was delivered to him on his birthday by his daughter, Zindzi Mandela.

 According to Home Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor the smart ID’s are secure and durable as they are made of tamper-proof quality polycarbonate materials. The smart ID’s also have security features like holograms, laser engraving and personal details which can be seen physically and fingerprint biometrics and biographic data embedded smart ID’ 80KB chip. The physical and logical security features will make the ID’s tamper-proof and extremely difficult to forge.

In 8 years, all South African will have the smart ID’s said the Department of Home Affairs.