CCK, operators to decide use of Universal Service Fund:

Kenya is wrapping up plans to unveil the much-awaited Universal Service Fund, which aims to spread ICTs to the remote areas.

According to the Communications Commission of Kenya, already a bank account has been opened and Sh1billion deposited towards the fund.

"The council is meeting to determine where the funds will be used and to choose who will implement it,” CCK director-general Francis Wangusi said when he appeared before Kenya's Parliamentary committee on Energy, Communications and Information.

Wangusi said CCK and mobile phone companies will discuss and launch modalities that will guide the fund.

Already, Safaricom, Orange, yuMobile and Airtel, are meeting with the regulator under the Universal Service Advisory Council to iron out issues that had threatened to scuttle the fund’s administration.

The fund was set up almost five years ago to help step up telecommunication infrastructure in rural and remote areas, which are normally considered financially unviable. However a squabble between CCK and the mobile operators on how to run the fund has delayed its implementation which Parliament wants to unhinge.

The mobile firms had protested their exclusion from the fund’s board, resulting in the parliamentary committee summoning Wangusi to explain why the fund was still dormant almost half a decade since it was set up.

Telecoms: Ghana to increase levy on international calls

Ghana is seeking to amend its Communications Service Tax law passed in 2008 to increase levies on international calls and data transmission using internet

The Amendment Bill, which was initially thrown out of the country's parliament by members for lack adequate consultation, is also seeking to address revenue loss as a result of loopholes in that regulation.

Meanwhile, the legislators and telecommunication industry players are sharply divided over the move, calling for a truncation of the process because consumers would be hard hit.

The minority group in parliament had cautioned the government about the move, saying it may be breaching international regulations if it goes ahead to tax the public for receiving international calls.

The government seeks to charge six cents on every minute of calls originating from outside Ghana. 

It says it is losing close to Ghȼ45 million ($22.1 million) every month due to irregular and fraudulent activities in the sector.

Telecom operators in the country are to allow the government access to monitor the accruing revenues and if a company refuses to pay the tax after the first 30 days, it will attract a penalty of 5 percent of annual gross revenue of the last audited financial statement. 

The national communication authority can withdraw the licence of an operator who fails to pay the tax after 90 days.

Opare Ansah, a lawmaker and an IT expert speaking to a local FM station in Accra, said telecom companies had prevailed in a High Court ruling on inter-connectivity and therefore, passing a bill on an illegality could be declared null and void by the Supreme Court.

Tanzania to build telecom traffic monitoring system

The Tanzanian government plans to build a Telecoms Traffic Monitoring System by June to control and improve network services in the country.

 ICT Deputy Minister January Makamba told the Daily News that the monitoring system will ensure improved telecommunications. This along with the cut in interconnection rates from March are expected to lead to better quality and lower prices for end-users.

Tanzania Mobile Operators

• Zain Tanzania
• MIC Tanzania Limited (tiGO)
• Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited
• Vodacom Tanzania
• Benson Informatics Limited
• Zantel

African Telecommunications / ICT job opportunities high, skills lacking

A new survey published reveals that as telecommunication jobs in Africa booms, the continent still lacks skilled workers, calling on universities and governments to do more to boost the output of telecom and IT specialists in Africa.

The 2012 Telecommunications Survey, carried out by global Amrop executive search group member, Landelahni Business Leaders, highlights the skills gaps in the African ICT sector.

“Information and communications technology is a pre-condition for socio-economic development and national competitiveness. However, a shortage of key skills is a huge constraint,” Landelahni CEO Sandra Burmeister said in the report.

“Opportunities abound throughout Africa, despite the challenges of poor infrastructure, disparate regulatory environments and ferocious competition. Spending on ICT infrastructure is expected to total more than US$23 billion a year over the next few years. South Africa and the rest of the continent need to skill up to maximise this opportunity.

“(South African) minister of science and technology Naledi Pandor has acknowledged that the telecommunications industry holds promise as the backbone of this country’s economic, industrial and innovative advancement. Similarly, the Green Paper for Post School Education and Training released in January (2012) states that ‘ICT is increasingly becoming a critical ingredient for participation in a globalised world’.”

It also called on governments to do more to boost young people’s ability to enter the fast-paced ICT world with the skills needed to bring Africa into the global technology world.