The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) has announced the appointment of two regional advisors on ICTs: Dr Marianne Treschow, Regional Advisor for Scandinavia and Northern Europe and Gisa Fuatai Purcell, Regional Advisor for the South Pacific.
The announcement of the appointments was made last week by Secretary-GeneralShola Taylor.
The CTO’s activities throughout the Commonwealth cross national and regional boundaries, but there is a need for the Organisation to stay abreast of the regional priorities of its members.
“I am delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Treschow and Ms Purcell,” said Shola Taylor.
“The CTO’s mandate to coordinate Commonwealth positions at international ICT events necessitates us staying up-to-date with regional issues, and our Regional Advisors will ensure our engagement in these areas.”
“I am greatly honoured to be appointed as Regional Advisor for Scandinavia and Northern Europe,” Dr Treschow said. “I strongly believe in the work of the CTO, building ICT capacity across the Commonwealth and look forward to working further with the CTO, building on my work as an Ambassador for the Organisation.”
Gisa Fuatai Purcell is the former Head of the ITU’s Division on LDCs, SIDS, and LLDCs; Climate Change Adaption and Disaster Risk Reduction; and Emergency Telecommunication. Gisa was the first woman to lead this division and the first Pacific Island person to have worked at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva.
She successfully managed many projects around the world including early warning systems using ICTs, satellite connectivity, ICT capacity building and ICT infrastructure including submarine cables. She has a Master of Commerce and Administration from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.
Dr. Marianne Treschow is the former Director-General and member of the Board of the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS). She is also senior advisor to Ericsson Group; advisor, Europe to VoIPSolutions; founder and CEO of TreschowConsulting; European expert to Global Network Women in ICT (WITNET); member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA); and member of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.
In addition to a long career in PTS, she has also held a number of important positions in Sweden including director of the Swedish Space Agency; director of the Swedish Natural Sciences Research Council; and Associate Professor in Structural Chemistry at the Stockholm University. Among the many international positions she has held are Member of the Troika Board in the European Commission; Chair of the Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) from 2006 to 2010; Head of Delegation of the European Regulators Group (ERG) from 2004 to 2010; and Councillor to the ITU and its Council from 2006 to 2010.

About the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation
The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) is the oldest and largest Commonwealth intergovernmental organisation in the field of information and communication technologies.
Although our history can be traced back to 1901 with the establishment of the Pacific Cable Board, the organisation has only existed in its present form as an intergovernmental treaty organisation since 1967.
With a diverse membership spanning developed and least developed countries, small island developing states, and more recently also the private sector and civil society, the CTO aims to become a trusted partner for sustainable development for all through ICTs.

MTN Cote d’Ivoire said on 10 June, 2016 that it has raised FCFA140 billion to finance its investments in the country and increase its footprint across it.
The sum, proceeds of a loan arranged by Standard Chartered Bank and Ecobank Development Corporation (EDC) from 10 Ivorian banks and Ecobank’s Senegalese and Togolese subsidiaries, will be paid over 7 years, with a grace period of one year.
Regarding this loan, Managing Director MTN Cote d’Ivoire, Freddy Tchala said: “This year 2016 is a turning point for our company for this is the year where it renewed its license for 17 years, effective from April 2, 2016. The loan will also help pay the license and achieve an ambitious investment programme, meet our targets thus providing the best network and services to Cote d’Ivoire’s residents.”
Moreover, the money will be used by the company to modernise and expand its telecom networks, so as to provide quality services to all.
With it, MTN will grab more customers and snatch from Orange, its main rival, its position of leader of the local telecom market.

World Telecom Labs (WTL) unveiled the findings of its recent survey about the management and rollout of voice and/or data deployments in Africa that have been financed by Universal Service Funds (USF).

WTL invited people from across the telecoms ecosystem including vendors, operators and ISPs, NGOs and Government Officials to share their experience and opinions about USF and to identify where improvements could be made in the management of USF.

25% of the respondents had been directly involved with a network built using money from USF and were extremely well-informed and open to sharing their thoughts.

The key findings of the survey included:

96% of survey respondents see USF as offering huge potential to solve connectivity and service delivery issues in rural environments.

Operators, NGOs and Government Agencies all expressed an interest in delivering connectivity to unconnected areas with 86% of respondents feeling strongly that a combination of all three is required in order to unlock investment.

This implies that connecting the unconnected requires a coalition – a collaborative approach between all relevant stakeholders, including vendors who can offer technology to deliver the connectivity required.

The main obstacles blocking the building of networks using USF funds were identified as excessive bureaucracy and inflexibility of USF rules.

Concerns were raised about the sustainability of rural investments. However, many respondents were unfamiliar with the handful of companies – including WTL – which provide equipment specifically designed to build commercially viable networks in rural villages.

Leigh Smith, MD of WTL, said: “People were very open and eager to share their experiences and opinions – and most were extremely positive about the economic benefits of providing voice and data to areas which are still unconnected. Connecting the unconnected continues to be a hot topic with companies such as Facebook and Google investing heavily in their own initiatives.

At WTL we will continue to develop our portfolio of award-winning equipment to help operators, ISPs and NGOs build sustainable rural networks.”

WTL has built a number of networks in rural Africa partly financed by USF and has seen for itself the immense benefits USF can bring, irrespective of its challenges. In particular, the deployment of WTL’s Vivada (Village Voice and Data) system in rural Tanzania is an example of a strong and productive use of USF funds.

AMOTEL, Tanzania’s first MVNO operating through Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL), the country’s national telecom company, is initially deploying WTL’s Vivada system to build low OPEX, low-CAPEX networks in three villages that are not currently covered by any kind of network.

The proof of concept project is being financed by the Universal Communications Service Access Fund (UCSAF) as part of its US$9.6 million investment to improve connectivity in Tanzania, which was announced last year.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Focus Group on Digital Financial Services has published the first of a series of thematic reports on Digital Financial Services, or DFS.

The DFS Focus Group is looking at helping local policy and decision makers to accelerate their work on financial inclusion by providing practical tools, guidelines and recommendations on issues that are currently preventing the DFS market to develop organically.

This represents the first step in developing an international roadmap of best practice guidelines for regulators, operators and providers in the telecom and financial services sectors and serving the unbanked in a sustainable manner.

Specifically focused around two of the four working groups, DFS Ecosystem and Consumer Experience and Protection, the four background documents were endorsed at the Focus Group’s recent meeting in Washington DC.

ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao said: “What makes this Focus Group different is its holistic approach. After more than a year of intensive work, experts are completing some preliminary analysis and have started to develop a robust and relevant framework together with very pragmatic recommendations that will hopefully deliver real change and opportunity.”

Sacha Polverini, Chairman of the Focus Group and Senior Programme Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Financial Services for the Poor (FSP) programme, said: “Our initial observations provide two things: firstly, the publication of the Digital Financial Services Ecosystem report provides an agreed understanding between all relevant parties; secondly, our analysis of key elements of the process, such as issues around merchant acceptance and the role that national identity schemes can play, has helped provide a better understanding of how we can facilitate greater access to DFS in emerging markets. We made some surprising findings.”

Carol Coye Benson, Managing Partner at Glenbrook Partners and Working Group Co-Chair for DFS Ecosystem, added: “The key challenge in reaching digital liquidity is to balance both sides of the equation.

To get real value it’s important to drive money into the system and to keep it in. The way to do that is to enable bulk (G2P) payments into transaction accounts and simultaneously enable merchant electronic payment acceptance, so that consumers have a place to spend their e-Money.”

The region’s most influential ICT leaders recently gathered in Nairobi for the third annual installment of International Data Corporation’s East Africa CIO Summit.

With more than 100 CIOs, technology decision makers, and government advisors in attendance, the event examined the latest trends shaping tech adoption across the region and stressed the need for CIOs to take on a leadership position in their organisations’ digital strategies.

In the buildup to the highly regarded event, a senior delegation from IDC met with Joseph Mucheru, Kenya’s cabinet secretary for the Ministry of Information, Communications, and Technology, to discuss the current state of digital literacy in Kenya and share insights into the growth and development of ICT across the wider region.

Following these discussions, the East Africa CIO Summit was officially inaugurated with a speech from Matunda Nyanchama, a Senior Advisor to Kenya’s ICT Authority and Ministry of Information, Communication, and Technology.

Running under the theme of ‘Leading Your Organisation’s Digital Transformation’, the Summit saw a series of expert speakers explain how a hugely disruptive digital revolution is sweeping across East Africa.

Together, they stressed the need for the region’s end-user community to infuse a culture of innovation, integration, and incorporation into the very fabric of their organisations in order to not just survive but thrive in the new digital economy.

“For those of us responsible for enterprise technology, the emergence of this digital revolution brings with it challenges and opportunities in equal measure,” said Jyoti Lalchandani IDC’s Group Vice President and Regional Managing Director for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey.

“Successful leaders are judged by their ability to effect change, and in this new digital world, change will be driven by a leader’s ability to manage the three connected disciplines of innovation, integration, and incorporation. These three disciplines underpin IDC’s new ‘Leading in 3D’ model for business success and represent the critical competencies required to drive true digital transformation across the entire scale and breadth of the modern enterprise.”

Mark Walker, IDC’s associate vice president for Sub-Saharan Africa, broadened the discussion by stressing the need for greater collaboration between CIOs and their finance counterparts in order to smooth the journey to a state of true digital transformation.

“As business transformation strategists and guardians of the balance sheet, CFOs have long been champions of new ICT technologies that open up new market opportunities, minimise operational expenditure, and facilitate improved risk mitigation practices,” said Walker.

“As such, they should be seen as important allies in the quest for digital transformation, particularly at a time when the demand to facilitate greater levels of innovation through technology investment must be balanced against the growing need to rationalize costs.”

The event’s agenda built on this theme, with respected industry thought leaders examining the changing role of the CIO and offering advice to the assembled ICT leaders on taking a leadership position within their organisation’s digital transformation journeys, enabling comprehensive connected security, and driving innovation through the use of converged infrastructure.

They also detailed strategies for securing enterprise data through the use of hosting and co-location services, and helped paint a clearer picture of the foundations that must be in place to ensure a smooth transition to the 3rd Platform.

Facebook has joined the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) as an industry member.

“At Facebook, we look forward to working with other CTO members in promoting technology as a useful tool for greater economic and social inclusion,” said Simon Milner, Facebook’s Policy Director for EMEA. “We are also looking forward to further collaboration with the CTO on privacy and safety issues.”

In recent years, Facebook has participated in CTO events and high-level training seminars.

“The CTO is pleased to welcome Facebook as member, and we are confident that more regular engagement with the company will add value to the entire membership of the CTO,” said Lasantha De Alwis, ICT Development Director at the CTO.

The CTO offers practical support in the form of professional training, technical support and consultancy, research and advisory services as well as facilitating partnerships, through a four-tier membership structure.

About the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation
The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) is the oldest and largest Commonwealth intergovernmental organisation in the field of information and communication technologies. Although our history can be traced back to 1901 with the establishment of the Pacific Cable Board, the organisation has only existed in its present form as an intergovernmental treaty organisation since 1967. With a diverse membership spanning developed and least developed countries, small island developing states, and more recently also the private sector and civil society, the CTO aims to become a trusted partner for sustainable development for all through ICTs.

GSA, the (Global mobile Suppliers Association) confirms that the number of commercially launched LTE networks has passed the 500 milestone, which was achieved during May 2016.

According to its latest research, 503 operators have commercially launched LTE networks in 167 countries.

LTE is the fastest developing mobile communications system technology ever. The historic milestone of 500 commercially launched LTE networks was reached in 77 months from first service launch, almost 5 years less than the time taken by 3G/WCDMA systems, and 6 months faster than HSPA systems.

GSA forecasts there will be at least 550 commercially launched LTE networks by end 2016.

Around 25% of LTE operators have launched LTE-Advanced systems.

Alan Hadden, VP of Research, GSA said: “Several LTE operators are now introducing LTE-Advanced Pro technologies, sometimes referred to as 4.5G, which is established as a major industry trend in 2016.

LTE-Advanced Pro systems can support peak downlink speeds up to 1 Gbps and beyond.”

The number of LTE and LTE-Advanced subscriptions reached 1.068 billion worldwide by end 2015. LTE continues to grow faster than any other mobile communications system technology and is already responsible for 1 in 7 mobile subscriptions worldwide. Data for Q1 2016 LTE subscriptions will be published by GSA in the next few days.

Women are more likely than men to use the internet on their mobile phones according to a new report released by UKOM, the body responsible for online audience measurement, based on comScore cross platform online data.

Half (49%) of all women’s internet time in the UK is spent on smartphones – rising to 59% among women aged 18-24.

In comparison, just 39% of men’s online time is on smartphones. For men, PCs/laptops remain the dominant device for going online, accounting for 48% of their internet time, compared to only 35% among women.

Consequently, women account for the majority (52%) of all UK smartphone internet time but just 39% of PC/laptop internet time.

“The old cliché that women spend more time on the phone than men turns out to also ring true for internet usage,” says UKOM’s Director of Insight, Julie Forey. “Understanding how consumers’ online behaviour differs by platform can help agencies and advertisers plan campaigns more effectively, such as knowing men don’t dominate mobile time as they do on computers.

“This is exactly what BT did in the 1980s after identifying women were actually the heaviest users of its landline service, being more disposed to chat with friends and family. They used this insight to create their hugely successful ‘It’s good to talk’ campaign to encourage those who didn’t use the phone as much – namely men – to use it more to connect with people and improve relationships.”

Sectors where women’s smartphone time most outweighs men’s

The data, from comScore’s multi-platform measurement system*, also reveals that women’s smartphone time most outweighs men’s on social media, retail and games website/apps.

In April 2016, women in the UK spent 4.8 billion more social media minutes than men on their smartphones – the equivalent of nearly 5 ½ hours more per woman smartphone internet user. Women spent 1.5 billion more retail minutes on phones than men (1 hour 43 minutes more per person) and 1.4 billion more on games (1 hour 38 minutes more per person).

“Women, with their more natural desire to connect with friends and family, as well as their predilection for shopping, play a much bigger role in driving internet use on smartphones,” says Forey.

“Phone conversations as a method for sharing information and catching up are increasingly being usurped by smartphone apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and the like. Men still use these services on their phones, but just not to the same extent.”