Category: Science &Technology

{At Mobile World Congress 2015 (MWC), Ericsson and Coca-Cola revealed a pilot project, which is intended to bring mobile connectivity to the African continent.}

The pilot project is essentially dubbed “Ekocenter”, and is a social enterprise initiative designed to empower community well-being by bringing safe water, solar power and mobile communications, as well as basic goods and services to under served communities. According to Ericsson, Tigo Ghana is also on board with the project as well as German start-up company, Solarkiosk.

At MWC 2015, Beatriz Perez, Chief Sustainability Officer- stated that: “Ekocenter is an innovative social enterprise that endeavors to help communities thrive by providing further access to resources. Engaging new partners to join this journey adds skills and expertise beyond our core enhancing the value for the people in these communities. Connectivity has become a fundamental part of thriving communities and economies. We’re excited about the solutions Ericsson can deliver to EKOCENTER, solutions we believe will foster positive change.”

Elaine Weidman-Grunewald, Vice President Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility at Ericsson, added that: “Mobile broadband can address a wide range of issues that hinder development – from poverty to lack of electricity and safe water, to financial exclusion and gender inequality. Creating a community hub is a great way to empower women while making needed services available in a convenient way. The constellation of companies partnering to figure out commercially sustainable business models is very exciting and I think we will need to see much more of this type of innovation going forward to meaningfully address poverty and development in rural areas.”

Tongai Maramba, CEO of Tigo Rwanda, says: “We are excited to be part of pioneering an ecosystem that will change the lives of entire communities. The EKOCENTER is an ideal platform for Rwandans to use our network to develop new skills by accessing different digital services.”

According to The Coca-Cola Company it is partnering with Solarkiosk in order to roll-out the pilot project in six countries in Africa and Asia in 2015. The kiosks will be run by local female entrepreneurs, and serve as a community center where people gather and have access to free and fee-based services. The new connectivity services could include education, health care, mobile commerce, information and entertainment.

Ericsson will initially deploy its Managed Rural Coverage (MRC) solution to provide Internet services to the Ekocenter in rural Rwanda. The company’s TV Anywhere service will enable access to education and healthcare content as well as infotainment capabilities, enabling the kiosk to become a connected hub. Ericsson will also provide Ekocenter with its M-Commerce solution that enables people to make transactions using their mobile wallets. Based on success of implementation, Ericsson will potentially incorporate its services at additional Ekosenter sites.

{{IT News Africa}}

{Airtel Rwanda has joined the league of socially devoted companies in the country after being rated number one fastest growing profiles on Twitter and among the top 3 fastest-growing Facebook Pages in Rwanda. }

In a report released by Socialbakers; a social media analytics and publishing company that provides social media management services and deep data analytics for thousands of brands that market on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and VK, Airtel Rwanda was ranked number one fastest growing profile on Twitter and ranked number three fastest growing Facebook page in Rwanda after his excellency Paul Kagame and BBC Gahuza pages.

Commenting on the report, Airtel Rwanda Managing Director, Mr. Teddy Bhullar said, “This is a great analysis of our company’s engagement and interaction through social media.”
He added, “We owe this success to our timely responsiveness to customer queries on both Facebook and Twitter as well as our recognition of the fact that social media plays a huge role in brand engagement.”

“We have also made it our business to inform and educate our customers through our social media platforms thus the continuous engagement. We shall continue in our efforts to increase our customer -communication through social media,” Bhullar explained.

{In an attempt to fast track growth of the sector and the capacity of the players in the ICT sector, every year the Rwanda’s ICT Chamber chooses priority countries to visit to strengthen business ties and to study the global best practices in business, innovation, workforce development and to promote investment in Rwanda.}

The Director General in charge of ICT in the Ministry of Youth and ICT, Didier Nkurikiyimfura speaking to the press on Tuesday stressed that “The business study trip is a great way to develop important connections with business and civic leaders from other parts of the world and we need to find partners willing to work with us on improving our capacities, whether in learning their practices, policies or outright adoption of their technologies, Israel we believe makes a great partner.”

The ICT Chamber Chairman, Patrick Kabagema noted that “This year the country of choice was Israel, a country known to many as the holy land but has in recent years also emerged as the birthplace of cutting age technologies. The startup nation as has recently come to be known because of the success of its startup companies mostly in the West boasts of second position to Silicon Valley with highest number of technology companies listed on the U.S. Nasdaq stock exchange.”

He added that Israeli technologies and knowledge have been said to be in almost every gadget that we use from as the 8 million people country has cut out a niche as the Research & Development centre of the world’s Fortune 100 technology companies, from known brands like Intel, Google, Microsoft PayPal among others to the less known.

Indeed some of the companies were looking for technologies to bring back to Rwanda, one such company is Datasystems which runs the brand Gira ICT in Rwanda, comments from its Managing Director Nadia Uwamahoro were, “I found a company producing a variety of affordable highly secure computers that I believe will be a great product not only in Rwanda but also in other countries in Africa where we are doing business.”

“The reception we got from our Israeli hosts and the Rwanda Israel consulate was extremely welcoming, they opened up themselves and received us as brothers and sisters, this was showed throughout the visit both at big global companies like PayPal, Checkpoint, JVP partners and at startup incubators like SOSA, SIFTech as well as with Israeli government officials.” Kabagema commented.

The delegation was invited by Israeli venture capital firm Kaenaat & YPO which over the last two years have been working with the ICT Chamber. Asked about why Rwanda, Chairman of Kaenaat Mr. Yariv Cohen said “From the time we came to Rwanda, we’ve seen a country and people with vision and hardworking, Rwanda like Israel is a small country so as investors it was important for us to share what Israel has done to succeed with only a tiny local market. It is also equally important to us that Rwandan Business leaders teach Israeli entrepreneurs about the markets and their companies, so they jointly work on new solutions for the needs of the region. What we learnt in Israel is that technological innovation has to marry deep market knowledge in order to make a difference”.

Rwandan companies have the potential to be regionals and global players just like Israeli startups did and what picked my interest was to see how Rwandan young startups were eager to learn and connect, and this is not a one way street. Israeli companies have as much to learn from Rwandans as much as Rwandans are learning from Israel. For Israel to play a meaningful role in Africa, the best way to start is Rwanda add Angela Homsi a global impact investor.

Just like Rwanda which suffered genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, Israel also lost over six million people in World War II due to the holocaust; the business delegation started its mission with a tour of the World Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. Israel was built from the ashes of one the greatest atrocities against mankind. A desert was transformed into a $286 billion knowledge based economy where purpose and vision is only surpassed by the character of the nation. As the father of the modern Isreali stated: “In Israel, in order to be realist you must believe in miracle”.

On the way forward, the ICT Chamber chairman said “In order to jump start our technology ecosystem, we already in discussion with Rwanda government and our Isreali partners to establish three key initiative and projects: first, to create a center where Rwandans as young as 4 years old can be exposed to emerging technologies; second, establish an incubator/elevator model which will include exchange of skills, knowledge, and joint ventures; last, but not least, the establishment of Rwanda domiciled technology investment funds which will catalyze the growth of the technology sector.”

He added that “This will require close collaboration between private sector, government, development partners, and other international partners. We’ve started on this with the first Glocal Angel Club where 5 Rwandan startups secured investment from local and international Angel investors since November 2014.”

{YouTube on Friday unveiled a new app built specifically for children.}

Called YouTube Kids, it will feature parental controls, a safer search and hours of children’s entertainment.

Like most websites, YouTube’s terms of service dictate that all users must be at least 13 years of age or older. However, that flimsy requirement doesn’t stop parents from letting younger children use the service and there are hundreds of channels packed with content specifically for children.

The fact that parents often use it doesn’t make YouTube kid-friendly, though. Children browsing through the service are often only a search, autoplay or click away from inappropriate content.

That is why Google’s YouTube saw a need for YouTube Kids, where the content is curated and parents can easily control a child’s use of the app.

YouTube Kids allows for parental controls like time limits and removes the oft-vulgar comment section from videos. The search feature also won’t permit inappropriate queries—if a user attempts to search for “sex,” for example, the app will respond with a message to try something else.

The format is even skewed toward young children. The images are enlarged for small, somewhat clumsy fingers and there is a voice search for those still learning how to spell.

YouTube Kids has been months in development and is a sensible business move for the service. According to the company, it has seen 50 percent year-over-year growth in overall viewing time, but for channels focused on family entertainment, growth has been closer to 200 percent.

Of course, the app will have to deal with more regulation as well because it is meant for children younger than 13 years of age. For example, Google would have to notifying parents if the software is collecting personal information on children.

YouTube Kids launches Feb. 23 and will be available only on Android devices, for now.

{{World Bulletin}}

{Rather than wait for companies to invest in 4G networks, the government is taking a leading role in expanding internet coverage and developing a knowledge-based economy.
}

At the Smart Rwanda Days organised in Kigali last October President Paul Kagame reiterated his belief that broadband should be treated “like a utility” and made “affordable to as many people as we can.”

Broadband is [the] foundation of a knowledge economy

Sixteen months earlier, this viewpoint had helped seal a deal worth $140m with Korea Telecom (KT).

The two parties formed a public-private partnership to build a high-speed internet network with 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) services to cover 95% of the population within three years.

The government entered the partnership with KT after local operators did not respond.

Rwanda continues to favour a pragmatic approach to the line between state and market, maintaining a focus on the development trajectory of the economy.

“Plan A was to involve the telecoms operators, but they were reluctant because they had invested heavily in 3G networks.

“They had no incentive to invest in 4G on a large scale. But we were interested in a rapid roll-out across the country, including rural areas,” says Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Rwanda’s minister of youth and ICT (information and communication technology).

Rwanda launched the first commercial phase of its 4G high-speed system on 11 November 2014.

The government/KT joint venture olleh Rwanda networks (oRn) acts as the wholesaler to mobile network operators and internet service providers.

Despite more than 7,000km of fibre-optic cable across the country – of which 4,500km is government owned – only a quarter of Rwanda’s 11.3 million citizens can currently access the internet.
{{
The government says 4G will change this.}}

As of June 2014, the mobile penetration rate in Rwanda was 68.1%, compared with an internet penetration rate of 25%, although internet penetration grew 10.6% from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2014, according to Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority.

“Broadband is there to fast-track business, information exchange, information generation and consumption. It’s a foundation of a knowledge economy,” says Nsengimana.

He added that the network will accelerate the country’s ambition to move from an agriculture-based to a knowledge-based economy. In the last two quarters of 2014 ICT contributed just 2% to Rwanda’s gross domestic product.
{{
Pricey handsets}}

There are many obstacles to the wide adoption of 4G services. Despite government subsidies, 4G smartphones remain out of reach for the majority of Rwandans.

Currently, more than 98% of the handsets and devices on the Rwandan market do not support 4G.

The government is considering offering tax incentives to suppliers.

It also wants banks to offer micro-loans for smart devices that would be payable in 12 monthly instalments.

The government signed a deal in November 2014 with Brazilian device manufacturer Positivo Informática and its partner BGH Group to start manufacturing and assembling computers and tablets in Rwanda as a way of bringing affordable devices to the market.

Positivo BGH, which will start operations in May, expects to produce more than 700,000 devices in its first year of operations.

Data on 4G networks is also expensive.

Currently, the average retail price for 5GB of data on 4G networks is RWF18,600 ($27.1). Operators charge an average of RWF800 per GB on 3G networks.

However, at current prices, Rwanda’s LTE is the most affordable in Africa, says Ebenezer Asante, MTN Rwanda’s chief executive officer.

“Over time, like all technologies, as scale is gained and affordable routes for deployment kick in, the pricing will fall for the benefit of all,” Asante says.

There are other areas of progress, and the country’s implementation of 4G is running alongside programmes such as the Smart Kigali initiative.

Launched in September 2013, the programme provides free Wi-Fi internet in public places across Kigali, including commercial buildings, bus stations, airports and public buses. ●

Read the original article on Theafricareport.com

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{Rwanda’s ICT ministry and the GSMA have announced an agreement to undertake a series of initiatives to increase citizen access to mobile broadband technologies across the country. }

Through the partnership, the GSMA and Rwanda will undertake a range of initiatives to develop joint forums to build institutional capacity, discuss sectoral policies and increase understanding of the socio-economic benefits of mobile, create educational and training programmes on mobile regulation to foster socio-economic development, and expand financial inclusion through mobile money services and ensure sound spectrum management.

The initiatives will contribute to the development of the Rwandan government’s national broadband strategies for attaining digital inclusion, with a focus on spectrum management as a key enabler for mobile broadband services and exploring mobile’s potential across sectors such as energy and water, financial services, agriculture, education and healthcare.

The development takes place in the lead-up to the GSMA’s annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a key gathering for African stakeholders with over 46 African governments attending last year.

Source: Telecompaper.

{Samsung will announce its new flagship Galaxy phone on March 1 at an event in Barcelona.}

The company sent invitations to the press Monday for one of its “Unpacked” events, which are used to announce its most important products like the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note line of phones.

Sources familiar with Samsung’s plans told Business Insider the so-called Galaxy S6 will be made out of metal, a departure from the plastic designs the company has used in the past.

There will also be a version of the Galaxy S6 with a curved screen, similar to the Galaxy Note Edge that launched last year.

The invitation appears to give a glimpse at part of the device, and it does look like metal will be part of the new design.

Finally, Samsung will announce a new smartwatch with a round design, according to sources.

Samsung’s rival HTC is also expected to announce its new phone, the followup to the One M8, on March 1 at a separate event in Barcelona.

Miami (AFP) -{ International astronomers said Tuesday they have discovered the oldest known star encircled by five Earth-sized planets, signaling that planets formed throughout the history of the universe.}

The system is 11.2 billion years old and was born near the dawn of the galaxy, said the report in the Astrophysical Journal.

The star has been named Kepler-444, since it was found with the help of NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft which launched in 2009.

Its five planets are a bit smaller than the Earth, ranging in size from Venus to Mercury.

They circle their Sun-like star in less than 10 days, at a distance smaller than one-tenth the distance between the Earth and Sun — making them too hot to be habitable.

But the sheer age of the star has stunned astronomers.

At a distance of 117 light-years from Earth, Kepler-444 is two and a half times older than our solar system, which is 4.5 billion years old.

“We’ve never seen anything like this — it is such an old star and the large number of small planets make it very special,” said co-author Daniel Huber from the University of Sydney’s School of Physics.

“It is extraordinary that such an ancient system of terrestrial-sized planets formed when the universe was just starting out, at a fifth its current age,” he added.

Astronomers can measure a distant planet’s age using a technique called asteroseismology, which measures the oscillations of the host star caused by sound waves trapped within it.

These waves lead to small pulses in the star’s brightness, which can be analyzed to measure its diameter, mass and age.

Co-author Steve Kawaler, an Iowa State University professor of physics and astronomy, said Kepler-444 is very bright and can be easily seen with binoculars.

“We now know that Earth-size planets have formed throughout most of the universe’s 13.8-billion-year history,” said lead author Tiago Campante from the University of Birmingham.

“Which could provide scope for the existence of ancient life in the galaxy.”