The Uganda Communication commission (UCC) to award the best innovative and ingenuitive companies, individuals and organization in the Information and technology sector this Friday, 18th/May/2012.

According to Executive Director of Uganda communication Gofrey Mutabazi “The growth and development in the Information Communication sector cannot only be credited to the government alone. But also a lot of innovation has been made by the private sector”

Mutabazi disclosed this at a press conference to welcome the Vice President of Research BlackBerry Veena Rawat and the BlackBerry director government Frans Lijkamp.

He said that through the annual communication Innovation awards, UCC will honor and celebrate achievements made by individuals, organisations, government agencies and in the academic institutions like Makerere University.

“It is my ambition to see that UCC plays an even stronger role in the development of the ICT industry”, he said.

Mutabazi noted that because growth in the ICT sector that is why The Vice President of BlackBerry is here as the key speaker at the annual innovation ceremony. He added that this will also be witnessed by the exhibition at Serena hotel on Friday (18th/May/2012).

He argued all key players to adhere to governing regulations to see that the consumers are not cheated. He was responding to a questions raised that some telecommunition were cheating consumers.

He further disclosed that a study is being carried to see that we have an International standard to monitor all the service providers. Those who will not follow UCC will act as per the law.

He accredited the role played by BlackBerry in development of the ICT because it was the only connected on the broadband for its inception.

From: New Vision

The 5th African Conference on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) to take place from March 19 to March 23, 2012 will be held in Abuja, Nigeria.
According to Mr Dele Ajisomo, the President, Open Source Foundation for Nigeria (OSFON) said the conference will have about 1,000 participants from Asia, Europe, U.S., Canada, Latin America and Africa. This conference will be open by Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Mobola Johnson.

The theme of the conference is “Open Source Solutions for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals.’’

“This conference is the continent’s rallying point for critical issues in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as they directly relate to the development of its people, governments and business enterprises,’’ Ajisomo said.

He said the conference would also be an avenue to enhance the capacity building of Nigerians in ICT, as there would be training for all participants.

“International experts will be coming to Nigeria; there will be free training for people on how to  write code, protect a website, how to configure and manage a website and  create sourcing.’’

Also speaking, Prof. Cleopas Angaye, the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), said the conference would be of great benefits to both the people and the government of Nigeria.

He said the conference would boost participants’ knowledge in the development and use of software through Open Source Software programming.

“The beauty of the open software programming is that there are lot of programming available; you can search for the basic programming short-code that tells you about the programme techniques.’’

Mr Ibrahim Dikko, the Managing Director, Backbone Connectivity Network Nigeria Ltd, said the company would render necessary partnership to bring Nigeria to the global software market.

“For instance, we will provide free internet services throughout the period of the conference, to train Nigerians in order for them to develop solutions to our everyday problems.’’ (NAN).

From: VANGUARD

Government has reiterated its stand that Sub-Mathematics and Information Communication Technology (ICT) subsidiary subjects will remain compulsory for all Senior Five (S.5) students starting Monday next week.

Every student in S.5 must choose one of the subjects as their subsidiary, on top of one's three-subject combination and general paper (GP), the Commissioner for secondary education, John Agaba explained.

"Both private and Government-aided A ‘level schools must follow the new policy directive, because it will partly determine their admission to any given university in the country," he clarified.

Universities will be expected to use a new admissions criterion for all students who will join Senior Five this year.

In the near future, university students will be admitted on the basis of the maximum score of 20 points. That includes a maximum six points for each subject, one point for general paper and another for another subsidiary.

In the past, students were being admitted on the basis of the maximum of 25 points. Six points for each of the four subjects and one for general paper.

This follows the new guidelines which were approved by Cabinet recently and implemented by the education and sports ministry.

In the new guidelines, all students will offer a maximum of three principal subjects in their combinations and one subsidiary.

They will also be required to do General Paper, as always been in the past.

Students doing science combinations or combinations having Economics, must do Sub-Mathematics as a subsidiary. However, those doing Mathematics will be exempted from Sub-Mathematics.

If a student is to do any arts combination, he or she must do ICT.                

According to the commissioner, there will be “no grace period for implementation” of ICT and Sub-Maths as subsidiary and compulsory subjects.

He revealed that majority of A ‘level Government schools have already got ICT laboratories.

"600 schools have ICT laboratories and we have been retooling teachers all over the country to teach ICT."

Agaba explained that the education ministry is working with Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) to retool teachers and develop ICT laboratories in schools around the country.

Government has already retooled 400 of its teachers and has also sensitized 360 headteachers in regard to ICT teaching and equipment usage.  Another 300 teachers will be retooled by the Government in April.

Asked about schools located in rural areas without computers, he clarified that the computers delivered are developed to use both solar and hydro-electric power. "We expect such schools to use solar energy to power the computers. We also supplied them with the required solar energy gadgets," he explained.

However, most head teachers in private schools are still raising complaints about the new policy. Some of them, who talked to New Vision say they are not happy with the new system and feel that it was “sporadic."

They argue that they were not given enough time to plan for procurement of equipment to efficiently teach ICT.

Source: New Vision

The communications regulator is putting in place new standards to ensure proper usage of short messaging codes. Short codes are those issued to firms which are involved in operations of bulk text messaging.

These massages could be from communication companies or private companies that use the services of the telecoms as platforms to send out bulk messages to clients.

Mr Fred Otunnu, the Uganda Communications Commission publicist, said the exercise is in line with the regulator’s need to streamline the bulk messaging process.

The move comes on the back of several complaints from telecom subscribers who often receive unwanted messages that have become an irritant.

“Users of short codes are now more than we anticipated. We want to put in place proper regulations to ensure efficient usage,” Mr Otuunu said.

Reacting to the move, Mr Simon Kaheru, the SMS Media managing director, said UCC’s move was a welcome measure, however, he said: “I expect it to be fair and beneficial to all parties involved.”

Ms Justina Ntabgoba, the MTN Uganda corporate affairs manager, said the telecom would support the measure and there was nothing to lose since it does not directly affect them.

Mr Donald Nyakairu, the Utl acting managing director, said the move was timely, as there is need to streamline the short codes services for better communication.

He said indeed the sector had grown and it had become susceptible to misuse thus the need to streamline its operations.

From: Monitor

You will not be able to use your sim card to make or receive any phone calls as well as text messages if your card is not registered by 2013. Uganda Communications Commission passed the order on Monday in a statement issued to Daily Monitor in which they announced a sim card registration exercise for all nationals set to begin March 1, next year.

The exercise seeks to check the use of mobile phone numbers for illegal activities, phone theft, unsolicited/hate and threat messages among others. “Failure to register is breach of the law and the service provider shall not provide any communication service to whoever fails or refuses to register,” UCC Manager communications Fred Otunnu said in a phone interview. He said that all unregistered sim cards will be deactivated by the start of 2013; a year after the registration process is complete.

In a statement to Daily monitor on Monday, UCC said the exercise will be carried out alongside the communication service providers who will establish registration centres to assist customers in accomplishing the registration process.

Requirements for registration will be personal identification that shall be provided through a valid passport or employee ID, student ID, voter’s card, valid driver’s license, local council letter or letter from employee. This too applies to foreigners leaving in the country. Mobile phone users will be expected to register all their sim cards regardless of how many an individual owns.

Welcome move
Communication companies have welcomed the move although they have been disappointed by the delay in the implementation of this law. Utl boss Donald Nyakairu said in a phone interview yesterday that firm was ready to take on the task so as to deal with the many cases of misuse of telecommunication services. “We will be part of this exercise and since it is just one year of implementation, we surely believe it will hardly affect our customers if all is being done for better service provision.”

Mr Joseph Kanyamunyu, Airtel Uganda public relations officer said the rapid growth in the telecommunication sector had seen fraudsters take advantage of the cut-throat competition to fleece clients, a vice that the new regulation will help to curb. He added the the exercise will ease investigations into crimes that are committed through the use of mobile phones.