| 1. "Strengthening East Africa's critical Internet Resources” East African Governance Forum | | The 3rd East African Internet Governance Forum (EAIGF) has been concluded at the Imperial Royale Hotel Kampala.The forum which took place from 11th to 13th was themed "Strengthening East Africa's critical Internet Resources - Thinking globally; Acting locally" Among the topics discussed included the; Reports of national IGF process; Cyber Security Management, Strengthening Critical Internet Resources;IPv6 Challenge, and Access and affordability to Broadband. | |
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2010-08-17 |
| | 2. Uganda on cyber crime alert | | Following the extension of fast internet connectivity to Uganda, international cyber criminals have intensified attacks on company information systems to destabilise their business operations, Mr Joseph Barungi, the general manager Africa Online, said recently.
“For a fact, I know that we are having hackers from, say Russia, because we have experienced that on our servers. We are having hackers from the United States of America, which used not to happen before,” Mr Barungi said while speaking about the impact of the undersea cables on Uganda, at the 8th Digital Africa Summit, in Kampala.
The hacking into networks increased after the arrival of two high speed and capacity fibre optic cables (Seacom and The East African Marines System) in Uganda according to the manager who operates in Kampala. | |
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2010-08-17 |
| | 3. East Africa: 2010 - ICT's Year of Great Expectations | | Nairobi — The year 2010 promises plenty of excitement for the East Africa information and communication technologies arena. Enhanced competition among key players, new technologies and an ever growing demand for ICT services and products will make the future indeed look bright.
Top on the expectation list is the stiff competition among three undersea fibre optic cables - Seacom, Teams and Eassy. Seacom and Teams have already landed on the East African coast, while Eassy is expected this year.
Generally, it is perceived that the landing of the cables will drastically reduce the cost of communication, and rapidly increase Internet penetration from the current three million users and deliver the region to the true 21st century technologies.
In addition, it is expected that the three marine cables will enhance competition in business process outsourcing (BPO), considered the vital link to the rest of the world.
July 2009 was a watershed for the industry in the region when Seacom was switched on, setting an unprecedented wave of other cable projects. The 1.28 terabytes per second (Tb/s), 17,000-kilometre fibre optic cable system linking south and East Africa to global networks via India and Europe was completed and commissioned.
Now, it is expected that the landing of the submarine fibre optic cables will further excite the small- and medium-business segments, where connectivity costs have hindered full adoption of technologies. Nevertheless, the switching on of two undersea marine cable is yet to bring Internet prices down. The "drastic" drop is yet to be experienced.
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2010-03-01 |
| | 4. PARTNERS IN ICT HAVE HELPED UCC GROW | | By Jude Katende,
New Vision Thursday December 03,2009
TO efficiently operate as a regulatory body for the communication industry in Uganda, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) needs partners in some key technical areas. One such partner is Data Fundi. The firm offers information communication technology consultancy, regulatory consultancy and support, ICT systems integration, developing ICT solutions, hardware and software provision, project management services and infrastructure rollout among others.
Edward Kasule, Data Fundi’s managing director, says for the last seven years they have partnered with UCC in the data regulatory sector. The regulator needs consultants and that is where Data Fundi comes in. UCC needs independent auditors for thorough project implementation.
“We have worked with UCC for long, especially in the technical auditing sector,” Kasule explains.
Just like in business auditing, where budgets are scrutinized or verified, technical auditing involves use of infrastructure to assess the time, budget and quality of a project. This can be done either before the start or at the completion of the project in assessing whether what was quoted offers value for money and was done within the specified period and is of the right quality.
“We help them pay for value. UCC being a public body, it is accountable. So we help it evaluate its projects professionally and according to agreed terms. We have done many of such projects, some of which were funded by the World Bank and have benefited people in rural areas,” Kasule notes.
He adds that the company has delivered quality services through working with clients and customers throughout the project cycle to assess objectives, the project scope, business requirements, user requirements, operational requirements, risk assessment, project structure and project constraints.
“We are a consulting and systems integration company that has an experience base consisting of formal academic (registered engineers) and hands-on technical expertise that allows the company to undertake the most involving IT and telecom activities,” says Kasule.
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2009-12-10 |
| | 5. Data Fundi wins KMPG “fastest growing Medium sized company” trophy | | Data Fundi was declared one of Uganda’s “fastest growing Medium sized companies, in a survey by KPMG Uganda and Monitor Publications to identify Uganda’s Top 100 mid-size companies 2009/10. The survey aimed to showcase business excellence while highlighting some of the country’s most successful entrepreneurship stories. Statistics show that small and medium sized businesses contribute over 75 per cent of the country’s wealth and provide over 70 per cent of the jobs in Uganda. | |
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2009-11-04 |
| | 6. Uganda Communications commission set to connect rural population | | Uganda Communications Commission has rolled out a five-year grand plan, which will ensure that every Ugandan has access to cheap and modern communication services for faster social and economic development.
The plan dubbed; ‘Rural Communications Development Fund (RCDF II)’ scheduled to end in 2014, aims to achieve a target of one pay phone per village of about 500 people. This means there will be installation of at least 2,500 public pay phones annually in rural areas.
RCDF II fund will further ensure the establishment of at least one community information centre (CIC) per rural LC III area that will function as a profitable business providing essential Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and related services such as postal, e-mail, internet and financial services.
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2009-08-11 |
| | 7. Uganda Hosts its 1st Business Process Outsourcing Conference & Expo. | | Uganda hosted its first Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Conference and Expo on the 25th – 26th June 2009 at Imperial Royale Hotel, Kampala. Organized by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the conference aimed to showcase Uganda’s ability to embrace BPO business and promote the country as a favorable outsourcing destination within the region. | |
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2009-07-01 |
| | 8. YAF Workshop: Bridging the information gap in Kalangala using ICT’s | | On March the 17th, 2009, a group of young professionals, area politicians and local leaders converged at the Islands Club on Bugala of the Ssese Islands to discuss the use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to bridge the information gap on the island district of Kalangala.
Ms. Natalie Kimbugwe of BDE Consult conceived the idea of involving, training and sensitising local leaders to the value of ICT after discovering that the only Internet provider and Information Centre on the island was underutilised.
Kalangala District MP Ruth Kavuma discussed the needs and challenges of a district comprising 84 islands to include communication, administrative and social aspects coupled with the nature of the population that consists largely of subsistence farmers and fishermen, to whom ICT is a vague concept. Furthermore, with underdeveloped infrastructure and no central supply of electricity, powering any information and communication technologies is that much more difficult.
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2009-04-20 |
| | 9. Improved Broadband services for Uganda by June, 2009 | | Uganda is to gain access to better and cheaper broadband services by June 2009.Speaking at a stakeholders meeting in Kampala on March 24, Seacom’s Chief Executive Officer Brian Herlihy intimated that the switching of Uganda and other East and Southern African countries to broadband internet would bring a revolution in communication. This means that Ugandans can also be able to enjoy services such as video streaming, gaming, high definition television, HDTV, video conferencing, music downloading and uploading material on social networking sites on the World Wide Web (www). The Data Market in Uganda has been characterized with relatively expensive bandwidth costs for the very low data upload/download speeds, coupled with poor customer care service from the Service Providers. | |
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2009-04-06 |
| | 10. Call for Views on NITA-U Bill | | Sometime last year, soon after we in the Parliamentary Sessional Committee on ICT had received the proposed NITA Bill from the Executive, we did post online and requested for views on the proposed bill as stakeholders.
We did receive a number of responses and contributions. We also had the opportunity to interact with a number of stakeholders who managed to offer us theit input. Among these were, the Telecommunication Operators who made a joint submission, Posta Uganda,UNBS, UCC, Uganda Women Caucus on ICTs (UWCI), Uganda Bankers Association, DATAFUNDI, Prof. Baryamureeba, Mr. Paul Bagyenda of DS Magic, Mr. Kiggundu Yeko Mukasa of KYMNET, Pro. Tusu, Mr. Wire Lunghabo of Linux Solutions and Harry Hare of African Development.
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2009-02-18 |
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