Telecoms dealers and agents have become the silent victims of the vicious fight for mobile phone subscribers that have halved tariffs in the key voice segment of the business – causing ripples across the industry.

Nokia, the world’s biggest cellphone maker by volume, will introduce new smartphone models next week at its annual media and industry event, aiming to assure investors the company is on recovery track.

Nigeria and other African countries are set for a new dawn in broadband access as emerging undersea cable operator, eFive Telecommunications, has appointed Alcatel-Lucent, the technical partners to Globacom’s submarine cable, Glo 1, to build a system that will connect the west coast of Africa to South America.

Swift Networks Limited, Nigeria’s foremost broadband service provider has announced that the survey it conducted on the broadband user habits and attitude indicated that only 20 per cent of broadband subscribers are responsible for approximately 80 per cent of the data carried on an operator’s network.

As Globacom marks its seventh anniversary, Nigerians from all walks of life have commended the giant strides and innovations the telecommunication outfit has pioneered in the nation’s telecoms industry.

It has been discovered that more than 80 per cent of properties owned by governments at all levels are not covered by one form of insurance policy or the other. This development has contributed in no small measure to the crippling state of the insurance industry, NKECHI NAECHE reports.

Mr. Owolabi Salami, director of retail operations of Guaranty Trust Assurance Plc has stated that the insurance industry is not in a position to create insurance cover for risks or loss associated with kidnapping.

Managing director of SCIB Insurance Brokers, Shola Tinubu, has accused Nigerian underwriters of indirectly compounding the outstanding premium issue by keeping their accounts in chaotic state.

All is set for the hosting of the maiden edition of the Nigeria Technology Promotion Exhibition (NITPEX), a unique exhibition designed to promote and foster creativity and innovation in the area of indigenous technology development in Nigeria. At NITPEX, indigenous companies and individuals will have the opportunity of showcasing their technology-based products and services various sectors of the economy.

Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, has set up a task force within the Commission to address all issues concerning quality of services in the telecommunications network in the country.

With investments in Nigeria’s telecom sector now hovering around $20 billion and without laws to protect this massive investments, a leading operator in the telecoms industry, MTN Nigeria, has raised the alarm over the massive loss operators have been incuring as a result of the permissive state of affairs in the country.

The West African Cable System (WACS), that has landing points in Nigeria, Ghana and about 14 other countries will connect to Europe by June 2011, will now be extended from Portugal to the UK, to meet the increasing need for capacity driven by broadband services penetration..

New types of short message service (SMS) mobile banking alerts will help to treble the volume of mobile banking messages to almost 90 billion per annum by 2015, equating to one message every two days, per mobile banking user, according to a new study by Juniper Research.

• Rewards business associates

Globacom’s innovative International Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) is now available across 48 networks in 24 major countries.

Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah has cut the tape to signal the commencement of commercial services for provision of wireless broadband services as part of the provision of services in six states of the country by Gateway Business.

The number of devices that are connected to the Internet is expected to pass the five billion milestone later this month, according to IMS Research. The company, which tracks the installed base of Internet capable equipment, believes that the second wave of connected device growth is accelerating, and this will be followed by further growth waves in many new connected device types, leading to its forecast of 22 billion Internet connected devices by 2020.

Group Chief Operating Officer of Nigeria ’s second national operator, Globacom Mohmmed Jameel, has declared that the global system for mobile (GSM) communications market in the country has attained the point of saturation, promising however that the telco would continue to do all it could to ensure that subscribers get the value for their money.

The global economic recession of the late 2000s – often referred to as the “Great Recession” – had a staggering and profound impact on business around the world. A decline that began in 2007 with the crash of the US financial system went on to spark what most economists consider to be the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, nearly 80 years earlier – with the reverberations soon felt throughout the global economy. In 2008 and into 2009, businesses grappled with losses that came quickly and frequently, wiping away both revenue, profits and workforces alike.

As hundreds of thousands of Nigerians who lost their fortunes to global system for mobile (GSM) communication lottery quietly lick their wounds, the Federal Government has said it stopped the practice because it did not comply with the rules of the game.

•Restates commitment to SIM card registration

Information and Communications Minister, Prof Dora Akunyili, has insisted that the current call tariff regime in the country must be reviewd, arguing that Nigerians were unnecessarily paying through the nose for making calls. She has therefore charged the new board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to do something about the issue of punitive tariff charged by operators in the country.