Telecom
ITU Strengthens Effort to Address Counterfeit ICT Devices
ITU discussions to address the growing problem of counterfeit ICT devices was actively participated, contributed to and progressed at the latest ITU-T SG11 (Protocols and test specifications) meeting held in Geneva this July.
A group of experts from various administrations and industry, as well as international organizations including the World Trade Organization (WTO), World Custom Organization (WCO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the Mobile Manufacturing Forum (MMF), contributed to the progress of the draft Technical Report on “Counterfeited and Substandard ICT Equipment”, which is anticipated as a baseline document for further developments in this area.
Several forums and conferences have called for ITU’s assistance in addressing the growing problem of counterfeit telecommunications/ICT products and devices, which is adversely affecting all stakeholders in the ICT field (vendors, governments, operators and consumers).
As a result, ITU-T SG11 agreed to revise the terms of reference of its Question 8(Q8/11) ‘Guidelines for implementations of signalling and protocols, and for addressing counterfeit ICT devices’, which is the group dealing with this work.
Isaac Boateng, National Communications Authority, Ghana, and Rapporteur of Q8/11said: “The study on Counterfeit ICT devices currently going on in SG11 was driven by Resolution 177 (Guadalajara, 2010) of the Plenipotentiary Conference, on Conformance and Interoperability which ‘instructs the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau, in close collaboration with the Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau and the Director of the Radio communication Bureau, to assist Member States in addressing their concerns with respect to counterfeit equipment’. I expect that the publication of the Technical Report could support the ITU Member States, particularly those in developing countries, to develop policies and regulatory framework to combat counterfeit devices in their national telecommunications/ICT strategies.”
An event on “Combating counterfeit and substandard ICT devices” will be taking place on 17 and 18 November 2014 at ITU Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland. Substandard and fake ICT products are a serious issue that impacts developed and developing economies, the ICT industry, as well as the consumer population around the world.
The objectives of this event are threefold, namely to: discuss the global scope and impact of counterfeiting and substandard ICT products on various stakeholders; highlight the common concerns, challenges, initiatives, practices and opportunities of the various stakeholders in their fight against counterfeiting and substandard ICT products; and examine the possible role of ICT standards development organizations (SDOs), and in particular the ITU, as part of the global strategy and solution to curtail counterfeiting and substandard ICT products.
The ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) also approved in Dubai (2014) a new Resolution on “The role of telecommunications/information and communication technologies in combating and dealing with counterfeit telecommunication/information and communication devices” (see draft final report Members restricted).
The next physical meetings of the group focusing on Counterfeiting in ITU-T (Q8/11) will take place back-to-back with the “Combating counterfeit and substandard ICT devices” event in ITU Headquarters on 19-21 November 2014. The Technical Report on “Counterfeited and Substandard ICT Equipment” will then be stable for approval. ITU Members are also invited to submit Contributions to Q8/11 to start new work items on this topic.
Gartner Warns Organizations of Data Lake Fallacy
The growing hype surrounding data lakes is causing substantial confusion in the information management space, according to Gartner, Inc. Several vendors are marketing data lakes as an essential component to capitalize on Big Data opportunities, but there is little alignment between vendors about what comprises a data lake, or how to get value from it.
“In broad terms, data lakes are marketed as enterprise-wide data management platforms for analyzing disparate sources of data in its native format,” said Nick Heudecker, research director at Gartner.
“The idea is simple: instead of placing data in a purpose-built data store, you move it into a data lake in its original format. This eliminates the upfront costs of data ingestion, like transformation. Once data is placed into the lake, it’s available for analysis by everyone in the organization.”
However, while the marketing hype suggests audiences throughout an enterprise will leverage data lakes, this positioning assumes that all those audiences are highly skilled at data manipulation and analysis, as data lakes lack semantic consistency and governed metadata.
“The need for increased agility and accessibility for data analysis is the primary driver for data lakes,” said Andrew White, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.
“Nevertheless, while it is certainly true that data lakes can provide value to various parts of the organization, the proposition of enterprise-wide data management has yet to be realized.”
Data lakes focus on storing disparate data and ignore how or why data is used, governed, defined and secured. The data lake concept hopes to solve two problems, one old and one new. The old problem it tries to solve is information silos. Rather than having dozens of independently managed collections of data, you can combine these sources in the unmanaged data lake. The consolidation theoretically results in increased information use and sharing, while cutting costs through server and license reduction.
The new problem data lakes conceptually tackle pertains to Big Data initiatives. Big Data projects require a large amount of varied information.
The information is so varied that it’s not clear what it is when it is received, and constraining it in something as structured as a data warehouse or relational database management system (RDBMS) constrains future analysis.
“Addressing both of these issues with a data lake certainly benefits IT in the short term in that IT no longer has to spend time understanding how information is used — data is simply dumped into the data lake,” said Mr. White.
“However, getting value out of the data remains the responsibility of the business end user. Of course, technology could be applied or added to the lake to do this, but without at least some semblance of information governance, the lake will end up being a collection of disconnected data pools or information silos all in one place.”
Data lakes therefore carry substantial risks. The most important is the inability to determine data quality or the lineage of findings by other analysts or users that have found value, previously, in using the same data in the lake. By its definition, a data lake accepts any data, without oversight or governance.
Without descriptive metadata and a mechanism to maintain it, the data lake risks turning into a data swamp. And without metadata, every subsequent use of data means analysts start from scratch.
Another risk is security and access control. Data can be placed into the data lake with no oversight of the contents.
Many data lakes are being used for data whose privacy and regulatory requirements are likely to represent risk exposure. The security capabilities of central data lake technologies are still embryonic. These issues will not be addressed if left to non-IT personnel.
Finally, performance aspects should not be overlooked. Tools and data interfaces simply cannot perform at the same level against a general-purpose store as they can against optimized and purpose-built infrastructure. For these reasons, Gartner recommends that organizations focus on semantic consistency and performance in upstream applications and data stores instead of information consolidation in a data lake.
“Data lakes typically begin as ungoverned data stores,” said Mr. Heudecker. “Meeting the needs of wider audiences require curated repositories with governance, semantic consistency and access controls — elements already found in a data warehouse.
“The fundamental issue with the data lake is that it makes certain assumptions about the users of information,” said Mr. Heudecker.
“It assumes that users recognize or understand the contextual bias of how data is captured, that they know how to merge and reconcile different data sources without ‘a priori knowledge’ and that they understand the incomplete nature of datasets, regardless of structure.”
While these assumptions may be true for users working with data, such as data scientists, the majority of business users lack this level of sophistication or support from operational information governance routines. Developing or acquiring these skills or obtaining such support on an individual basis, is both time-consuming and expensive, or impossible.
“There is always value to be found in data but the question your organization has to address is this — do we allow or even encourage one-off, independent analysis of information in silos or a data lake, bringing said data together, or do we formalize to a degree that effort, and try to sustain the value-generating skills we develop?” said Mr. White.
“If the option is the former, it is quite likely that a data lake will appeal. If the decision tends toward the latter, it is beneficial to move beyond a data lake concept quite quickly in order to develop a more robust logical data warehouse strategy.”
Africa Mobile Networks Group (AMN) has said that its first of its base stations in Nigeria to connect to SpaceX’s Starlink constellation is now live and using the LEO satellite network for backhaul connectivity.
It’s the first AMN base station to connect to Starlink since AMN and SpaceX signed a commercial deal in July 2023 to use Starlink for remote base station backhaul connectivity across Africa.
AMN said in a statement that Starlink’s low-latency connectivity enables its multi-carrier RANs to sustainably provide 2G, 3G and 4G services in remote, rural areas of Nigeria. AMN also said it also paves the way for the launch of 5G services, which AMN plans to do before the end of this year.
AMN, which builds, owns, operates and maintains mobile network infrastructure for African mobile network operators, currently operates 1,600 base stations across Nigeria.
The company said it will continue to install new sites throughout 2024 in Nigeria, as well as Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Madagascar, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin and Rwanda. AMN also has operations in Bissau, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Sudan, and Zambia.
Starlink has been commercially available to consumers and enterprise customers since January 2023. Last week, according to a report from Nairametrics, Starlink slashed the price of its internet router by 45%, although its monthly subscription rate remains unchanged. No reason was given, but the report suggests the move may be related to the naira’s recent appreciation against the US dollar and other foreign currencies.
According to figures from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Starlink had over 11,200 subscribers in the country as of the third quarter of 2023 – which also makes it one of the top ISPs in Nigeria, the report said.
Ikemesit Effiong, Chairman of the Technology Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law, has raised concerns about the sustainability of Nigeria’s telecoms sector amid ongoing economic challenges.
In an insightful article titled “The Imperative of Upholding Nigeria’s Telecoms Lifeline,” Ikemesit delves into the sector, emphasizing its pivotal role as both an economic engine and societal enabler. With approximately 15,000 direct employees and a significant 16% contribution to Nigeria’s GDP, the sector’s health is crucial for the nation’s well-being.
Ikemesit highlights various obstacles facing the telecoms industry, including frequent fibre optic cable cuts due to road construction and vandalism, multiple taxations, and challenges in acquiring rights-of-way. These issues, compounded by exploitative rent-seeking practices, have persisted despite efforts to resolve them.
“Central to the sustenance of any industry is a conducive economic environment that allows for sustainable growth and innovation,” writes Ikemesit. However, regulatory constraints that limit tariff adjustments hinder the sector’s ability to adapt to market dynamics unlike other industries.
Recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicates a rise in inflation to 33.20% in March 2024, up from 31.7% in February 2024. This poses significant challenges for businesses striving to manage staff welfare and make necessary investments amid economic strains.
The inflationary pressures have led to price increases across various sectors, including agriculture, beverages, and services. Companies such as Nigerian Breweries Plc and Netflix have adjusted prices multiple times this year to cope with rising costs.
Recently, the quality of service has become a significant concern for subscribers across the country. Available data indicate that this issue may persist for the foreseeable future. The 70% broadband penetration target set by Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s Minister of Communication, Innovation, and Digital Economy, was severely impacted in 2023, experiencing a decline of 14.2% from a peak of 48.28% in March to 41.87% in November.
With operators reporting financial losses in 2023 and a challenging outlook for 2024, it is evident that funding will pose a significant challenge for the necessary investments needed to transform the sector.
Describing the challenges of the sector in 2023, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), said, “ALTON’s members currently pay at least 49 different taxes and levies. Additionally, our members continue to bear the brunt of multiple taxation and coerced compliance with tax and levy demands that have no legal basis by sub-nationals. This threatens investment, sustainability, and industry growth.
“Instances include – exorbitant Right of Way fees, increases under the Finance Act 2023 (such as an upward review of Tertiary Education Trust Fund Tax from 2.5% to 3%, imposition of Value Added Tax on cell towers (Base Stations), imposition of import levy on goods, removal of capital allowance on telecommunications goods and services under Section 32 of the amended Companies Income Tax Act), amongst others.”
In the past 10 years, telcos have maintained the same charges for calls and data, despite inflation rising from 8.05% in 2014 to 33.20% in 2024, and the dollar increasing from 185 naira in 2014 to about 1,000 naira in 2024.
Considering that this sector supports Nigeria’s 221.7 million active voice subscriptions and 160.2 million data subscriptions, with immense consequential economic and social value, leaving it to resolve its challenges independently or risk collapse poses significant threats to Nigeria’s socio-economic stability. Stakeholders in the sector are urging the government to either invest in the sector as needed or adopt a cost-reflective tariff to facilitate necessary investments.
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