In the middle of October the world ground to a halt. No, not quite, but to millions of BlackBerry users it seemed like it. For several days an outage caused users throughout Africa, the Middle East, Europe and South America to lose access to email and web-browsing facilities. BlackBerry’s popular BBM service was also unavailable. Research in Motion (RIM), the makers of the phone, attributed the problem to core and back-up switch failures.

It was another very public stumble for the Canadian company, once the world leader in smartphones. RIM has gone out of its way to apologise and compensate BlackBerry owners (particularly with free apps), but the crash was something it could ill afford – its stock has been steadily declining since reaching a high of almost CAN$150 in 2008 to around CAN$20 now, reflecting the pressure it is under by Apple’s iPhone and the other mobile manufacturers using Google’s Android operating system.

The use of smartphones has exploded across Africa and along with it the mobile data market. Analysts are forecasting spectacular growth for mobile broadband over the next few years across the continent with some estimates predicting the numbers of subscribers could grow from 12 million in 2010 to 265 million by 2015. Regulatory changes and more competition are helping drive a drop in price too, giving African consumers the chance to enjoy enhanced services. Our report on page 30 details the good news.

Staying on the smart subject, the article on page 40 investigates how African governments are utilising smartcard technology in a host of applications. ‘Thanks to smartcard technology official documents such as e-passports, e-IDs, e-driver’s licences and e-healthcare cards reach a new level of security,’ is the way one expert puts it.

We have the internet (yet again) to thank for rapid developments in an area dear to any businessperson’s heart – billing. Electronic billing has been around for a while in developed countries, but a range of issues has prevented its widespread application on the continent. That’s changing and the feature on page 46 has all the particulars.

Clouds in Africa usually conjure up a thunderstorm but not the one looming now. Cloud computing is one of those terms that has been bandied about for some time. In theory it should be ideal for Africa, with its less-than-perfect infrastructure, lack of ICT skilled workforce and weak financial clout – all problems cloud computing negates. There are of course many issues still to solve, but read the story on page 60 for some interesting insights into the practical developments.

Other topics under examination in this issue include tower sharing among mobile service providers (page 66), the state of ICT in diamond-rich Botswana (page 56) and we pose the question: how much potential is there in the pay-TV industry (page 73)? Plenty, it seems.

Patrick Farrell

Gizmos & gadgets – The latest hot technology

Sound bytes – News and developments from the industry

Radar – Arthur Goldstuck on mobile money

Growing alliance – Subex Vice-President Ashwin Chalapathy

All access – The mobile broadband market

Bright idea – Smartcard technology

Virtually connected – The ins and outs of e-billing

Diamond in the rough – Botswana strengthens its ICT skills

The forecast is clear – Cloud computing’s potential

Mobile division – Tower sharing benefits

On air – Looking at pay-TV

What’s on – Conferences and exhibitions

‘I’ve always said that if you want to liberate a society just give them the internet.’

I wish that’s a quote that could be attributed to me. In fact, it was said by Wael Ghonim, who helped co-ordinate, via Facebook, the first mass rally against the regime in Egypt earlier this year. Ghonim, Google’s marketing manager, was jailed, but the wave of protest against the autocratic leadership of then president Hosni Mubarak had profound repercussions.

Within days of the first demonstrations hundreds of thousands of Egyptians had joined the anti-government movement and despite some strong-armed tactics against the populace, Mubarak was sidelined.

‘We would post a video on Facebook that would be shared by 60 000 people within a few hours,’ recalls Ghonim.

Just weeks before, another North African country, Tunisia, was also swept by a popular uprising, the beginning of the ‘Arab Spring’ that deposed the president. Like Egypt this revolt was helped by the spreading of information via social media. Facebook, Twitter and – not to forget – ‘plain old’ text messaging were the weapons of choice. Never before have humans had the ability to disseminate news and information so quickly and so simply – and it’s only going to become more significant in our lives. Africa has lagged somewhat behind the rest of the world but it is catching up fast, as ‘Power to the People’ reveals on page 73.

On the subject of Egypt, the land of the pharaohs is the focus of another of our features on page 58, this time detailing the efforts it has made on the ICT front. Realising the need to be highly competitive, the government began a series of programmes – many of them with business backing – to use ICT as the engine to help build a generation armed with modern skills.

Companies have been at the forefront of efforts. Intel, for example, has helped boost knowledge so that over 80 000 teachers have learnt how to bring technology into the classroom. Cisco too has created nearly 400 Networking Academies throughout the country.

On page 48 we investigate outsourcing and find out if it’s possible to have the best of both worlds while on pages 62 and 68, a couple of other modern business necessities, vehicle fleet tracking and data storage, come under the spotlight in ‘Eye in the Sky’ and ‘Getting Smarter with Data’.

We haven’t forgotten about VoIP either (although in the rush of new technologies some consider it old hat). Catch up with the latest on the subject on page 43.

Finally, back to the social networking expansion. Closely allied to the boom has been the rise of the smartphone. On the continent it’s not just about updating a Facebook page that makes them so attractive, but also their potential to run apps that allow small businesses quick and easy access to vital information. On page 30 we detail how uniquely African solutions are helping farmers with livestock and crop prices, as well as enabling people access to things like banking and medical advice.

Now that’s truly a revolution.

Patrick Farrell

Gizmos & gadgets – The latest hot technology

Sound bytes – News and developments from the industry

Radar – Arthur Goldstuck laying cables

Riding the new wave – Neotel CEO and MD Sunil Joshi

Joining the club – Smartphones and the mobile data market

Talking of the future – Where VoIP is header

Best of both worlds – The pros and cons of outsourcing

Pyramid schemes – Egypt’s ICT revolution

Eye in the sky – The necessity of fleet tracking

Getting smarter with data – Finding the right storage solution

Power to the people – Impact of social media

What’s on – Conferences and exhibitions