Thursday, February 26, 2009

Meeting Messi




How I wish I got to meet Messi (not that I care that much). But the closest I came was those fake photos that people take by the pitch side...

Football Voyage



I was in Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress but I had to make sure I visited the biggest club in town, too bad they played away that Saturday, however, I think the derby with Espanyol would have been a better game....

Visit to FC Barcelona




The 3D images were so good, I struggled with the shades but hacked it. The movie was not voiced, just images of Barca greats. No matter the language you speak, after 10 minutes, we all got the gist of the club and its immense history....

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Quiet street on a sunday

Am not sure what this is...




It must be from one of the most interesting sculptors but am not sure what this is....

Barcelona and culture


Atlantique Telecom chooses AIRCOM for EDGE planning in West Africa

AIRCOM International, the leading independent network planning and optimisation consultancy, today announced that it has signed a deal to provide its suite of market-leading network planning tools to Atlantique Telecom, the West African subsidiary of UAE-based telecoms group Etisalat International which operates networks in six countries across West Africa.

Atlantique Telecom operates EDGE mobile networks under the “Moov” brand in the Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo, the Central African Republic, Gabon and Niger. Under the terms of the agreement, Atlantique Telecom will purchase AIRCOM’s suite of planning tools –including its market-leading software products ASSET, ILSA and CONNECT – to improve the performance of individual networks by optimising each one’s RF and transmission plans. This will deliver better coverage levels and improved capacity across each network, delivering an enhanced quality of service to Moov customers.

“Our aim is to always push the boundaries of the African mobile phone market by delivering a consistently high quality of service and user experience to our Moov customers,” said Mr Mamadou Cisse, Network Quality and Optimization Director at Atlantique Telecom. “In competitive trials, AIRCOM planning tools consistently came out on top. Our choice of AIRCOM for our RF planning needs means that our engineers can use separate RF and transmission databases to deliver a single, optimised RF and transmission plan that is specific to each of our networks. By maximising our networks’ performance in this way, we ensure our customers get to enjoy the best possible service, wherever they are.”

“We’re delighted to be picked by Atlantique Telecom as its supplier of choice for RF network planning,” said Bashar Zako, MD of AIRCOM MEI. “An optimised RF / transmission plan ensures a network performs more efficiently and more effectively. This reduces running costs while also improving coverage levels, thereby ensuring subscribers can enjoy a consistently high quality user experience, whenever they use their mobile phone.”

AIRCOM and iBwave Partner for in-Building Network Optimisation

AIRCOM International, the leading independent network planning and optimisation consultancy, announces today a partnership with iBwave Solutions, the leader of in-building wireless standard software, to deliver improved in-building network planning and design solutions to operators across the globe.

The deal will see iBwave’s unique in-building wireless network design software integrated into AIRCOM’s ASSET solution, the industry’s leading network optimisation tool. It will allow AIRCOM to offer all-encompassing radio network planning and optimisation services, adding enhanced in-building functionality into its ENTERPRISE tool suite.

“In-building coverage is fast becoming one of the most important considerations for network operators, so we needed to find a best in class solution provider to help service our customers and provide seamless in-building planning as part of the radio network design,” says Margaret Rice-Jones, CEO of AIRCOM International. “It was clear that iBwave was the company to help achieve this, so we look forward working with them to strengthen our position as the in-building industry’s network solution provider of choice.”

iBwave is an international in-building software company that specialises in providing unique in-building network planning and design solutions to more than 150 customers including operators, integrators and equipment vendors across five continents. The deal will extend AIRCOM’s solution portfolio, allowing both companies to offer an integrated network solution to their combined customer base.

Commenting on the shared interface Mario Bouchard, CEO and President of iBwave says that “The mobile operator community is a key target market for iBwave and this integration is our commitment with our partners to deliver best of breed indoor and outdoor wireless networks.”

The integration between iBwave’s software and AIRCOM’s ENTERPRISE is complete and the new network optimisation indoor/outdoor feature will be available upon RF-vu’s new 4.2 version that is planned to be released on February 23, 2009

In Barcelona

Barcelona is such a nice city, am busy enjoying the food and the nights out and forgot to update the blog..... will post some pictures of nice unique architecture later....
But now...some boring techie stuff must come....

Friday, February 06, 2009

CCK, rubbish internet connection and freedom of information

It is so frustrating when you want to get information and you can not access it. If that information was blocked under the guise of the official secrets Act, then it would be easy to direct my anger to the government and maybe rally my colleagues and we take to the streets (not that it will achieve much).

But what happens when you can not access information because your telecoms provider has decided to short change you? What happens when the connection does not stay up even for a minute?
For instance, I could not read all the posts on FOI because my Zain connection is rubbish. Forget that I changed from Safaricom in the hope that it will be better. That denies me access to information.

Because I am one subscriber paying small money, the network tells me to wait or maybe move to another provider. Yet they did not say that when I was paying or when I was signing up six months ago.

What then is the role of CCK in ensuring that the services are not interrupted, that telcos give you what you pay for?
Does CCK have measures of establishing whether the Telcos meet the standards stipulated in the SLAs? I know CCK bought some equipment to do that, but is there any data available and what is being done to those who con us.

We can keep talking about freedom of information but if there are no measures to ensure that the technology allows us to do that, it is useless.

The government can have all the tender documents and all illegal dealings on the website, but if the public will not have the means to access the information, it is very useless.
It is sad when you pay for a service and you are unable to use it and to make matters worse you have no way of getting what you have lost.

CCK has a lot of responsibilities but I think it will be nice to hear that a telco has been penalized for giving substandard service.

I want to feel that CCK safeguards my interest as a consumer. That freedom is to access online services, I have paid, can I get what I have paid for?