Politicians want MTN Nigeria’s licence revoked

Nigeria’s People’s Democratic Party on Monday approached a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja aiming to compel the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to revoke MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd ‘s licence.

Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola wants MTN Nigeria to be reprimanded for their alleged unfair practices. (image: theachieverspublicationltd.co.uk)

The party’s Osun and Ekiti Chapters filed the suit, while Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, former Osun State governor, alleged the NCC failed to protect them from MTN‘s unfair practices.
They allege MTN provided the council with an incomplete data after they were req
uested to provide the National Judicial Council with call logs containing alleged conversations of suspended Court of Appeal president, Justice Ayo Salami, to substantiate allegations that Justice Salami was influenced by members of the Action Congress of Nigeria to remove Oyinlola from office.
They believe MTN forwarded partial call data records to the NJC, containing only partial components, leaving the NJC no choice but to declare the call logs as lacking in evidentiary value.
“The action of MTN to deliberately frustrate the work of the NJC panel by providing inadequate and incomplete call data records constitutes gross professional and ethical misconduct,” their statement said.
They said MTN deliberately omitted the months of September, October and November 2010 from the call data record to mislead the NJC Panel, contravening the Nigerian Communications Commission Act. Finally, they also want the court to impose a N150 Billion fine for general damages.

Nigerian federal government liquidates NITEL

The Federal Government has decided to liquidate NITEL (Nigerian Telecommunications Limited), the telecommunications company in debt, after failing to sell the company in the past 11 years.

NITEL has been liquidated after struggling with debt for 11 years. (image: file)

This process was approved by the National Council on Privatisation, headed by Vice President Namadi Sambo, at a meeting on Monday after considering a report by one of its committees.
NITEL and its mobile arm M-Tel would be sold through “guided liquidation” in view of the company’s huge liabilities, the Bureau of Public Enterprises said in a statement.
“The TC recommended that ‘guided liquidation’ should be adopted as the strategy for the privatisation of NITEL/M-Tel in view of the huge liabilities of both companies and that there was no viable financial alternative presented by the management of NITEL/M-Tel,” Chukwumah Nwokoh, BPE spokesman, said.
Nwokoh said the NCP supported the recommendation of the Technical Committee that opted for ‘guided liquidation’. Despite, venues not accounting for, “the management of NITEL/M-Tel had been obtaining their salaries from the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Consequently, the NCP directed the Sub-Committee of the Technical Committee on Information, Communication, National Facilities and Agric Resources to immediately carry out investigations and ensure that all revenues received were accounted for.”
Speaking to Daily Trust, Elias Kazza, Senior Staff Association of Communications, Transport and Corporations president, said privatisation efforts on NITEL failed due to the selfish interest of some Nigerians.

The Raspberry Pi computer goes on general sale

A credit-card sized computer designed to help teach children to code goes on general sale for the first time today.

The Raspberry Pi is a bare-bones, low-cost computer created by volunteers mostly drawn from academia and the UK tech industry.
Sold uncased without keyboard or monitor, the Pi has drawn interest from educators and enthusiasts.
Supporters hope the machines could help reverse a lack of programming skills in the UK.
"It has been six years in the making; the number of things that had to go right for this to happen is enormous. I couldn't be more pleased," said Eben Upton of the Raspberry Pi Foundation which is based in Cambridge
The real task, however, is not about getting the Raspberry Pi out to that impatient crowd of enthusiasts. What matters is the kind of reception the device gets when it arrives in schools”...

Mobile Phones: Soon To Be Powered By Walking

Like the watches and sensors, most of which are now being powered by kinetic energy, mobile phones will soon be powered by walking. This was revealed recently by the University of Wisconsin team in a published study journal on ‘Nature Communications'

‘'Humans, generally speaking, are very powerful energy-producing machines'' said Professor Tom Krupenkin from the university's Mechanical Engineering Department.

According reports, while sprinting, a person can produce as much as a kilowatt of power hence sprinting, or even walking is capable of generating enough energy to power a mobile phone. That, according to the scientist, is more than enough to power a standard mobile phone.

Although, similar methods exist for low power electronics, up until now there was no practical mechanical to electrical conversion technology that could provide such high levels of output, Prof. Krupenkin explained.

"What's been missing is the power in the watts range," said Dr Ashley Taylor, a colleague of Prof Krupenkin. "That's the power range needed for portable electronics."