ICT – Integra LLC

Tag Archive for: ICT

Integra Completes TV White Space Pilot in Indonesia

In partnership with Microsoft, Hitachi, Jogja Medianet, and the Government of Indonesia, Integra recently concluded a year-long field trial of a new technology that has the potential to revolutionize broadband access in rural parts of the developing world. The pilot was implemented with funding from the US Agency for International Development, and NetHope, Inc. A short fact sheet about the TVWS pilot can be downloaded here. The full TVWS report can downloaded here. Read more

May 12, 2015/by actualize

Areas of Expertise, Information and Communication Technology for Development, Integra News

Integra Supports Nigeria Universal Service Provision Fund To Close ICT Gap

January 20, 2015/by actualize

Integra News

Indonesia Launches 5-Year National Broadband Plan

On October 15, 2014 the Government of Indonesia launched the Indonesia Broadband Plan (RPI) 2014 – 2019 to address the need for affordable broadband across the country’s 18,000+ islands. The RPI was developed with support from USAID’s Global Broadband and Innovations (GBI) Program, specifically technical assistance to the National Development Planning Agency, BAPPENAS and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. Read more

October 15, 2014/by actualize

Integra News

Integra to Support Peru’s Universal Service Fund to Expand Rural Connectivity

Under USAID’s GBI Program, Integra has initiated work with Peru’s Ministry of Transport and Communication and the Fondo de Inversion Telecommunicaciones (FITEL), to evaluate and address the gaps in connectivity throughout the country’s rural areas. The collaboration is designed to provide an investment strategy for the use of approximately $44 million in universal service funds to provide Internet connectivity for USAID Peru’s target beneficiaries in jungle regions East of the Andes Mountains. Read more

August 30, 2013/by actualize

Asia, Connectivity, Integra News, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Where we work

Integra to assist in USAID’s ASEAN Connectivity through Trade and Investment (ACTI) Project

Integra LLC is pleased to announce the award of a subcontract from Nathan Associates, Inc. to provide technical services for the ASEAN Connectivity through Trade and Investment (ACTI) project. Funded through USAID’s Regional Development Mission for Asia (RDMA), the project focuses on trade facilitation, energy sector development, small enterprise expansion, and telecommunications development. Read more …

July 15, 2013/by actualize

Africa, Areas of Expertise, Economic Growth, Information and Communication Technology for Development, Where we work

Massive New Submarine Cable to Bring High-Speed Broadband Access to West Africa

Bandwidth problems in West Africa may soon become a thing of the past when the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) broadband submarine cable comes online this December. The US$700 million will interconnect a total of 23 countries in Europe and West Africa, including two Integra and GBI clients, Nigeria and Ghana. This massive infrastructure project aims to bring high-speed broadband internet to these developing countries in order to reduce the digital divide and serve as “a vector of social development and economic growth in Africa.”

Led by the France Telecom company, this broadband system will extend over 17,000 km to from Brittany in France to Cape Town in South Africa. Parts of Europe and 16 West African countries will be interconnected by the submarine cable. Connectivity will extend even to the landlocked nations of Mali and Niger who will be connected via their own terrestrial links.

The cable itself has an initial 1.92 terabytes per second (Tb/s) capacity that can be upgraded to a whopping 5.12 Tb/s. ACE will use cutting edge fiber optic technology developed by Alcatel-Lucent that offers a higher quality of high-speed broadband than satellite at a lower cost. Utilizing new wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM)technology, the ACE stations can be upgraded without any actual modifications to the cable itself. This is a significant increase in the broadband capacity for these countries. Gambia for example, is estimated to have an increase in capacity by a factor of 16.

Increasing bandwidth capacity is crucial for enabling increased broadband penetration rates within a county. In 2011, the Broadband Commission for Digital Development issued a report that identified broadband as a “tool of unprecedented power” in helping countries meet the millennial development goals in 2015. Additionally, a report from the World Bank showed that a 10% increase in broadband penetration in developing economies correlates with a 1.38% contribution to economic growth. With ACE online, West Africa will be able to access a plethora of new opportunities.

June 25, 2012/by actualize

Areas of Expertise, Information and Communication Technology for Development

Broadband: A Fundamental Technology to Achieve Sustainable Development

Photo Credit: Costas Troulos

In a joint statement issued today ahead of the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, the Broadband Commission noted that “We believe broadband is a fundamental technology to achieve sustainable development that should also be recognized in future Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.

The statement came as a follow-up to its April call to action to the delegates at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development who gathered in New York at the time to continue their negotiations ahead of the Rio+20 conference. In this April call, the Broadband Commission asked the delegates to recognize ICT and broadband connectivity as catalysts to achieve the three pillars of sustainable development – economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.

In renewing their call, the Secretary-General of ITU, Hamadoun Touré stated that “ICTs have created a watershed moment in human evolution and are poised to make a catalytic impact on the sustainable development of our planet and the roadmap being negotiated at Rio+20 must therefore explicitly recognize the potential of ICTs and broadband connectivity.” Dr Touré added that ‘Broadband Inclusion 4 All’ must be fully integrated into shaping strategies in the post-2015 international development framework.

The statement concluded that broadband connectivity has the potential to provide solutions to sustainable development challenges, while simultaneously increasing socio-economic development and quality of life as well as facilitating transformative change in a wide range of key sectors from power, transportation, buildings, education, health and agriculture.

For more information on the press release, see ITU Newsroom and on the Broadband Commission for Digital Development.

June 20, 2012/by actualize

Economic Growth & Trade, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Workforce Development

African ICT job opportunities high, skills lacking

A new survey published on Tuesday reveals that as telecom jobs in Africa booms, the continent still lacks skilled workers, calling on universities and governments to do more to boost the output of telecom and IT specialists in Africa.

Landelahni CEO Sandra Burmeister. (image: creamermedia.co.za)

The 2012 Telecommunications Survey, carried out by global Amrop executive search group member, Landelahni Business Leaders, highlights the skills gaps in the African ICT sector.

“Information and communications technology is a pre-condition for socio-economic development and national competitiveness. However, a shortage of key skills is a huge constraint,” Landelahni CEO Sandra Burmeister said in the report.

“Opportunities abound throughout Africa, despite the challenges of poor infrastructure, disparate regulatory environments and ferocious competition. Spending on ICT infrastructure is expected to total more than US$23 billion a year over the next few years. South Africa and the rest of the continent need to skill up to maximise this opportunity.

“(South African) minister of science and technology Naledi Pandor has acknowledged that the telecommunications industry holds promise as the backbone of this country’s economic, industrial and innovative advancement. Similarly, the Green Paper for Post School Education and Training released in January (2012) states that ‘ICT is increasingly becoming a critical ingredient for participation in a globalised world’.”

It also called on governments to do more to boost young people’s ability to enter the fast-paced ICT world with the skills needed to bring Africa into the global technology world.

Joseph Mayton

March 29, 2012/by actualize

Environment, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Virtual Centre Provides Access to Climate Change Knowledge

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in partnership with the Centre for Development Informatics (CDI) released a report entitled, Building the Evidence Base for Strategic Action on Climate Change: Mexico City’s Virtual Climate Change Centre. The report critiques the development and execution of Virtual Center for Climate Change in Mexico City (CVCCCM).

Mexico City has experienced heat waves, heavy rainfall, flooding, and reduced water availability due to severe droughts in its supply catchment basin. The city government has voiced strategic adaptive actions that should be taken including hydro-meteorological, micro-basin, epidemiological, energy, and waste monitoring.

When considering possible task forces, it was decided that the creation of a new research institution would create political frictions and draw staff away from existing institutions. Instead, a virtual center would allow researchers to contribute when convenient, acting upon issues such as climate change, water, air, ground resources, the health sector, public services, and land use planning management. Besides being a forum for researchers and policy-makers, the website has connected with society at large through ICT-based networks such as web-seminars, Youtube, and Twitter.

The Virtual Centre is deemed successful for various reasons, including its involvement of many stakeholders and centralization of accessible data. The report criticizes the need to use ICTs to create a broader dialogue outside of scientific institutions and policy-makers to build civil society, writing that “essentially the scientific community has focused on production and presentation of their results, but has not sought – whether via ICTs or other means – to engage others, or to engage with the formulation and implementation of the strategic actions which their work points to.” The report suggests customized ICTs to different sets of audiences, the addition of short briefings, interactive demonstrations, GIS/map-based graphics, audio and visual presentations will strengthen appeal.

March 26, 2012/by actualize

Economic Growth & Trade, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Workforce Development

American university to boost East Africa ICT

US-based Carnegie Mellon University has announced the opening of a new regional centre for ICT in Rwanda, aimed at increasing science and technology development across East Africa.

Carnegie Mellon University director in Rwanda Bruce Krogh. (image: cms.dyn.bci.tu-dortmund.de)

“Research and development in technology is now a global enterprise and Carnegie Mellon realised that education also needed to be a global enterprise to meet the demands of highly skilled engineers and innovators,” university director in Rwanda Bruce Krogh said.

Krogh said the west was not the sole source of technological breakthroughs anymore, “nor was it the dominant growth market for information and communication technology (ICT)”.

The university said they see East Africa as a beacon for ICT transformation, praising the region’s recent jumps in telecoms and IT infrastructure. Carnegie hopes to assist in continuing this success by bolstering ICT education.

He added that “for the case of Rwanda, there is a business-friendly, pro-ICT development program (Vision 2020) under which nation-wide fiber-optic cables will be installed throughout the country.”

Joseph Mayton

March 23, 2012/by actualize

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