MS empowers Africa

Microsoft Africa chairman Cheik Diarra vowed to empower as many as 45 million people on the continent with ICTs by 2010, reports IT News Africa.

He says his wish is to leave a legacy of having provided technology to the most remote areas of the continent.

Diarra says his organisation made a pledge in 2006 that by 2010, 250 billion people across the world will benefit from Microsoft's initiative of availing technology to these people. Of these, 45 million should be on the African continent.

Gateway Communications has signed a deal with Hellas Sat that will provide an additional 36MB of capacity over southern Africa, states SatNews.

Hellas Sat, the owner and operator of the Hellas-Sat 2 satellite, located at 39^0 E, will provide the African telecommunications services provider with Ku-band capacity.

This is the first time Hellas Sat has worked with Gateway, who selected the Hellas-Sat 2 because it offered a powerful beam over southern Africa and because of the satellite's stability and immediate availability.

Tanzania expects the number of phone users to rise by about 25% to 13 million in the first half of 2009, with most growth coming from mobiles, says Gulf News.

Telecoms is one of the fastest growing sectors in the country. Government statistics showed it grew by 20.1% in 2007 compared with 19.2% a year before.

"It was hardly four years ago when we were less than two million. Towards the middle of 2009, we should easily reach 13 million," said Tanzania Regulatory Authority DG John Nkoma.