Glo unites W-Africa operations with UNIWORLD card

11:55 AM Technology No Comments

Second National operator, Globacom has introduced a new roaming package which tends to further unify three African countries, Nigeria, Gnana and Benin Republic. The service offers a uniform local tariff and allows the use of local Glo recharge cards in any of these three countries.
It could be recalled that Globacom is already playing heavily in the telecommunictions market of these three countries.
Tagged UniWorld, the service offering enables both prepaid and postpaid subscribers in Nigeria, Benin Republic and Ghana to enjoy seamless unbroken communication at uniform affordable rates in the different countries.
Unveiling the new roaming service in Lagos, at the weekend, Globacom’s Executive Director, Adewale Sangowanwa, said that UniWorld unifies the 3 Glo network countries by creating a Virtual Home Environment which allows seamless communications at transparent affordable rates across the borders.
Postpaid and Prepaid Subscribers can now recharge with local Glo recharge cards in Nigeria, Ghana or Benin while roaming and enjoy all roaming services at very affordable rates.
According to him, subscribers who roam across the three countries will be charged the same uniform localized rate irrespective of where they are calling from. Customer’s bills will be rated in Naira, Cedi or CFA depending on subscriber’s Glo home country.
He said: “With UniWorld, Glo subscribers in our 3 operating countries will enjoy a uniform local tariff across Nigeria, Ghana and Benin denominated in the currency of your home network. For instance, if a Glo Benin Republic subscriber comes to Nigeria, he will pay the same unified uniform local rates as when he is roaming on Glo Benin and vice versa.”
Besides the local tariffs for roaming, Glo has also made recharging much easier as all its subscribers roaming in any of the Glo networks can enjoy the flexibility of recharging with local Glo recharge cards in his visited destination.

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Piracy cankerworm to nation’s economy – NCC

9:51 AM Technology No Comments

While software piracy  stifle innovation, harm local economies, the software giant, Microsoft in collaboration with the Nigerian Copyright Commission, NCC, at the just concluded World Intellectual Property day held recently  in Lagos said that unless software piracy was fought with concerted efforts,local economies will continue suffer.
Commemorating  this year’s World Intellectual Property Day in Nigeria, Microsoft organized a round table to discuss how the use of non-genuine software threatens legitimate businesses and creates a negative impact on both global and local economies.
The event attracted participants from different sectors of the economy including Mr. Babatunde Adetula, Director, Ibadan Zonal Office, Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC), Mr. George Spiff, Managing Director, Steelcon Global Hitech, Mr. Seyi Owolabi of Multichoice Nigeria, Ugochi Agoreyo, Anti-Piracy Manger, Microsoft Anglophone West Africa and Serge Ntamack, Anti Piracy Lead, Microsoft WECA.
Lending his voice to the clarion call by other panelists for the creation of sound IP policies in the country, Serge Ntamack, Anti Piracy Lead, WECA, observed that, “Counterfeiting only thrives in places with weak or non-existent IP laws.”
Similarly, Mr. Babatunde Adetula, Director, Ibadan Zonal Office, Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC)  while explaining  the impact of piracy explained  that, “Piracy is like a cankerworm to the nation’s economy.  It is like a caterpillar that eats up the pillars of the economy.  If not checked, pirated software, pirated books and broadcasting would damage the Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that are involved in property innovation and development.”
“Intellectual property is not peculiar to Nigeria alone. Piracy is a global issue that needs to be addressed to ensure software innovation and development.”, he said.

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