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Top ICT Predictions for 2013
As we move into a new year, we asked the top executives of five global ICT companies what they see as the three strongest industry trends in 2013.
Their answers are concise and all pointed to a promising yet potentially technology disruptive year.
“True mobility trend in the workplace”
1. True mobility trend. We are going through a radical shift in the way people work and use computers. Increasing availability and affordability of wireless broadband is giving the global workforce true mobility, for the first time in history.
Many of them will use mobile rugged computers for their everyday computing and communication needs, instead of traditional laptops.
2. A renewed focus on ‘total cost of ownership’ of mobile computers.
Higher productivity, increased labor costs and a strong trend towards true mobility in the work place are all factors that have put the spotlight firmly on ‘total costs of ownership’ for computers and devices.
Organizations will have to start spending more on durable and reliable mobile computers rather than looking for bargains, if they want to avoid losing valuable productive time.
3. The emergence of Android as a valid operating system choice for mobile devices for enterprises. Android has taken the smartphone market by storm since its inception and is now maturing into a real valid option for enterprises, and is challenging Microsoft’s market leadership.
Jerker Hellström, CEO, Handheld Group
Jerker Hellström is a pioneer and industry veteran in the mobile rugged computer industry. In both entrepreneurial and managerial positions, he has 25 years of experience from developing, designing, manufacturing and marketing rugged computers globally.
“Smarter mobile infrastructure”
1. Smarter mobile infrastructure. Mobile operators are being squeezed by decreasing revenues per user, and a seemingly insatiable demand by users for more data. To efficiently manage the rapidly growing increase in data traffic in their networks, mobile operators need to build and improve their infrastructure in a much smarter way.
2. A new focus on antennas for base stations. Base stations antennas, long regarded as a cheap commodity, will get a revival with so-called ultra high-efficiency antennas. They can achieve a higher signal strength, increase in area coverage, improved indoor penetration, increased traffic, improved data throughput and reduced production costs per call.
3. A quest to reduce signal wasteage. For the same reason, mobile operators will look for ways to deal with suboptimal transmission and to find solutions that do not “waste” the signal on areas outside their focus area, and that block all interference.
Einar Ahlström, CEO, Cellmax Technologies
CellMax Technologies develops and markets ultra-high efficiency base station antennas for mobile networks. It is one of Sweden and Europe’s fastest growing technology companies.
“Fixed-mobile divergence”
1. Fixed-mobile divergence is here to stay. Fixed-mobile convergence, a previously popular trend towards seamless connectivity between fixed and wireless telecommunications networks, will come to an end. Consumers and enterprises have started to display completely disparate behaviors, needs and payment patterns when compared to what can be offered over fixed and mobile access.
There is only one solution to this demand, and that is to give all consumers and enterprises access to fiber or vectoring. LTE and obsolete technologies will not cut it.
2. Sharing of networks. In order to meet the future demands of consumers and enterprises efficiently, service providers will start to more readily share the same networks, either because of the capital needed to invest in the equipment or because it suits local competition conditions and regulations.
2. Focus on advanced Operations Support Systems (OSS). It is not enough to lay fibre alone or upgrade to vectoring – an environment is also required in which multiple service providers can thrive and reach the customers simply and easily.
Advanced operations support systems are needed to provide support for automated service fulfilment and service assurance not only within an operator but more importantly between operators.
These three fundamental is the key for understanding the success of true broadband services today and in the future.
Torbjorn Sandberg, CEO, Netadmin Systems
Torbjörn Sandberg has more than 15 years of experience from leading positions in the data and telecom industry.
Netadmin Systems is the market leader in OSS systems in the Nordics.
“Green telecom trend”
Green telecom trend. Mobile operators will start making their operations more environmentally friendly.
Powering base stations in developing countries with dirty diesel fuel is not good for the brand – nor the bottom line.
– A quest to serve the “Next Billion” mobile customers. They are mainly in emerging markets, with low average revenue per user and non-existent or bad access to the grid, so focus will be on keeping operating expenses low., e.g. by powering base stations with energy efficient systems and renewables.
– The global data boom will force mobile operators to evaluate their business models. Focus will be on lower operating expenses and taking a step wise approach to investments.
Operators cannot easily raise prices for data or predict traffic flows and new services provided.
David King, CEO, Flexenclosure
David King is CEO of Flexenclosure, a specialist developer of intelligent power management systems and pre-fabricated data centres for the telecom industry.
Mr. King is an international executive with decade-long experience in C-level roles in high-tech companies in both Europe and the U.S.
“Mobile devices overtake desktops”
1. A shift to a device-driven and faster Internet. By 2014, mobile Internet usage is expected to exceed desktop Internet usage.
That means that in 2013 developers and marketers will be hard at work fine-tuning their mobile apps and websites to capitalize on this audience. Application testing tools will evolve to support any type of device with dynamic HTML versus device-specific code. Special protocols like WebSocket and SPDY will become mainstream.
2. Internet backup. Companies utilizing hybrid cloud solutions will realize that they need to have a reliable and redundant network connection to the Internet not only from their main headquarters but from every local branch of the office.
3. The ‘social’ DDoS attack. Social media has brought a new level of risk to IT departments as a new type of DDoS attack emerges.
Now, in addition to traditional hacking, websites need to be aware of social mediadriven “attacks” that can change traffic levels to 10 Gb/s, 100 Gb/s, or more from real users.
Regardless of whether the attack is a malicious hack or a Facebook post or organized tweet, very few enterprise infrastructures can handle this load.
Normal DDoS protection will not work. Organizations will safeguard themselves by ensuring their sites can absorb the load in a true cloud fashion (scaling to 10 or 100 times the load) and by having a well-organized and tested plan of action.
Sven Hammar, CEO, Apica
Apica is a leading provider of load testing and performance monitoring solutions that test, monitor and optimize cloud and mobile applications.
Peter Karaszi is an IT professional and writer
Federal Executive Council has approved a group life insurance scheme for federal government officials, civil servants, and some other workers at the federal level.
The approval was given at the FEC meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Council Chamber of the State House, Abuja.
The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Walson-Jack, who briefed State House correspondents after the meeting, said the scheme covers key government officials, comprising the President, the Vice President, the Chief of Staff, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, ministers, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, permanent secretaries and employees of federal government ministries and treasury funded agencies.
The scheme also covers paramilitary agencies such as the Nigerian Immigration Service, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, the Nigeria Correctional Service, the Federal Fire Service, the Federal Road Safety Corps, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, and the Office of the National Security Adviser.
“The scheme underscores the importance that President Bola Tinubu’s Administration has placed welfare of staff, specifically the welfare of the federal public servant.
“The Group Life Insurance Scheme is a scheme whereby the Federal Government has taken out a life policy on each public servant. And this means that if the unfortunate incident of death occurs, the deceased public servants’ next of kin stands to have a benefit to help the family cushion the family at that time of loss,” Walson-Jack said.
The scheme is an annual one, and today’s approval was for the 2025/2026 policy year, which would commence from the date of payment of premium to underwriters in line with the no-premium, no cover policy.
However, she said the insurance scheme would expire at the end of 2026.
“The approval for today was for the appointment of 17 insurance underwriters for the group life insurance cover and the year 2025/2026. The premium is paid to the insurance companies for a duration of 12 months.
“So, this policy will expire next year. I just like to say that in as much as this policy has existed throughout this administration and even previous administrations, we find that not too many people know about the policy, and so we have, from my office, even planned to carry out a sensitisation, which will be coming up very soon,” she added.
Federal executive council (FEC) has approved the creation of MediPool, a group purchasing organisation aimed at reducing the cost of essential medicines and healthcare products across Nigeria. Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, said MediPool would operate as a public-private partnership, leveraging the government’s purchasing power to negotiate better prices from suppliers.
Muhammad Ali Pate
“So it’s using the monopsony power of government as a large buyer of those commodities to negotiate lower prices and then channel those commodities,” Pate said.
According to him, the scope of MediPool includes “procurement planning, distribution monitoring, supply chain, logistics management, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, as well as ensuring that local manufacturers are supported.” He added that the initiative would also address “import substitution, financial management and payment systems, capacity building and training, and contingency planning to ensure steady availability of essential drugs through public-private partnership.”
Pate said the project had been vetted through the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission and benchmarked against other group purchasing organisations in Kenya, South Africa, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia. “We believe that this is a major intervention that will shape the domestic market, so that the demand for quality pharmaceuticals can be channelled in a way that lowers cost and also improves quality and stimulates local manufacturing,” he said.
He noted that the government had been exploring multiple strategies to lower pharmaceutical costs for more than a year. “Nigerians are hurting from rising costs,” he said. “It’s not limited to Nigeria. As you may be aware, even countries as far as the United States are placing executive orders to reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals.”
Pate warned that global shifts could impact medicine availability in Nigeria. If pharmaceutical companies respond to U.S. price caps by limiting supply or increasing prices elsewhere, he said, this “could disrupt the availability or affordability of certain drugs in Nigeria, particularly branded or speciality medicines.”
Meanwhile, the FEC also approved a contract worth N2.3 billion for the procurement and installation of a cardiac catheterisation machine at the Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital in Sokoto state. Pate said the advanced medical equipment would enhance the hospital’s ability to diagnose and treat complex heart conditions, including heart attacks and irregular heart rhythms.
British High Commission in Nigeria has reiterated the strong, long-standing relationship between the United Kingdom and Nigeria following the release of the UK Immigration White Paper earlier today.
A spokesperson for the High Commission stated that the UK remains a top destination for Nigerians seeking opportunities to work, study, visit, and settle, acknowledging the valuable contributions Nigerians make to the UK economy and society.
The White Paper outlines reforms to legal migration, aimed at restoring order, control, and fairness to the system while promoting economic growth.
The spokesperson assured that changes would be gradual, with further engagement between the UK and Nigerian government officials once implementation details are finalized.
“The UK has a proud tradition as an outward-looking nation, investing and trading abroad, and welcoming the creativity, ideas, and diversity of those who come to contribute here,” the spokesperson said.
The UK government has pledged to work closely with Nigerian authorities to ensure a smooth transition as the new immigration policies take effect
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