Resiliency of our Internet Infrastructure during the COVID -19 Season

Kaka

As a proud East African, I agree with you totally and indeed trust is key
but most importantly the collective improvement of ICT critical
infrastructure through deregulation from the regulatory point of view in
some aspects.

If laying fiber optics infrastructure becomes an expensive exercise in some
members states due to local regulations then the dream of seeing a more
vibrant digital economy in East Africa will be impossible in the long run.

Each member state seems to have its share burden of regulatory issues and
lack of a more robust unified ICT policies. So while it might be easier to
develop the infrastructure in Kenya more robustly and easily, the same is
not true in other members states.

Some of the members states stated manufacturing smart phones recently with
assembly plants developed locally and I assume the products will be
affordable to Mwanainchi wa kawaida.

Political leaders on the list who seat in ICT related committees of the
East African parliament should look into this issues.

Noah

On Sun, 29 Mar 2020, 21:31 Barrack Otieno, <[email protected]> wrote:

> Kaka,
>
> You raise very interesting points. I actually think the East African
> Community should also take up the matter. For Citizens to properly embrace
> the Internet in the Region, Trust is key. Quality of service, reliability
> and security of the Networks is a key consideration. We need more
> investment in connectivity within the EAC Countries and within the region.
> We also need affordable smart devices. What is the use of connectivity if
> citizens cannot afford devices that will enable them to make good use of
> the links. If it means zero rating so be it.
>
> Mheshimiwa Abshiro we need the equivalent of the High Perfomance Computing
> Act aka the Gore bill to move our country forwad in ICT issues.
>
> Regards
>
> On Sun, 29 Mar 2020, 8:14 pm Noah via kictanet, <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I totally agree with you @Walu and I believe we are on the same page but
>> my only caution was for us not to focus so much on vendor sythax (which can
>> be crammed to aid implementation) but rather principles.
>>
>> Back to the main topic, Internet infrastructure across East Africa more
>> than just Kenya needs robust upgrades and improving.
>>
>> Bloody Covid19 is already a game changer and I believe we are all taking
>> lessons from it especially within our space with the ICT infrastructure
>> which politicians used to think was some luxury for a few elites proving to
>> be a necessity in such a time.
>>
>> *ICT could emerge stronger post COVID-19*
>>
>> Some foresee an increase in demand for cloud computing platforms with
>> enterprise applications proving to be inaccessible during lockdowns and
>> #karantini.
>>
>> Increasing usage of remote and collaboration tools. This requires
>> bandwidth like serious bandwidth.
>>
>> Increase in traffic to video streaming sites and social media platforms
>> (Isolation is tough hey, humans are not wild beasts or gods, they must
>> continue socializing)
>>
>> Increased usage of apps from grocery delivery apps to essential goods
>> apps.
>>
>> Most importantly the future of education in the face of another future
>> pendamic [1] with online education becoming defacto especially when schools
>> in future could possibly be closed beyond just one moon.
>>
>> #ICT infrastructure is #critical infrastructure.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Noah
>>
>> [1] Hellooooo….., there was the Spanish Flu, then the Influenza, then
>> the SARS, then the Swine Flu, the Ebola and you guessed it right COVID-19.
>>
>>
>> On Sun, 29 Mar 2020, 19:52 Walubengo J, <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> True, BUT assume I am Safaricom with maybe 70% of my infrastructure on
>>> Huawei and want to hire a Telco Engineer.
>>>
>>> I prolly would get a candidate who has the Telco degree (the principles)
>>> and the Huawei Certification as the added advantage.
>>>
>>> The other way around it would be that I hire then send the candidate
>>> back to finishing school for some hands on training.
>>>
>>> Universities providing both principles and skills will have an advantage.
>>>
>>> On a light note, Imagine teaching Blockchain Technologies using only Satoshi\’s
>>> Paper (the principles) <bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf> and not having
>>> access to say IBM Blockchain platforms
>>> <www.ibm.com/blockchain/what-is-blockchain> to provide students
>>> with some Lab exposure. The ones with Lab exposure will often stand out.
>>>
>>> Having said that, there are those who \’cram\’ and pass vendor-certificate
>>> exams without really learning the principles. That is also a major risk to
>>> employers.
>>>
>>> walu.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sunday, March 29, 2020, 07:37:26 PM GMT+3, Noah <[email protected]>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> @Walu
>>>
>>> I agree that a cocktail of standard principles and *mutlivendor* sythax
>>> should be the approach that can go on to see us provide better skills
>>> transfer.
>>>
>>> I only caution us from repeating the old and outdated approach of only
>>> focusing training on one vendor since this only goes to help promote the
>>> vendors products in our markets rather provide true knowledge.
>>>
>>> Employers should careless about Cisco or Juniper or Huawei but rather
>>> seek knowledgeable candidates who understand technology rather than people
>>> who have crammed how to implement a specific vendor sythax.
>>>
>>>
>>> Noah
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, 29 Mar 2020, 19:26 Walubengo J, <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> @Noah,
>>>
>>> Maybe we can do both. Teach the principles as well as offer exposure to
>>> one or several of the vendor technologies (whichever that maybe). I always
>>> find such an approach much more enriching and complimentary in my classes.
>>>
>>> Teaching \’principles\’ without offering some practical vendor sessions is
>>> like teaching Wordprocessing – without using MS-Word/OpenOffice/etc because
>>> you are trying too hard to be vendor-agnostic 😉
>>>
>>> In short, I do appreciate the need to teach principles but also
>>> appreciate the need to use vendor specific examples/labs to drive the point
>>> home.
>>>
>>> walu.
>>>
>>> On Sunday, March 29, 2020, 07:03:16 PM GMT+3, Noah via kictanet <
>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> The intermittent ip networks and grid-power aside.
>>>
>>> Am curious to know why in this day and time and day, we are still
>>> focusing on vendor specific trainings.
>>>
>>> During earlier 2000\’s we focused so much on the Cisco\’s, then somehow
>>> the Junipers and today we are seeing the Huawei syntax.
>>>
>>> Shouldn\’t we be focusing in todays Africa on teaching standard protocols
>>> even at a fundamental level and cocktail of vendors sythax rather than
>>> continually pushing some specific vendors technology which indirectly
>>> markets their kit as defacto to those we keep imbibing the skills too.
>>>
>>> Just my thoughts….
>>>
>>> Noah
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, 29 Mar 2020, 11:28 Kelvin Kariuki via kictanet, <
>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> This is very true Barrack,
>>> I have been teaching a live online class on a Huawei Certification in
>>> the past week
>>> using Zoom and some of my students, who are on different parts of the
>>> country,
>>> have really had issues keeping up because of poor internet connections
>>> and
>>> regular disconnections. Thank God Zoom has a feature to record the
>>> classes
>>> but for sure this is something that we need to look into.
>>>
>>> PS: All my students are using Safaricom as Huawei Kenya offered them
>>> with
>>> credit cards to buy internet bundles in order to be able to learn
>>> online. The training
>>> I\’m doing is Huawei Certified ICT Associate (Routing & Switching)
>>>
>>> On Sun, Mar 29, 2020 at 11:14 AM Ali Hussein via kictanet <
>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Barrack
>>>
>>> You got that right. Both Safaricom and Zuku have been intermittent over
>>> the past few days. Let\’s not even start with Kenya Power…
>>>
>>> Regards
>>>
>>> *Ali Hussein*
>>>
>>>
>>> Tel: +254 713 601113
>>>
>>> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>>>
>>> Skype: abu-jomo
>>>
>>> LinkedIn: ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>>> <ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely
>>> mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the
>>> organizations that I work with.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 1:07 PM Barrack Otieno via kictanet <
>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Listers,
>>>
>>> It seems the quality of our Infrastructure is taking a hit as more
>>> people are working from home. Talking to friends from different corners of
>>> the countries across different Networks, there seems to be a challenge. I
>>> hope the Communications Authority is paying attention. The Internet and
>>> Infrastructure service providers should not just focus on free Internet and
>>> double speeds, quality of the connection is critical.
>>>
>>> Best
>>>
>>> —
>>> Barrack O. Otieno
>>> +254721325277
>>> +254733206359
>>> Skype: barrack.otieno
>>> PGP ID: 0x2611D86A
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>> —
>>> Best Regards,
>>>
>>> Kelvin Kariuki
>>> Assistant Lecturer
>>> Multimedia University of Kenya
>>> Faculty of Computing and Information Technology
>>> Twitter Handle: @teacherkaris
>>> Alt email: [email protected]
>>> Mobile: +2547 29 385 557
>>>
>>> The Lord is my Shepherd
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>>
>> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
>> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
>> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
>> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>>
>> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
>> online that you follow in real life: respect people\’s times and bandwidth,
>> share knowledge, don\’t flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
>> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>>
>

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