Adebayo, Ndukwe, Ekuwem for VoIP Forum

[Richard Akindele]

Nigeria's Minister for Communications Chief Cornelius Adebayo would declare open next Monday Nigeria's first VoIP Forum and the third on the African continentholding under the auspices of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

"The Forum promises to be a meeting point for all stakeholders and also a major platform on articulating the way forward on a technology as important as IP," said Dr Emmanuel Ekuwem in Lagos. Ekuwem who is also the president of Knowledge Media International Limited publishers of IT Edge described the VoIP Forum as a watershed on the theme of promoting, understanding, deploying and regulating on the VoIP phenomenon.

"The Nigerian ICT sector has undeniably benefited from the VoIP. This Forum should further highlight areas in which more benefit could be made and how all stakeholders including the regulator should consider VoIP, said Ekuwem who also presides over one of Nigeria's successful ICT firm, the Teledom Group.

There is a main conference and three workshops in all featuring leading VoIP experts such as Tom Koster, GM, Sky-Stream, United Arab Emirates, Yossi Barkan, Executive Director, Africa, PCCW Global, Hong Kong, Sunday Folayan, MD, Skannet Nigeria, Mawuli Tse, Sales Director, Africa, iBasis, and Russell Southwood, CEO, Balancing Act, UK will be leading the speakers' list. Forum sessions will consider issues that include 'Assessing investment in new VoIP opportunities,' 'VoIP pricing and service strategies in a competitive market,' 'the business opportunities VoIP offer,' and 'Maximising international connectivity via a virtual service provider, among others. Forum partners are the African ISP ISPAN, the Nigeria Internet Group , the ATCON and the Nigerian Computer Society etc.

This Day.

[Richard Akindele]

This is astounding to me. How can Nigeria be deliberating on issues related to VoIP, when we're so behind in Internet technology.

Not to belittle people's knowledge, but I assume most people don't have a clue what VoIP is about. So, I'll shed some light on that.

VoIP can be simply described as [b]telephone call carried over the Internet[/b]. In other words, the Internet is the medium over which voice data is transported from caller to recipient.

It is called VoIP, because the IP, which stands Internet Protocol, is what the Internet uses to move data. Hence, somebody came up with VoIP, instead of VoInternet.

Now, here's my question. Since Nigeria is still way behind in Internet access, shouldn't we be spending our energy on developing the Internet, rather than wasting time on things that depend on the Internet?

Nigeria's Minister for Communications Chief Cornelius Adebayo, should be working on plans to lay fibre optic cables in Nigerian cities. Once that is accomplished, that would be the proper time to talk about VoIP. Shikena.