[kictanet] ETHIOPIAN GOVT. BANS SKYPE, GOOGLE TALK AND ALL OTHER VOIP SERVICES

[tnyasani at kulahappy.com]

Hey Listers,

Has anyone come across this information?

Regards,
Tichi



ETHIOPIAN GOVT BAN ON SKYPE:

The Ethiopian government, Al Jazeera  reports, has criminalized the  
use of Skype and other VoIP services like Google Talk. Using VoIP  
services is now punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
This law actually passed last month, but mostly went unnoticed outside  
of the country. Ethiopian authorities argue that they imposed these  
bans because of national security concerns and to protect the state's  
telecommunications monopoly. The country only has one ISP, the  
state-owned  Ethio Telecom, and has been filtering its citizen's  
Internet access for quite some time now to suppress opposition blogs  
and other news outlets.


USE SKYPE, GO TO PRISON


As for Skype and other VoIP services, the new law doesn't just  
criminalize their usage, but the  Ministry of Communication and  
Information Technology now has the power to supervise and issue  
licenses to all privately owned companies that import equipment used  
for the communication of information.? It's worth noting that the new  
law also prohibits audio and video data traffic via social media. It's  
not clear how exactly the government plans to enforce this  
restriction, but a potential 15-year prison term will likely keep most  
people from using Skype in Ethiopia anytime soon.

Reporters Without Borders also reports that Ethio Telecom installed a  
system to block access to the Tor network, which allows users to surf  
the Web anonymously. The organization notes that the ISP must be using  
relatively sophisticated Deep Packet Inspection to filter out this  
traffic.

According to Internet filtering and censorship watchdog , Ethiopia  
currently has the second lowest Internet penetration rate in  
sub-Saharan Africa and just around 700,000 of the country's 84 million  
citizens had Internet access in 2010

















Quoting Kivuva <Kivuva at transworldafrica.com>:

>> On the other hand ,  according to Wikipedia, e-government refers to
>> digital interactions between a government and its Citizens
>>
>> *Questions*
>
>
>
>> 5. The government has embarked on a number of e-government initiatives, to
>> what extent has the Citizenry embraced e-government? What steps should the
>> country take to ensure the citizens fully embrace e - government?*
>> *The floor is open
>>
>>
> Thanks Barrack, let me take the open floor. :)
> I Like the UK's e-governmnet motto "Digital by default".
> http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm. It shows real commitment to take
> government services to the people, not the other way round.
>
> We have an e-Governance Secretariat established by the government of Kenya (
> http://www.e-government.go.ke/). The main objective in the website was to
>
> "oversee conceptualization, design and coordination of implementation of
> information technology activities in the civil service that are geared
> towards realization of full e-Government in public service delivery."
>
> Essentially, the term e-Government also known as Digital Government, refers
> to 'How government utilizes IT, ICT and other telecommunication
> technologies, to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness in the public
> sector' (Jeong, 2007)
>
> The government of Kenya approved a national ICT policy in consultation with
> relevant agencies which recognized the problems of the different disjoint
> government systems, duplication and lack of enabling infrastructure. Since
> then the government has created systems for applying for public service
> jobs (is it working?),  tracking status of passports (dead),  exam results
> notifications (working), a government procurement portal, and submitting
> tax returns and declaring customs online (perfect).  Many other services
> are still at infant stage but it is still a step in the right direction.
>
> Other successful e-government strategies  by the government are:
>
>    1. Establishing a data center and implementation of a shared services
>    platform where common services are integrated and managed centrally to
>    improve services, reduce overhead costs and duplications as well as for
>    optimal utilization of the ICT human capital.
>    2. Laid fiber optic cable through the nation but they have not yet
>    provided last mile connectivity to government offices or other users.
>    3. Released Open Government Data through opendata datasets concept. The
>    data includes: various dimensions of population data; local and national
>    government authority expenditure; public health indicator data and
>    statistics including hospital locations; education data such as enrollment
>    rates and school locations; parliamentary proceedings (digital Hansard);
>    weather information and detailed census statistics on topics such  
> as access
>    to electricity, water and sanitation. https://www.opendata.go.ke/
>    4. The government each years offers Local content grants to about 20
>    developers and artists of up-to $50,000 per project through a competitive
>    process.
>     
> http://www.ict.go.ke/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=356&Itemid=301
>    5. Promoting BPO/ITES activities in the country. The Hallmark is the
>    establishment of the grand Konza Technology Park which is billed as the
>    next African Silicon Savannah. http://www.konzacity.co.ke/
>    6. And finally, entrepreneurs are given loans to start Digital villages
>    code named Pasha (meaning disseminate). This initiative aims at
>    establishing Cyber Cafes that providing internet access and various online
>    services at the grassroots. http://pasha.co.ke/
>
> The initiatives are more that what I've outlines, and can be a good basis
> for a Masters or PhD dissertation. I did a slideshare presentation a years
> back with the same theme, but different components. You can access the link
> herehttp://www.slideshare.net/lordmwesh/e-government-7203413
>
> Is our e-government strategy working? Are we "more talk and no walk"? What
> can be done to push the stalled projects forward?
>
> Regards
> 10rdmwesh
>
> --
> ______________________
> Mwendwa Kivuva
> For
> Business Development
> Transworld Computer Channels
> Cel: 0722402248
> twitter.com/lordmwesh
> www.transworldAfrica.com  | Fluent in computing
> kenya.or.ke | The Kenya we know
>