Burkina Faso ISP Monopoly Fined For Internet Disruptions

Burkina Faso Telecom workers were on strike again this month, leading to phone and internet interruptions. The country has only one internet service provider, Onatel, but the days of the telecom monopoly in Africa may ending. The Burkina Faso telecommunications authority fined Onatel 5 billion CFA francs ($8.5 million U.S.) in response to the strike, …

US Senate & House Chairs Double Down! Calls to reconsider IANA Transition, Writes to AG Loretta Lynch

U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.), Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) today, in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, raised numerous …

DCA Trust dismisses ICANN’s Enforcement of The Purported AUC Endorsement withdrawal as a Rearguard Action

“At no time until after it had rejected DCA’s application, did ICANN assert that the AUC had properly “withdrawn” its endorsement. – DCA   Geographic new gTLDs in the ICANN application round were required to have endorsements of upto 60% from counties in the applying region. Many applications in the new gTLD program were therefore …

Carnegie Mellon University and MasterCard Foundation Partner to Educate African Tech Leaders

Carnegie Mellon University’s commitment to educating Africa’s next generation of technology leaders and entrepreneurs received a boost recently with a $10.8 million commitment from The MasterCard Foundation. “We are excited to partner with Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda, an exceptional institution committed to training the next generation of African engineers, innovators and entrepreneurs to meet …

.Africa: Defendant ZACR Dismissed, DCA claims against ICANN will result in relief sought

The Judge presiding over the .Africa new gTLD Case No. 16-CV-00862 RGK (JCx), DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust) v. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) & ZA Central Registry (ZACR), has granted ZACR’s Motion to Dismiss the Complaint (as to defendant ZACR only), concluding, along with other reasons (see embed below): “… the Court …

CentralNic, DCA Trust’s Registry Partner Profit Triples in FY 2015; Revenue Hikes by 70%

Financial results from CentralNic Group Plc (LON:CNIC) show the web domains group continues to add scale to is business, something that will be further boosted by the recent acquisition of Instra Group in January. CentralNic which is the back-end provider for many new gTLD extensions including .africa, applied for by DotConnectAfrica, .xyz which has the …

More internet investment needed to sustain Africa’s economic growth

LONDON, May 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ There remains considerable activity and investment in Africa’s national and international broadband infrastructure. Many countries have a range of government programs in place aimed at increasing bandwidth availability, and at extending networks deeper into non-urban areas. Submarine cables now provide 20-times more international bandwidth than was the case in 2010: …