Internet Connection
How Wits University’s New “Light Beam” Tech Can Bring Fibre to Informal Settlements
An experimental setup in the Optical Communications Laboratory used to develop optimal error correction schemes. A team of students and lecturers from South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) is developing new technology at the Optical Communications Laboratory (OC Lab) in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering. The team hopes the new low-cost innovation can bridge the peri-urban digital divide in South Africa. Visiting rooftops in search of optimal locations to test the system is one of the perks of the job. From left are students Alice Drozdov, Victoria Bench, Keitumetsi Khoza, Blake Denham with Dr Mitchell Cox, co-founder of the Optical Communications Laboratory at Wits University. The tech has been described as a beam of light “from a fibre-connecte...
NIMC insists on deadline for linking of NIN to mobile numbers
File Photo Despite criticisms from many Nigerians of the two-week ultimatum for the registration and linking of National Identity Number (NIN) to mobile numbers, the federal government has insisted on the deadline. The director-general of the National Identity Management Commission, (NIMC), Aliyu Abubakar, in an interview with newsmen on Friday said there was no extension for the announced deadline. “Right now, the way it is, there is no extension. We should not be complaining, rather we should see how it can be done,” he said. “It is until after 10 to 12 days then we will see how far it has gone before we beg the government for anything.” When the agency issued a two-week ultimatum for the enrolment, Nigerians took to social media platforms to kick against such a deadline. “In the whole o...
