AfriNIC Board Election 2008

Nominated by : Viv Padayatchy
Nominee : Basgeet Leckraj Raja Rai
Organization (or affiliation) : Mauritius Telecom
Position: Senior Executive Networks Planning
Country and sub-region nominated for: Mauritius, Indian Ocean

Brief statement explaining the candidate’s background and motivation:

  His answers to the Ecom questions - Download his CV

A. CANDIDATE’S BACKGROUND

I am an Engineering Graduate in Electrical & Electronics Engineering. Graduated in 1994 from the University of Mauritius I secured a First Class Honours and was also a Gold Medalist.

After completing my Bachelor Degree, I joined Ireland Blyth (IBL) where I performed as a Contract Engineer for a six months period, during which I was responsible for the setting up and commissioning of the Building Management System (BMS) at the Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) Head Quarters. BMS, in 1994, was a revolutionary concept as it provided MCB for a better control of its Energy Management & Consumption  (eg:- Air Conditioning, Lighting, etc…) and also an efficient and cost effective way for management of the Building Systems (eg:- Pumps, Lifts, etc…)

I joined Mauritius Telecom in November 1994 as Junior Engineer and worked in the Outside Plant (OSP) for a 2 Years period – 1994 to 1996 – whereby I was responsible of overseeing repairs and maintenance of the Telephone Network in the North Region, which included Districts of Port Louis, Pamplemousses and Riviere du Rempart.

From 1996 to 1997, I was posted in the OSP Construction department for implementing of main feeds and secondary feeds ( from Distribution Cabinets to Distribution Points) is essential in the Customer Provisioning Process for Fixed Line access.

I joined Cellplus Mobile Communications Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mauritius Telecom in April 1997.Cellplus had just started its operations in October 1996 and everything was to be put in place. I was appointed as Planning Engineer and was responsible to provide expansion plans based on strategic inputs.

In 2002, with Mauritius Telecom reorganizing its activities, I was appointed as Head of Cellplus Networks Division. As the person responsible for all Technical matters at Cellplus, my major responsibilities comprised of the following,

Defining and elaborating along with Top Management the Strategic Evolution of Cellplus and consequently its Network.

Putting the Strategy into meaningful plans for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Implementing Proposed plans into a Phased manner.
Implementing the mobile data network.
Continuously improving and optimizing the cellular network.
Implementing Value Added Services (VAS) for the added benefits of the Customer
In 2007 with the further reorganization of Mauritius Telecom to become a converged company, I have been appointed as Senior Executive Network Planning whereby I am responsible for the Planning and Implementation of Fixed, Mobile , Internet and Converged services.

Some key Topics on which I am presently working are as follows,

Broadband island wide coverage  in Mauritius through utilization of a number of technologies xDSL, FTTB , FTTC, 3G HSxPA and WiMAX (Fixed and Mobile).
Technology & Network Masterplan for Fix, Mobile & Internet.
Setup of Converged Core for Fix and Mobile.
Based on this converged core to move towards Converged services such as UMA
Migration Plan to IPV6.
During this Time Period, I registered myself as a Professional Engineer with the Council of Engineers of Mauritius and read for an MBA (2000 – 2002), with Specialisation in Marketing at the University of Mauritius.

 B. CANDIDATE’S MOTIVATION

A generation ago, the Telecom World was characterized by a number of common facets. Most countries had a Dominant Operator that was often State owned and its operations tightly controlled and regulated. Competition within the country and all the more cross border competition was almost quasi inexistent. Most of the traffic carried by Telecom operators was voice and in many a case Long Distance Calls were charged at a premium and utilised to subsidise local calls and/or to pay the inefficiencies that such a Market situation would occasion.

A generation later, this landscape has changed dramatically. Today the Telecom World is more and more (if not everywhere) deregulated. State owned monopolies have been privatized and the introduction of new wireless technologies have facilitated the emergence of a new breed of competitors for the incumbent operator.

Having been a player in the development of Telecom environment in Mauritius on a more operational scene, I believe that the experience that I have gained can help an organization as Afrinic to better take decisions at a strategic level.

If I have the opportunity to be considered as a Board Member my priority considerations would be as follows,

To work together for the setting  down of policies to help in bridging the Digital Divide gap in particular in the African Region. To see to it how proposition of policies can help Indian Ocean and African member states to develop the communications infrastructure so as to have the necessary disruption to make a marked difference in the lives, ways and perception of how individuals view communication. This would in turn have a direct impact and brings in its wake – economical development at both communitywide and personal level.
To promote the implementation of IPV6. With the limited IPV4 addresses available and the explosion in mobile devices, IPV6 migration is essential if we want to see sustained development in the ICT field.

Nominated by: Haja Ramboasalama
Nominee: Lala Andriamampianina
Organization (or affiliation):  NIC-MG
Position: President
Country and sub-region nominated for: Madagascar (Indian Ocean)

His answers to the Ecom questions - Download his CV 

Brief statement explaining the candidate’s background and motivation:

I have read with a particular attention the announcement of the election of the representative from Indian Ocean at the AfriNIC Board of  Directors. As we know the main role of AfriNIC is to serve Africa region as Regional Internet Registry (RIR) and our association, the NIC-MG, is a founding member.

By my background and skills in data processing, as in project building and management, I have been able to bring my personal significant contribution of the Internet development and mastery of ICT in Madagascar since about fifteen years through many projects for which I was the initiator.

I was among the African researchers in computer science who held the Ouagadougou declaration in October 1994 to promote the Internet in Africa. I was founding chair, chair and member of board of national and international institutions in the domain of ICT, Telecommunication and Higher Education. Now I am the Vice Chair of the Board of the Malagasy E-Governance National Realization Agency.

Furthermore I was the executive manager of the FADES (Found of the Higher Education Development) during Six years, a project of the Malagasy government, which was financed by the World Bank. And my personal interest is to contribute to the development of science computer and the ICT appropriation as I was among the first pioneer using the Internet in 1994 in Madagascar.

Nominated by: Internet Society Mauritius Chapter
Nominee: Bakurally Abdoos Samad
Organization (or affiliation): ISOC MAURITIUS CHAPTER
Position: Secretary
Country and sub-region nominated for: Mauritius (Indian Ocean)

His answers to the Ecom questions - Download his CV 

Brief statement explaining the candidate’s background and motivation:

After several years working experience as systems engineer in international companies in the online gaming industry I have been very much exposed to IT and Telecommunication networking, internet technologies and the domain name space. I have also establish and manage private company in Mauritius and Comoros Island providing IT hardware and software, call center and internet related services.   After completion of my MBA at Institut de la francophonie pour l’entrepreuneuriat and university of Bordeau France in IT management and information systems, I had the opportunity being a consultant for several private companies and stakeholders in Comoros Island in IT strategic plans.

I joined ISOC Mauritius chapter and being the organization secretary, I have been got more exposure to the internet world namely ISOC organization, ICANN, IETF among others. I had also the opportunity to attend INET Africa and Afrinic meetings in Mauritius and Nigeria and ICANN meeting in San Juan and following these meetings, ISOC Mauritius chapter has shown more participation in international organizations. Joining Afrinic as a board member is very challenging for me as this will foster my objective more in the internet fields namely in Africa and getting more involved in internet technologies, ipv6, dns and domain name space.

   My main focus will be the following:
- Promoting IPV6
- Supporting Afrinic policy development program
- Focusing on IPX and regional interconnections.
- Be more involve in African cctld and AFTLD
- Supporting the continent in developing multilingualism in the Internet
- Helping to develop a benchmark for Internet Development
- Promoting Internet security
- User Centric Internet
- Finding ways to enable internet access for remote and disadvantaged population - More understanding of the African telecom environment, licensing of telecom, intercontinental fiber optics connectivity

Nominated by: Ken Lohento and Jovan Kurbalija
Nominee: KISSANGOU Jean Philemon
Organization (or affiliation): Congolese chapter of Internet society (ISOC-CG)
Position: Chairperson

Country and sub-region nominated for: Congo (Central Africa)

His answers to the Ecom questions  - Download his CV

Describe your role: I completed a master degree in téléinformatique (networks) in Senegal in 2002, and recently, a diploma in Telecommunications Policy and Regulation from the University of West Indies.

From 2005 to 2006, I spent two years dealing with Internet governance courses and researches organized by diploFoundation. The appreciation made on my work thereupon, granted me a fellowship from the United Nations to exercise as a trainee at the Internet Governance Working Group Secretariat, in September 2005 in Geneva.

I began to get involved in the Internet community through Internet society (ISOC). I have helped to set up the Congolese chapter of ISOC which I’m currently chairing. Before that, I managed two local Internet-related to the organizations:
- Le CACSUP (Centre Africain de Complementarite Scolaire-Universitaire et de Promotion), an education and ICT NGO accredited by the WSIS.
- ASCIS (African Civil Society for Information Society), the Congolese antenna.

In the framework of these organizations, mainly CACSUP, I had initiated many consciousness-raising activities, lectures and trainings upon Internet issues.

I have worked as a teacher for many years, and I am currently working in the technical team of a local ISP.

First, I am excited by the organization of Afrinic: At the top we have the community, at the bottom the bureau, and between both the directors’ board which helps the bureau to achieve the community’s needs and expectations. In the framework of this candidature I want to commit myself to assist the chair and its bureau in serving the Afrinic community.
Any realistic person in the Internet community knows that today, more than ever, Afrinic is particularly facing too many challenges which are underlined by “the announced crisis” of IPv4 addresses and the lack of keen interest from the governments, companies, education/research centers and end-users to request Internet resources to Afrinic. On the other hand, the change of IP addresses and ASes (shortly) to 128 bits increases the number of Internet resources to allocate, bringing consequently new challenges to Afrinic in term of assisting Africans to discover, adopt, implement, deploy and use IPv6. Then, I wish to join the Afrinic team to think and act, on the behalf of the community, so that to try to take up the ‘IPv6 challenge’ in the continent.

In addition to policy issues, technical and operational problems remain as the obstacles which the community must face to. Indeed, faced with routing requirements more and more increased on Internet, our backbone routers meet many problems to adapt to the peer/transit partner operational requirements. I therefore hope to bring my contribution to these big challenges.

To put an end to this, I want just to indicate that the fact the central Africa sub region is particularly still late to participate in the building of the information society, constitutes an additional reason which has led me to be a candidate.

Nominated by: Didier Rukeratabaro Kasole
Nominee: Didier Rukeratabaro Kasole
Organization: Supranet Solutions
Position: CTO
Country and sub-region nominated for: Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa

 His answers to the Ecom questions - Download his CV

Brief statement explaining the candidate’s background and motivation:

I serve the community as Afrinic board member for the last 4 years and would like to continue to do so. If I am re-elected I will continue to serve for the interest of the community.

Nominated by : CAMEROON TELECOMMUNICATIONS (CAMTEL)
Nominee : Tonye Antoine Joseph Junior
Organization (or affiliation): CAMEROON TELECOMMUNICATIONS (CAMTEL)
Position: Unit for the Internet and Dedicated Networks Assistant Design Engineer (LIR CAMEL)

His answers to the Ecom questions - Download his CV

 Describe your Role: I’m responsible for ensuring the operation management of IP addresses blocks and the related numeric resources of CAMTEL. I oversee the assignment of IP number resources to CAMTEL’s Network, ISPs and other public enterprises in Cameroon and i’m in charge of updating LIR’s informations in the AfriNIC’s Database.

Country and sub-region nominated for: Cameroun, Central Africa

Brief statement explaining the candidate’s background and motivation:

Holder of Information Systems Designer Analyst from African Institute of Computer Science (IAI-Cameroon), I’m involve in the operation management of LIR since 2001. My interest is to promote self Internet governance in Africa and particularly in Cameroon, by sharing experience of  challenges in the Internet network across the African continent. I also use to participate actively in the process of developing and enhancing AfriNIC’s activities in the Central Africa sub-region. 

Nominated by: Pierre Dandjinou
Nominee: Viv Padayatchy
Organization (or affiliation): AFRINIC, AFRISPA, Mauritius Internet Exchange Point, Mauritius Outsourcing and Telecommunications Association
Position: Executive Director - Operations and IT, Mauritius Freeport Development
Country and sub-region nominated for: Mauritius, Indian Ocean

His answers to the Ecom questions 

Brief statement explaining the candidate’s background and motivation :

I Know Viv Padayatchy since the beginning of Afrinic when the 1st elected board was set up in Dakar. He has been a very active member in the internet community both  in his own country, Mauritius and in Africa through organisations like Afrinic and Afrispa. His contribution to Afrinic was particularly valuable in assisting in the installation of Afrinic headquarters in Mauritius. At home, Viv launched the ISP association (now integrated within a large ICT association) and the Internet Exchange Point (of which he became the first president). I therefore support his nomination on the board of Afrinic for another term.

Nominated by : Bouraga Gaëtan
Nominee : Bouraga Gaëtan
Organization (or affiliation): Gabon Telecom
Position: Project Manager
Country and sub-region nominated for: Gabon (Central Africa)

 His answers to the Ecom questions  - Download his CV

Brief statement explaining the candidate’s background and motivation:

Electronic and Broadband Network Engineer
• Internet Engineering
• Broadband network Engineering

Since 1995, I work in the area of the Internet, from construction of networks infrastructures for operators to organization of the management of Internet resources as well as the implementation of NIC. I also participated in several projects at the international level on the development of the Internet in Africa. In 2005, I became AfriNIC’s board member From 2005 to 2006 I initiated bilateral trade between NIC Cote d’Ivoire and NIC Gabon. In late 2007 I initiated the project of setting up the Global Internet Exchange Point for the countries of the Gulf of Guinea namely, Angola, DRC, RC, Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe.. I will be the Gabonese governmental technical adviser to the Governmental Advisory Committee of ICANN for the period from 2008 to 2012. I am also member of the ccNSO, AFTLD, College international du NIC France and technical contact of ccTLDs .ga. The implementation of IPv6, the organization of NICs for the management of ccTLDs, IDN and the issues of Internet governance are for me the future African’s challenges in sector of the Internet for the next five years By this application, I would like to give once again my modest contribution to the development of the Internet in Africa.