Nokia Intensifies Fight Against Counterfeits

It has proved difficult for the East Africans to tell the difference between Original Nokia phone and a Fake one


By Dan Muhuni

I conducted the following interview following the public outcry of innocent East Africans who falls into the hands of the fake Nokia phones without noticing.

Dorothy is Nokia’s Communications Manager in East and Southern Africa

What is Nokia currently doing in intensifying the fight against counterfeit in Kenya? Since Nokia has been the mostly affected.

Dorothy: Counterfeit affects Nokia products because of the leadership position and the reputation they have. Nokia participates with local and global authorities and groups on the proliferation of fake products. We constantly promote the purchase of genuine products through our dealers and through these associations. We continuously recommend that customers buy only from authorized dealers and look out the warranty logo in blue, marked 12 months-Kenya. Nokia has been using the media as a medium of reaching people in the East African region to sensitise the public on the differences between a genuine Nokia and a counterfeit one.

We are also encouraged by the warning by the Kenya Bureau of Standards and the Communication Commission of Kenya warning consumers about compromising the quality and performance of the goods they purchase. This indeed further supports our call to our consumers to be vigilant about their purchases and where they make the purchases.

Do you think the implementation of anti-counterfeit legislation in the country which is still in parliament will help curb counterfeits?

Dorothy: Absolutely. We would like to see stringent measures taken to discourage those selling the counterfeits and thereby endangering the lives of Kenyans. We believe this anti-counterfeit legislation is a step in the right direction.

How much is Nokia currently losing annually to the counterfeit products which have flooded the Kenyan market?

Dorothy: It is difficult to assess the volumes and the financial impact of counterfeit products to Nokia, other legitimate businesses and local economies. The challenge is much broader than financial. Nokia is concerned about the inferior quality of counterfeit products and how the poor quality can adversely impact the consumer experience and the Nokia brand. Local economies also suffer from counterfeit products due to lost revenues to legitimate businesses, lost tax revenues and enforcement costs to government. We won’t speculate on the volume or financial impact for Nokia.

These fake products are made and sold illegally. We do not have information on the margins.

To conclude, a customer should insist on buying a phone with 12 months Nokia warranty. This way the customer will be certain they are buying a genuine phone. Nokia is soon introducing warranty stickers that will be on the sales box and this will assist the customer to identify phones on warranty. Generic warranty cards will also be available as further proof of warranty. However, the customer does not need to present the warranty form to get warranty services at Nokia Care points. The Nokia Care points are able to confirm warranty status through access to the Nokia database using the consumers IMEI or serial number.

We will continue to fight it by educating our consumers on how to tell the difference between a genuine Nokia and a counterfeit device. The box with the genuine phone must be intact and sealed with the Nokia logo, a hologramme and the IMEI number written on the outside. There will also be a blue warranty logo, with 12 months written on it, and clearly marked KENYA.

Dan Muhuni- EA ICT correspondent.(Blogs www.ictkenya.wordpress.com www.ictkenya.blogspot.com)

The Success of Nokia Recycling Plan

By Dan Muhuni- East African ICT correspondent. (Blogger www.ictkenya.wordpress.com & www.danictkenya.blogspot.com )

Dorothy Ooko, is the Nokia's Communications Manager in East and Southern Africa

The Success of the Nokia Recycling Plan:

1) The success of Nokia recycling plan? What is the response from Kenyans? Nokia was in process of developing a series of campaigns and activities to give people more information on why, how and where to recycle their old and unwanted devices, chargers and mobile accessories. How many of these campaigns have you conducted so far and elaborate on the success?

“Dorothy “According to a global consumer survey Nokia released in September 2008, only 3% of people recycle their mobile phones despite the fact that most have old devices lying around at home that they no longer want. Three out of every four people added that they don’t even think about recycling their devices and nearly half were unaware that it is even possible to do so. The survey is based on interviews with 6,500 people in 13 countries including Finland , Germany , Italy , Russia , Sweden , UK , United Arab Emirates, USA , Nigeria , India , China , Indonesia and Brazil . It was conducted to help Nokia find out more about consumers’ attitudes and behaviors towards recycling, and inform the company’s take-back programs and efforts to increase recycling rates of unused mobile devices.

The goal of the take-back and recycling is to make it easy for the consumers to act green by offering the possibility to return old, unused phones & accessories to Authorised Service Vendor network. 'Looking after the environment is a responsibility to be shared by everyone of us," asserts Nicholas Maina, Customer Care Manager, East Africa.

We conducted this survey because we wanted to explore new ways to increase the numbers of mobile devices that are recycled, something that despite significant investment in collection schemes and recycling processes over recent years remains relatively low.

We were surprised to see just how low awareness was on this issue, even to the extent that half of those surveyed had no idea that a mobile device could be recycled. Clearly there is much more that can be done in this area which is why we are publicising the results of this survey and trying to raise awareness of these issues. We are also investing in expanding our network of collection points and making them more visible to consumers when they visit our stores and care centres.

The theoretical recycling ability of Nokia mobile devices ranges from 65 to 80 percent. You might wonder what happens to all the old mobile phones out there. Where do they go? Currently most end up in people’s desk drawers, sitting there useless. The next most likely answer is that phones are often given to others or traded in for an upgrade. In today’s reality, recycling old phones is not such a common practice. This is something we are attempting to change.

Nokia supports the concept of individual producer responsibility. In order for us to carry out our own responsibilities we need others in the value chain, like consumers and retailers, to commit to bring back obsolete mobile devices for responsible recycling. Such co-operation eventually leads to a situation where significant drivers for environmentally optimized product desing enabling easier recycling would become commonplace, bringing further benefits for consumers, producers and the environment.

We are expanding the global availability and accessibility of takeback channels to our customers. We are also committed to continually driving visibility and awareness on this issue wherever we do business. We are currently developing awareness-building programs that fit into existing recycling infrastructure and local culture norms as well as pending local legal requirements.

We want to make it easier for people to recycle their unwanted mobile devices and are investing in a number of different areas to make this happen.

Throughout this year we will be running a major training and awareness program designed to ensure that those working in care centers operated on behalf of Nokia take back unwanted devices and can advise consumers on recycling issues. We are also investing in putting more take back bins and collection points at these care centers.

To help us understand what else still needs to be done we are conducting research with consumers in many markets around the world looking at attitudes to recycling mobile devices, incentives and how we can make it easier for people to get involved in take back programs. This will inform our recycling programs going forward.

Old phones might seem worthless but they still contain many usable and valuable materials. Nokia’s idea is to make it easier for consumers to act green by offering the possibility to return old, unused phones and accessories. Authorized Nokia Service Points, flagship stores, municipal collections, industry association's collections, or retailers' campaigns are all possible channels for returning used products.

Though we are not in the recycling business, we understand the need to cooperate with partners who specialize in this industry. Collected products are forwarded to selected recyclers for reclaiming. Recyclers we use comply with Nokia standards and are assessed by us on a regular basis.

End................ danielmuhuni@yahoo.com

End………………

Access Kenya launches hardy fibre optic cable

By Dan Muhuni

Access Kenya has launched a 140 kilometer long fiber optic cable.

The fiber cable uses the ring redundancy technology that enables one half of the cable to continue transmitting data should it be accidentally or maliciously damaged.

The move is aimed at tackling cable vandalism that has become very rampant in the country as competition to connect residential homes to the Internet heats up.

Access Kenya managing director Jonathan Somen says the fiber network is of high quality and uses the ethernet technology that has been designed for use in harsh industrial environments, such as in hazardous location.

Access Kenya controls almost half of the corporate market and has invested about 450 million shillings into the project.

Permanent secretary in the ministry of information and technology Dr Bitange Ndemo said another fiber optic cable, Eassy will be landing in the country next week.

The cable is jointly owned by Telkom Kenya and Telkom South Africa.

This will bring to four the number of cables that have landed in the East Africa coast. Three fiber optic cable networks are already operational in the country.