After introducing K-pad unto the Ghanaian market about three months ago, Alltel Limited, owned by Ghanaian Businessman, Kofi Kludjeson has announced it would introduce K-phone unto the market in the next one month. Kofi Kludjeson told journalists at the just-ended two-day AITECH Conference and Fair that on the back of success and prospects of KPad, “we will debut another product called KPhone, which is an Android-based dual-SIM phone designed to give users 24/7 internet connectivity on an Alltel SIM, and one can choose to insert a second SIM from another network for voice calls.” He said the Alltel SIM, which would come with the KPhone handset, would be mainly for unlimited internet and data access, just like the KPad was designed to give unlimited internet access at very affordable and competitive monthly subscription. Meanwhile, Mr. Kludjeson said the re-designed sleek-looking KPad had already gained international recognition as the single initiative coming from Africa comparable with Apple’s IPad. He said that KPad was an improvement on IPad because it has everything IPad has, plus a USB port, ADMI, and unlike the IPad which is a closed system, KPad has an open source for users to access more applications for free. “Now we have IPad one, two and three but this is just KPad one and it already has more than what the three IPads have so you can only imagine where KPad would go from here,” he said. KPads come in three specifications – the Android 7-inches, which works as a phone as well because it has a SIM slot, the 9.7-inches, which is the flagship product from Alltel, and the 10.1-inches developed specifically for education and for teachers, and therefore comes with both Android and Windows applications. “Currently we are testing Windows 8 on the KPad 10.1-inches and it working fine so far,” Kludjeson said. He said the company has struck direct deals with Google in the US and other application markets and developers to provide users with a wide range of applications for free. “KPad has gained so much international recognition such that over the past three months that we did the pre-launch release, we have had BBC radio come to us twice, Reuters News Agency from the UK, and recently Belgium TV also came to interview us about the product,” he said. He noted that all the international media houses, which reviewed KPad passed it as the only product of its kind coming from Africa, which has passed the test of international standards in terms of its sleek design and usability anywhere in the world. “As we speak now KPad is already in Nigeria, Liberia, Mozambique and just at this fair alone we have had approaches from South Africa, Zimbabwe and other countries, and we have also struck a deal to provide KPads to Kenya, which we would be doing in the next few months,” he said. He said the company was targeting just about five per cent of each economy within the next three years and that would come to about 1.2 million customers in Ghana, for instance. Mr. Kludjeson said the main focus of KPad and KPhone was to provide e-learning and e-health solutions among other data communication for the Ghanaian, African and eventually the world markets. He said over the past three months, KPad had been piloted among selected groups of workers like the police, the military, doctors, nurses, teachers and even some churches, and the pilot had been very successful. “KPad has enough memory to download several books for students and also has a voice application for the bible - our team is developing applications for the 1992 Constitution for teachers and students, and we are also working to have school curriculums on KPad and for hymn books on KPad specifically for churches - all that is for free," he said. Mr. Kludjeson said Alltel was also working with schools to establish e-learning centres in all second cycle institutions, adding that the Ministry of Education had approved of KPad and asked all teachers to participate. "The maiden e-learning centre was piloted at Accra Academy weeks ago and that was reviewed by Reuters News Agency," he said. He said moves were underway to provide KPads to university students within the next three years, and also supply health workers in the rural areas to take and easily transmit basic health data of patients to the appropriate quarters so those patients could have access to quality medical care from specialists, who may not be presents in the rural areas. Mr. Kludjeson said Alltel is also working with the telecom operators, the National Communication Authority (NCA) and other companies to provide 4G and LTE networks in Ghana to ensure that KPad users, for instance, would have high speed internet on their tablets.