Smoothtel & Data solutions limited has established an elearning secretariat for the Eastern African region. This was announced by Raphael Mwangi, technical director Smoothtel, at an East African eLearning conference and exhibition that kicked off on Monday 6 December 2010, in Nairobi. The conference, hosted by Smoothtel & Data Solutions Limited and East Africa ICT Exhibitions & Conferences, attracted several stakeholders in the elearning sector including Cisco, Seven Seas Technologies and Kenyatta University amongst others. According to Valentine Wambui, Smoothtel's program co-ordinator for elearning Eastern African secretariat, Smoothtel saw an opportunity in bringing together various stakeholders in the elearning sector. "We saw it as a chance to bring content creators, hardware suppliers and schools together after our conference held in March,"  says Wambui. She adds that Smoothtel came to the decision after establishing that it had contacts to most players in the industry and it would be beneficial to link all of them together.

At the conference, Mwangi was also very critical of businessmen importing used computers and selling them off cheaply to schools. Most of this computers have now broken down and are lying idle in various schools. Instead, Mwangi says schools should opt for N-computing hardware. N-Computing devices, which are supplied by Smoothtel enable's one computer to be turned into a server for various clients, each with a monitor, keyboard and mouse. This hardware is equivalently cheap, more powerful and lasts longer.Those requiring more computing power can also utilise the same technology to deploy servers. Smoothtel is deploying N-computing for Kenyatta University where one server will be used to run several clients.
Smoothtel brings in a complete solutions that also teaches the teachers on the use of IT in teaching. "We offer training of trainers on how to embrace ICT and learn how to teach using ICT, including management of classes and delivery of lessons using powerpoint presentations," Wambui says.
Setting up labs and providing contents are just the basics of elearning. Schools can share resources through the labs and networks such as the National Optic Fiber Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI). The whole idea of NOFBI is for schools and hospitals to use it. This technology can be used for virtual classes to bridge teacher shortfall. The 1 to 1 ratio of computers and students can quickly be achieved by adopting best practices from countries like Macedonia and Russia, that have achieved high penetration rates. 
However, as with adoption of all other technology, Smoothtel has also been facing challenge in deployment of its elearning solutions, especially the N-computing solution. "Some people think it's going back to the mainframe," Wambui says. Smoothtel is trying to counter this through awareness sensitization of all stakeholders. At the same time, high awareness has created a new problem in the form of counterfeit products. Competitors have been taking advantage of the awareness to offer cheaper, sub-standard and un-supported solutions. According to Wambui, some schools have bought such equipment only for the supplier to wind up. She adds that the government has done its role of setting up necessary policy, and it is up to the private sector to pick it up from there.