Telecoms, Rates, Offers and Coverage

- A new health app iAfya has been launched in Kenya and will be available on the Blackberry operating system. The application helps users to check up health issues using their handsets fast as well as contact service providers such as insurers and doctors.

Apple has announced it will officially enter the Nigerian market and has appointed four authorised resellers in the West African country. These are iConnect and Orchard in Lagos, and Meed Networks and Cross-Energy Supply in Abuja. To date, Apple products have been sold in the region through unofficial dealers, even though the country’s operators have offered products like the iPad on contract offers. Consumers purchasing Apple products through the new official distributors will be entitled to two-year warranties on them.

- Vodafone Ghana has extended the welcome period for its mobile internet customers from 60 to 90 days, during which they will get double their internet allowance. The allowance on the 'browser', 'streamer' and 'downloader' bundles has also been increased for existing customers. The company has lowered the cost of its modems to GHC 49, too. This is part of its year-long 'limitless possibilities' campaign aimed at educating Ghanaians about the positive effect that the internet can have on their lives.

- Airtel Tanzania has launched its cash transfer promotion drive which enables subscribers to send or receive money free of charge. The firm has also introduced a short code to access Airtel money menu to facilitate easy access to users by dialing *150*60#.
Airtel has decided to introduce the short code to support customers with different types of handset to access the Airtel money Menu easily. Airtel Money service allows customers to pay utility bills, goods and services.

- Safaricom has launched a new promotion Wakenya Tuongee with discounts of up to 75% on their calling rates.The customers pay Kshs. 4 for the first minute of their call, Kshs.3 for calls between 1 and 2 minutes and Kshs. 2 for the calls that last between 2 and 3 minutes. Calls that last for more than 3 minutes will be charged at Ksh. 1.It runs from the 24th of July to 23rd of August 23 2012 and will only apply to Pre-Paid customers making Safaricom-to-Safaricom calls from 6am to 6pm.

- FNB’s Cellphone Banking customers are now able to do banking on Facebook. This first in banking innovation in South Africa, enables the bank’s customers to access certain banking services while on Facebook. To access banking through Facebook, customers need to link their Facebook profiles to their Cellphone Banking profile. Once linked they can access the “FNB Banking on Facebook” application via Facebook which will allow them to check their balances, purchase prepaid products including airtime, SMS and BlackBerry bundles.

- PSTN operator Angola Telecom has introduced a national single rate tariff to standardise the cost of making calls to all areas of the country within its network, news agency ANGOP reports. The wireline and CDMA network operator has set off-peak and peak tariffs for destinations countrywide between its subscribers, at KWZ7.20 (USD0.075) and KWZ8.93 per minute respectively. To promote the move Angola Telecom is offering customers free calls at the weekend this month.

- AppChat mobile voice network operator is set to revolutionize South Africa’s telecom sector with its promise of affordable local and international calls.
AppChat promises per-second billing for daily off-net calls other than in-bundle and out-of-bundle billing rates. According to John Holdsworth, the founder and CEO of the MOVO, the firm will cut the calling costs in SA by 50 percent. Holdsworth told TechCentral he will achieve this through lean operations and instead of circuit switched operations, AppChat will use mobile VoIP in partnership with Cell C.

Airtel Ghana has launched a new service dubbed “Airtel Smart Zone”, which offered customers discounts of up to 99% on on-net and off-net calls and SMS at different times of the day. A statement from the company quoted Marketing Director Oare Ojeikere as saying Airtel SmartZone was the only one of its kind, which allowed discounts to be applied to both on-net and off-net calls.

“What that means is that subscribers can use their discounts on Airtel-to-Airtel calls as well as Airtel-to other network calls,” he explained.

- MTN Ghana has launched a new facebook page that allows its customers to interact with the company on facebook absolutely free of charge.Chief Marketing Officer of MTN Ghana, Rahul De told Adom News it would be an avenue for MTN to also address customer queries online.