Business Daily

Cash deposits handled by mobile phone companies in three months between October and December last year totalled Sh226 billion, an amount equivalent to total clients' money held by KCB at the close of 2012.

Customer deposits into the country’s four mobile phone firms Safaricom, Airtel, Yu and Orange increased 10 per cent between October and December, a report released Thursday by the Communications Commission of Kenya showed.

No sooner had Uhuru Kenyatta been declared winner of last month’s General Election than he updated his @UKenyatta Twitter handle to read: President-Elect, The Republic of Kenya.

When the Supreme Court upheld his victory on Saturday, Kenyatta took to the micro blogging site to thank his supporters and express his elation at the judgment.

Cheap phones have accelerated mobile money service penetration among women in Kenya and helped them to make a major step into financial inclusion.

A study by Bankable Frontier Associates (BFA), a financial services firm, released last month found that women are under-served by the services even while they control domestic budgets that require a regular, secure and efficient mode of savings and payments.

Econet Wireless has linked up with its South African counterpart, Econet Wireless South Africa, to provide the cheapest rates for calls from South Africa to Zimbabwe ever.

The service, which is called “Call Home”, now allows Zimbabweans in South Africa to call home during the evenings for a low rate of R2.25 per minute with pure per second billing.

Free Internet bundles for MTN SA customers

Stiff competition by Internet service providers has driven up subscription by 82.7 per cent over the past one year to reach 7.7 million, according the latest industry regulator report.

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) 2011/2012 report ending June indicates that majority of subscribers access their Internet through mobile handsets especially the youths who are active on social media.

The report also indicates that most firms are switched to inland fibre optic connections, hurting business satellite providers in the process.

Stiff competition by Internet service providers has driven up subscription by 82.7 per cent over the past one year to reach 7.7 million, according the latest industry regulator report.

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) 2011/2012 report ending June indicates that majority of subscribers access their Internet through mobile handsets especially the youths who are active on social media.

The report also indicates that most firms are switched to inland fibre optic connections, hurting business satellite providers in the process.

A South African farmer has equipped his sheep with cell phones to keep a tab on the flock and prevent livestock thefts from his vast farm.

Whenever Erard Louw, a Cape Town farmer gets a call from his sheep, it’s always a bad news as the phones are programmed to switch on only when the sheep start running, a sign that the thieves might have cut through the fence.

“As they run it gives me a phone call and says ‘sheep one’ or ‘sheep two’ and so on, so at least I know where to start looking because the farm is 750 hectares,” The Cape Times quoted Louw as saying.

Safaricom Kenya and Bharti Airtel are set to form an agreement that will enable the two giants to lay a fiber network. The move is designed to cut costs associated with the involvement of third parties whom they rely on for their internet.

Bob Collymore, CEO of Safaricom, told the Business Daily that the company initiated talks with other mobile operators including Telkom Kenya and Essar, but only Airtel took up the bid. About the fiber he added: “We are going to roll out the fibre in the coming financial year; it will involve partnering with other mobile operators.”

Mobile handset manufacturer Nokia will establish a regional research and development centre in Nairobi in an effort to capture the growing number Kenya's software developers to cultivate applications for its African market.Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop said in Nairobi last week that the mobile telephony giant intends to use the local talent to develop mobile applications to rejuvenate its falling handset sales.

Electronic readers are transforming the way people enjoy their books. However, there is very little African published content on the online stores. For a reader looking for a Kenyan book or literature published in Africa, one has to get the ink-and-paper version as few publishers have moved online.