Freeconferencecall.com looks to expand its footprint in Africa and can offer broadcast calls to 5,000 people

15 March 2019

As telecoms moves to over-the-top data services it’s interesting to see how legacy interconnect arrangements have been used to build a free conference calling service. Russell Southwood talked to Bertrand Daumalle, Managing Director, International Operations, Freeconferencecall.com about its operations in Africa. Freeconferencecall.com was started in 2001 by David Erickson out of his apartment. According to Inc in 2016., Erikson sunk time and effort into building a service to let users conduct screen sharing and videoconferencing, but then a rival company began offering a similar service for free. So, he decided to get into the free business model himself and launched…

South Africa’s Makhulu Media shoots pioneering VR film to get health clinic workers and young people wanting an HIV test to “step into each other’s shoes”

14 March 2019

Virtual Reality (VR) is still a bit of a technology in search of a role. But South Africa film production company Makhulu Media have used it to craft a very specific solution to a problem. Russell Southwood talks to Rowan Pybus, Makhulu Media about how it approached both filming and distribution. 360HIV is a campaign that uses VR to address the problems people have when they go to a clinic. Prior to filming, Makhulu Media organized workshops to listen to what young people said about their experiences. According to Rowan Pybus:”We sat in many countries listening to young people talk…

4G and 5G in Africa: launches, subscribers, data prices and trends

The evolution of 4G across the 55 African countries has promised a great deal since the first commercial network went live in 2012. Now, with the continent on the cusp of the first 5G networks being launched, a lot of attention is being directed towards how successful 4G connectivity has been on the continent.   Has it delivered the returns for the mobile network operators that have invested so much? Has it helped to contribute to the transformation of the digital lives of African consumers? Is the wider tech ecosystem thriving from launching a swath of products and services that are…