Telecoms in Africa

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 926 – 18 May 2018

Mobile money start-up MFS wants to have 400 million mobile wallets by 2020 – it’s already nearly halfway there

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 925 – 11 May 2018

Orange bets on mobile financial services, energy and B2B services for its digital future – Projects revenues of US$2-300 million in 2-3 years

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 924 – 4 May 2018

A Warning Sign to African Telecoms Operators – Fire at operator closes down nearly 50% of its capacity

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 923 – 27 April 2018

Mozambique – Market struggles with massive financial scandal, moratorium on LNG investment and lack of open fibre markets

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 922 – 20 April 2018

Togo: New LTE entrant Teolis wants to offer rural education opportunities and takes an optimistic view of the country’s frozen monopoly provider

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 921 – 13 April 2018

Sudatel bullish after the lifting of US sanctions and wants to keep being an international operator in Africa

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 920 – 6 April 2018

Senegal: After a 20+ year wait, Arc finally gets to launch an LTE-TDD broadband service and build its own infrastructure

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 919 – 29 March 2018

The start-up with the US$1 smartphone, a mobile money app and nanosatellites pitches for the rural market in Nigeria

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 918 – 23rd March 2018

Budget transparency in Kenya allows tracking of growing ICT expenditure at County level but the picture is still not completely clear

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 917 – 16th March 2018

Orange’s Intrapreneurship Start-Up Bizao allows local start-ups and digital service providers to get access to opco APIs across Africa

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 916 – 9th March 2018

Namibia: Regulator CRAN’s decision to approve sale of MTC investor stake leaves telecoms sector all in Government hands

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 915 – 2nd March 2018

With fibre connections to North and South America and Asia, Angola Cables is pitching itself as a global player

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 914 – 23rd February 2018

The Strange Case of the Dog that didn’t bark – Communications Authority of Kenya, Safaricom and the fall of Francis Wangusi

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 913 – 19th February 2018

Senegal: Minister of Telecommunications and Digital Economy says new ISPs will “improve competition”, MVNO legislation on its way and Tigo sale? Nothing soon.

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 912 – 9th February 2018

Naspers closes down OLX offices in Kenya and Nigeria and Nigeria’s Zinox buys Konga – Africa’s digital services sector takes a fall

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 911 – 2nd February 2018

Kenya’s Surf reaches 1,000 Wi-Fi hot-spots and is looking to double or triple the number in the next 12 months

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 910 - 26 January 2018

Africa’s Slowest Moving Fibre Project takes another step forward - African Development Bank provides $21 million for Central African Republic

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 909 - 19 January 2018

Vodacom’s Zunaid Mahomed, Vodacom Group Digital and Fixed Services Officer on growing a parallel digital business to its telco operations

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 908 – 12 January 2018

Nigeria’s Nigcomsat to get two more satellites costing US$550 million – Government continues to bet against a losing position

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 907 – 5 January 2018

5 Wishes for Africa’s Telecoms and Internet Industry in 2018

Seasons Greetings

Seasons Greetings from Balancing Act

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 905 – 8 December 2017

Angola’s Fourth Unified Licence may not be a ‘diamond in the rough’ in a country where the state still has its fingers in many pies

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 904 – 1 December 2017

Algeria Telecom-PCCW Global sign cable agreement to meet the country’s growing bandwidth demand

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 903 – 24 November 2017

CSquared wants to roll out metronets in more countries and build and buy long-distance fibre in West Africa

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 902 – 17 November 2017

Viamo Mobile’s IVR services offer a two-way communications channel across Africa at scale – mobile operator partnerships key

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 901 – 10 November 2017

AfricaCom 2017: Challenging times ahead for satellite operators in Africa – the business model looks set to change

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 900 – 3 November 2017

South Africa and FTTH - SA Digitial Villages will be in 15 regions by 2018:”We see lot of people switching off their DStv subs and going on to Netflix”

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 899 – 27 October 2017

Fibre as key infrastructure in Africa – Industry body FTTX Council Africa ups its lobbying efforts across Africa

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 898 – 20 October 2017

Canal+ launches Triple Play in Gabon – Vivendi Africa Group makes a grab for fixed bandwidth FTTH customers

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 897 – 13 October 2017

The Great Liberian Hacking Scandal – Who’s the operator that employed the arrested hacker?

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 896 – 6 October 2017

Digital waves breaking across Africa – looking at the where and the what of this new landscape

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 895 – 29 September 2017

Namibia – Topsy-turvy world of telecoms sector where the Government owns almost everything and wants monopoly gateway without a tender

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 894 – 22 September 2017

Upstream offers operators a digital services platform with video and games content – 2.3 million subscribers in Nigeria and South Africa

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 893 – 15 September 2017

Changes in African market over the last seventeen years – Interview with industry pioneer Yossi Barkan on what has and hasn’t changed for the better

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 892 – 8 September 2017

iPLANS’ new VoIP service offers Cameroonians a virtual MVNO to get cheaper domestic and international calling rates

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 891 – 25 August 2017

Node Africa’s Phares Kariuki is chasing customers who want to make the transition from their own data centre to a cloud-based service

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 890 – 17 August 2017

African Internet speeds and volumes increase but the bar just keeps getting higher

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 889 – 11 August 2017

Kenya: Andy Halsall, poa! Internet:”There’s massive home broadband demand….Fibre operators just don't want to go to these areas.”

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 888 – 4 August 2017

Four-country study of African Internet users shines light on how they use it and the barriers to greater use

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 887 – 28 July 2017

Low-cost comms co-op Zenzeleni Networks provides cheaper voice and data for village community

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 886 – 21 July 2017

E-commerce in Nigeria: Konga weathers the recession and rolls out a grocery service to build deeper relationship with its customers

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 885 – 14 July 2017

West Africa Com 2017: A sobered mobile industry takes stock of the scale of the coming digital transformation

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 884 – 7 July 2017

Africa’s calm before the storm – economic pressures may help create the end of peak voice and SMS

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 883 – 30 June 2017

Nigeria: Tizeti woos household and SME customers a combination of Wi-Fi hot-spots, lower prices, better quality and no data caps

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 882 – 23 June 2017

Nigeria’s VoguePay wants to capture the ECOWAS region with its payment processing service

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 881 – 16 June 2017

Comores: Second operator Telma shakes up a former monopoly market with low-entry smartphones and cheaper data and voice calling

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 880 – 9 June 2017

Vodafone Uganda CEO John Ndego:” More and more of traditional 2G services are becoming something of the past. High speed data is gradually taking over”.

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 879 – 2 June 2017

VoD and Africa: New report tracks state of play of services, challenges and opportunities

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 878 – 26 May 2017

Africa’s data centre sector experiences a growth spurt – 12 level 3 facilities as Nigeria’s Rack Centre joins their ranks

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 877 – 19 May 2017

Africa’s mobile operators do start-ups – why and how they are getting to grips with a changing landscape

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 876 – 12 May 2017

Africa: 102 mobile operators have launched 4G-LTE services in 43 countries, says new report

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 875 – 5 May 2017

Nous sommes une banque – Orange wants to make the transition to becoming a bank in France but Hello Group will do it in Africa

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 874 – 28 April 2017

Malawi: C3 to launch a nationwide wireless data network using Mimosa, TV White Spaces and Wi-Fi – Targeting Corporates, SMEs and NGOs

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 873 – 21 April 2017

Orange sees relationship with start-ups as part of Africa’s broader digital transformation

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 872 – 13 April 2017

African mobile operators start entering into deals with major broadcasters over streaming and download services

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 871 – 7 April 2017

Kenya: Surf wants to provide cheap Wi-Fi broadband for the “average consumer” in places where people will be throughout the day

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 870 – 31 March 2017

African regulation for the coming digital future – getting beyond the mobile paradigm for more competition

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 869 – 24 March 2017

Sliide’s Free Data App set to roll out in South Africa with expansion plans later

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 868 – 17 March 2017

Benin: Waiting for a fibre upgrade and price drops before its users make the big move to digital services

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 867 – 10 March 2017

Falling into the cracks in data coverage – how a village close to the fibre and 45 minutes from Nairobi can’t get data access

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 866 – 3 March 2017

DRC: 4G licences to be issued shortly but already the digital transition is under way in Kinshasa

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 865 - 24 February 2017

A4AI’s latest Affordability Report shows that Sub-Saharan Africa has a long way to go – more affordable Internet a must

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 864 - 17 February 2017

Senegal: Big changes hit Sonatel-dominated market but new challengers need strategy to win

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 863 - 10 February 2017

Straws in the Wind – Africa’s mobile business model takes the slow road to change battered by financial circumstances

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 862 - 3 February 2017

Nigeria: IXPN’s local traffic could double over next 12 months with new content partners localizing their content

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 861 - 26th January 2017

Mauritius’ IOX wants to build an international cable to link India to Africa – “We are not operators, we are facilitators for the operators.”

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 860 - 20th January 2017

The New Normal for Africa in 2017 - 4G Coverage and Higher Speeds driving new data uses

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 859 - 13th January 2017

Facebook’s Open Cellular GSM base station comes out of the shadows and goes on sale – a new way to address Africa’s remote areas

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 858 - 6th January 2017

Legend passes 150,000 households in Abuja with 350 kms of cable offering double and triple play offers to householders

Seasons Greetings from Balancing Act - Issue no 857

Seasons Greetings from Balancing Act - Issue no 857

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 856 - 9th December 2016

Supa Pesa opens up advertising business model revenues for mobile operators – South Africa now, Nigeria and Zambia next

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 855 2 December 2016

Uber ‘s Sub-Saharan operation is coming up to an estimated million rides a week – no revenue share, no carrier billing

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 854 25 November 2016

Inside the Operation of a Kenyan Grey Operator – Reaching out to new users with a very local focus

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 853 18 November 2016

Angola: In tough times, Unitel focuses on CSR to combat malaria and keeps betting on content as a driver of data

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 852 11 November 2016

Africa’s Platforms become the new channels and jostle to become the platform of choice

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 851 4 November 2016

Digital Afrique Telecom seeks to make the transition from VAS provider for francophone Africa to mobile payment platform

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 850 28 October 2016

Second generation international fibre projects will pile further downward pressure on wholesale prices – it’s a commodity market

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 849 21 October 2016

BluPoint’s content hub offers curated online content offline that can be updated and can operate where there is little or no Internet

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 848 14 October 2016

“People are more reliant on data services”, What’s App and Uber really making waves, say Ben Roberts, Liquid Telecom

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 847 7 October 2016

Tanzanian MVNO AMOTEL works with TTCL to connect remote villages with voice and data

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no. 846 30 September 2016

#Legacybusinessmodelsmustfall – Taking the pulse of tomorrow’s industry at the Africa Tech Summit

News Update – Telecoms and ICT in Africa – Issue no 845 23 September 2016

#DATAMUSTFALL – The consumer nightmare that Africa’s mobile operators will have to get to grips with

News Update – Telecoms and ICT in Africa – Issue no 844 16 September 2016

Kenya’s low cost data operator poa! Internet moves from soft launch in Kibera to hard launch and will roll out nationally and in East Africa

News Update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 843 9 September 2016

The new data-driven telco business model - Why digital advertising matters

News Update - Telecoms and ICT in Africa Issue no 842 2 September 2016

Ghana’s Busy Internet offers users a dual SIM Lenovo handset for its 4G service – What’sApp is growing fast

News Update Telecoms and ICT in Africa Issue no 841 26th August 2016

Tanzania’s digital advertising: “our clients spend (including Tigo) 10 to 15% of their budget on digital media”, Nadeem Juma, Aim Group

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 840 19 August 2016

Paga pulls away from the pack as Nigeria’s m-money market develops – Will offer improved payment choice functionality in September

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 839 12 August 2016

Kenya’s Safaricom edges quietly into the home space with the Big Box and possible FTTH option with Kenya Power

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 838 5 August 2016

Africa’s Data Future – Telecoms regulators need to innovate to get lower Internet access costs

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 837 29 July 2016

Comsol to spend US$70 million rolling out Millimetre Band nationally in South Africa to create fibre-like wireless for local access

News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 836 22 July 2016

Bollore’s Vivendi has a plan to build a rail-based 5,000 kms fibre backbone linking half a dozen African countries

Issue no 835 - 15th July 2016

Facebook’s OpenCellular – Another disrupter in cracking Africa’s remote area nut?

Issue no 834 - 1st July 2016

With 8 million clients in Africa, StarTimes now brings innovative Telecoms and IT solutions

Issue no 833 - 24th June 2016

WIOCC CEO Chris Wood bullish about Africa’s international bandwidth growth but says new cables “more than market can soak up”

Issue no 831 - 10th June 2016

Nigerian payment gateway Amplify start-up targets the recurring payments market worth US$1.3 billion

Issue no 830 - 3rd June 2016

Rwanda: Vanu innovates low-cost rural coverage by lowering both OPEX and CAPEX costs

Issue no 829 - 27th May 2016

Nigeria’s BeepTool offers a home-grown Skype, WhatsApp and Viber rolled into one plus money transfer, claims 500,000 users

Issue no 828 - 20th May 2016

Data close to overtaking voice revenues in one African market – The whole shape of the business is changing

Issue no 827 - 13th May 2016

Race for new international fibre build on east coast of Africa hots up but why build more capacity?

Issue no 826 - 6th May 2016

Senegal’s ADIE begins to drive online services for Government and its own fibre roll-out

Issue no 825 - 29th April 2016

Pangea launches Voice-To-Internet App in Nigeria for those who want Internet outside data coverage areas

Issue no 824 - 22nd April 2016

Sliide launches the African version of a mobile Flipboard in Nigeria with free data for users as the incentive

Issue no 823 - 15th April 2016

Mawingu Network’s Tim Nderi rolls out low-cost, regional Wi-Fi hot-spots, adding new Counties – “Nothing holding back further expansion”

Issue no 822 - 8th April 2016

SavannaSunrise opens up global online hotel booking in East Africa – B2C processes drive digital take-up and data use

Issue no 821 - 1st April 2016

Long lost fibre project finally announces next step – AfDB will fund Algiers-Abuja stretch of Niger-Chad fibre link

Issue no 820 - 25th March 2016

The Moment Minutes Turn Into Data – Smile launches VoLTE voice tariff based on data charges

Issue no 819 - 18th March 2016

Nigeria’s Making the Switch to VoIP – The African data future starts to become a reality

Issue no 818 - 11th March 2016

A4AI’s Internet Affordability Index – The African countries making progress towards affordability

Issue no 817 - March 2016

Nigeria: NBC’s sale of 4G spectrum to MTN, the questions that will not go away…

Issue no 816 - 26th February 2016

Selling microinsurance to African consumers by mobile – how a marriage made in heaven produced mixed results

Issue no 815 - 19th February 2016

ViRural’s “upside-down” MVNO will fill the rural gaps in Africa, starting with Nigeria

Issue no 814 - 12th February 2016

South Sudan: MTN becomes the number one player in Africa’s newest country market

Issue no 813 - 5th February 2016

Start-up mPedigree uses mobiles to help companies track products and weed out counterfeits – building on “the plumbing” of business processes

Issue no 812 - 29th January 2016

BusyInternet launches LTE in with zero rated YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Joy Online and Ghana Web freebies

Issue no 811 - 22nd January 2016

Trouble comes two at a time – international fibre outages are a sharp reminder of what’s still to be done with African infrastructure

Issue no 810 - 15th January 2016

Nigeria’s top broadcast regulator arrested over 4G spectrum sale to MTN – Three questions needing answers

Issue no 809 - 8th January 2016

The Battle over VoIP and resisting the future – Trend towards Skype, Viber and What’s App begins to bite into African operators’ premium revenues

Issue no 808 16th December 2015

Season’s Greetings from Balancing Act’s News Update

Issue no 807 11th December 2015

DreamOval’s m-money platform SlydePay partners with Stanbic Bank to roll out new ways of paying including cross-border and Bitcoin

Issue no 806 4th December 2015

US legal loop-hole creates a business model for ZenoRadio’s phone-up radio service in Africa and elsewhere

Issue no 805 27th November 2015

African users fear of data – Time for the continent to stop selling its customers shortage

Issue no 804 20th November 2015

AfricaCom 2015: Back to the Future – Africa’s mobile operators struggling to transform themselves

Issue no 803 13th November 2015

Group TigoPaare accounts in Chad may lead to Peoples’ Banks for communities across Africa

Issue no 802 6th November 2015

Digitata’s Dynamic Voice Tariffing helps Africa’s mobile operators to sell unused capacity – data version could crack giving lower data prices

Issue no 801 30th October 2015

Currency Storm is the looming shadow over Africa’s operators – Getting out from under it

Issue no 800 23rd October 2015

Seacom’s Pamoja aims to build an IT-as-a-service market through African resellers – Not should I go but when and what?

Issue no 799 16th October 2015

Google’s Project Link commits to building 1,200 kms of metronet fibre in three key Ghanaian cities and changes the pricing model

Issue no 798 9th October 2015

Tanzania’s E-KYC registers a mobile user in 5-7 minutes – mobile operators increase registration throughput

Issue no 797 2nd October 2015

Olleh Rwanda Networks’ 4G wholesale network plans to have 95% population coverage by 2017 and looks to expand across Africa

Issue no 796 25th September 2015

Smile will launch VoLTE networks in three Africa countries and promises revolutionary voice pricing

Issue no 795 18th September 2015

The African Internet Effect – Everything it touches turns different

Issue no 794 11th September 2015

Liquid Telecom’s Nic Rudnick on rolling out Fibre-To-The-Home in eight African countries and launching a VoD platform

Issue no 793 4th September 2015

Argon Telecom wants to halve the cost of data for residents of Kenya’s Kibera using low-cost Wi-Fi roll-out

Issue no 792 28th August 2015

Busy Being Born and Busy Dying – Taking the pulse of recent M & A in Africa’s telecoms and Internet sector

Issue no 791 21st August 2015

Kooba set to become the first carrier-independent data centre in East Africa – Will target international content companies

Issue no 790 14th August 2015

Trends that will accelerate Africa’s data future – anticipating the end of the mobile operator as we know it

Issue no 789 7th August 2015

Nigeria’s VoD platform Dobox turns its attention to Francophone markets

Issue no 788 31st July 2015

Equitel’s MVNO launch with Effortel and Airtel shows that despite operator consolidation, more competition is on the way

Issue no 787 24th July 2015

Despite massive new opportunities, Africa’s mobile operators are failing to grasp the digital music play

Issue no 786 17th July 2015

Mauritius’ Emtel makes first mainstream African commercial deployment of Fibre Through The Air (FTTA)

Issue no 785 10th July 2015

Understanding Sub-Saharan Africa’s Mobile Financial Services ecosystem - analysis in a new report to be released August 2015

Issue no 784 3rd July 2015

Benin connects 2nd landing station (ACE) but continued Benin Telecoms monopoly holds back growth

Issue no 783 26th June 2015

The International MVNO operators start arriving in Africa – more competition on international calling

Issue no 782 19th June 2015

Etisalat launches 3rd. Data Centre in Nigeria capital Abuja

Issue no 781 12th June 2015

High Throughput Satellite capacity in Africa may at last enable mobile operators to find a sustainable model for remote base stations

Issue no 780 5th June 2015

You take the high road, we’ll take the hot-spots– Africa’s data future slings a shot over the bows of today’s business model

Issue no 759 29th May 2015

Online mobile music sites springing up in francophone countries – Two start-ups join the party in Congo-Brazzaville and DRC

Issue no 758 22nd May 2015

The Growth of Africa’s e-commerce sector – The Winners and Losers as this habit takes hold

Issue no 757 15th May 2015

Inconvenient Facts That Need To Change if Africa’s Telecoms Sector is to continue to grow

Issue no 756 8th May 2015

Equatorial Guinea: Government signs with US company GridlineXstreme to roll out a national fibre network and data centre

Issue no 755 1st May 2015

Africa’s e-shopping sector is busy being born – Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon stake a claim

Issue no 754 24th April 2015

Access launches first LTE voice data network in Malawi aimed at high-end niche customers, leaving CDMA for lower end customers

Issue no 753 17th April 2015

Mozilla brings low, low-cost smartphones to Africa – Looking forward to 50-80% smartphone ownership

Issue no 752 10th April 2015

The Mobile Gender Gap in Africa is Costing Operator Revenues – Women own less phones and use them less says GSMA study

Issue no 751 2nd April 2015

Gambia’s Netpage makes it first across the line to launch 4G/LTE – Will make quality of service a priority

Issue no 750 27th March 2015

Battle for 4G subscribers in Cote d’Ivoire set to hot up as mobile operators get ready to roll-out – YooMee wants to be reference point for quality and speed

Issue no 749 20th March 2015

Zimbabwean MVNO Viva! wants to take on the dominant mobile operator on price and service innovation

Issue no 748 13th March 2015

Main One to offer Infrastructure as a Service in April in partnership with EMC and Microsoft

Issue no 747 6th March 2015

Malian MVNO Aidou Telecom set to launch later this year with cheaper prices and LTE – The African MVNO bandwagon starts moving?

Issue no 746 27th February 2015

Africa's Online and Mobile Music Platforms – The Puzzle of Who Will Succeed in a Crowded Field

Issue no 745 20th February 2015

Africa’s Forgotten Featurephone Users – What they use, what they want and their future

Issue no 744 13th February 2015

Mali – The Internet and social media but not as in other African markets

Issue no 743 6th February 2015

TV White Spaces goes commercial in Africa – Microsoft seeks to calm the jitters of the mobile operators

Issue no 742 30th January 2015

Nigeria’s 3 LTE ISPs pull ahead of the pack as key spectrum remains unavailable

Issue no 741 23rd January 2015

WeChat’s Brett Loubser on why Africa’s mobile operators have to change their attitude to OTT companies

Issue no 740 16th January 2015

The Internet of vehicles – BMW brings ConnectedDrive to Africa in March 2015

Issue no 739 9th January 2015

Getting cheaper data delivery for users and better quality networks in Africa in 2015 – 5 things that can be done

Issue no 738 19th December 2014

Season’s Greetings from Balancing Act’s News Update

Issue no 737 12th December 2014

Micro networks may offer a way to get 4G out of Africa’s cities and into towns and villages

Issue no 736 5th December 2014

Comoros Telecoms – The challenges of privatizing Africa’s remaining state-run monopolies

Issue no 735 28th November 2014

Africa’s Converged Content and Services Space – Finding out what’s what and who’s who in the new digital economy

Issue no 734 21st November 2014

Breaking through Africa’s payments pain barrier – lowering online mobile transaction costs

Issue no 733 14th November 2014

AfricaCom 2014: If you hum it, I’ll sing it – Africa’s mobile operators struggle to get to grips with the new content narrative

Issue no 732 7th November 2014

Africa’s International Bandwidth Passes 2 Tbps – Fibre roll-out now reaches out to 44% of continent’s population.

Issue no 731 31st October 2014

Flying blind into the bright lights of Africa’s data future – Spotting the known unknowns

Issue no 730 24th October 2014

Two million people using e-retailers in Nigeria - e-Commerce Sub-Saharan Africa starts here

Issue no 729 17th October 2014

TNM’s Airtime Advances service hits almost 20% of its user base in six months – another money service that will spread

Issue no 728 10th October 2014

Gambia: I-Link to launch LTE data services across Greater Banjul area in early 2015

Issue no 727 3rd October 2014

Understanding Africa’s social media storm – Facebook experiments with how to make itself the “on-ramp” for first-time Internet users

Issue no 726 26th September 2014

Nigeria’s Medallion Communications makes interconnection in a complex liberalised market much easier and will offer facilities in 4 more cities

Issue no 724 19th September 2014

A Detailed Snapshot of Africa’s emerging Internet and social media space – the users and what they are doing

Issue no 723 12th September 2014

Millicom plans to go from being a mobile operator to a digital services company in 3-5 years in some African countries

Issue no 722 5th September 2014

Uganda’s Beyonic looks to extend the reach of bulk m-money payments through partnership with Mercy Corps’ Agri-Fin programme

Issue no 721 29th August 2014

Ghana’s Mobile Number Portability scheme outstrips South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria

Issue no 720 22nd August 2014

Broadband in Gulu and 4G in Accra – Two sides of the same coin for Africa’s new generation local roll-outs

Issue no 719 14th August 2014

Fibre-To-The-Home – South Africa’s big gorillas “wait-and-see” while consumers break the logjam

Issue no 718 8th August 2014

Nigerian start-up MMIT offers wants to “connect the dots” by offering international payments service to mobile wallet operators

Issue no 717 1st August 2014

As the global handset market spits out its latest king, Africa will march to a different beat

Issue no 716 25th July 2014

X-Lab pioneers connectivity using Mesh Wi-Fi software in Somaliland and Tunisia

Issue no 715 18th July 2014

The case for remote operators in Africa grows stronger with new regulatory approaches and low cost technology

Issue no 714 11th July 2014

O3B starts operations in Africa and launches second constellation which will cover more countries

Issue no 713 4th July 2014

2014 may be the year Africa’s mobile operators start operating VoD platforms – This week Glo Nigeria joins the party

Issue no 712 27th June 2014

Africa’s Untold Universal Service Agency Story – Reaching the parts others don’t reach

Issue no 711 20th June 2014

Nigeria’s bitflux to launch an LTE-A local access wholesale network on open access principles

Issue no 710 13th June 2014

Volo Broadband targets operators wanting to reach edge-of-network data markets in Sub-Saharan Africa

Issue no 708 6th June 2014

TV White Spaces comes under fire as number of African pilots grows

Issue no 707 30th May 2014

MTN Play Côte d’Ivoire getting "5,000 video views a month”: Broadband access is not an issue anymore

Issue no 706 23rd May 2014

Satellite in Africa – Huge opportunities but it’s time for some disruptive business models

Issue no 705 16th May 2014

Rotten Wi-Fi – Driving better quality and speed in Wi-Fi hot-spots and 3G in Africa through getting consumer information

Issue no 704 9th May 2014

Africa’s transactional Internet will become an everyday experience – eBay-owned Gumtree gets 3-5 million uniques a month in South Africa

Issue no 703 2nd May 2014

Cameroon gets itself into a dead end in the transition to 4G ' Granting a 3G monopoly is not the answer to the question

Issue no 702 24th April 2014

Speeding up the future - A strategy for Africa’s data future where Internet is widespread and prices are much lower

Issue no 701 18th April 2014

David takes on Goliath: South Africas Posix to offer Fibre-To-The-Home ahead of the big gorillas

Issue no 700 11th April 2014

LTE launched in Cote d’Ivoire by YooMee, more countries to follow

Issue no 699 4th April 2014

Naspers-owned comparison website and mobile app Price Check signs branded deal with MTN in South Africa and will sign another deal in Nigeria

Issue no 698 28th March 2014

OpenBTS 4.0 offers new opportunities for Africa’s mobile operators – Targeting remote locations and the transition to IP

Issue no 697 21st March 2014

Alliance For Affordable Internet wants to get Internet prices down to 5% of per capita income or below, focused on several African countries

Issue no 696 14th March 2014

Unbundling the sacred SIM identity – Movirtu creates a service offering soft phone and low cost international dialling with your mobile number

Issue no 695 7th March 2014

Ugandan mobile operator outsourcing company grows its revenues – Latest offer is fast market data intelligence

Issue no 694 28th February 2014

Central African Ministers sign Brazzaville Agreement, committing to Open Access but key signatories missing

Issue no 693 21st February 2014

Nigeria – Dancing around the threshold of a real broadband take-off

Issue no 692 14th February 2014

Mobile as Africa’s debit card: Mobile Money Integration Services is the next wave of mobile money growth

Issue no 691 7th February 2014

What the future of African broadband could look like – testing real-life LTE in Kampala

Issue no 690 31st January 2014

We Name The Guilty Men – Top 5 Monopoly Incumbents that Keep Prices High and Stall Market Development

Issue no 689 24th January 2014

Ghana’s Blu pitches content as the show-stopper for its new LTE service

Issue no 688 17th January 2014

The Battle Against High Fibre Prices from Monopoly Providers moves to Central Africa

Issue no 687 10th January 2014

Willstream Labs connects diaspora with merchants to ensure safe payment

Issue no 686 20th December 2013

Season’s Greetings from Balancing Act’s News Update

Issue no 685 13th December 2013

ISPs steal a march on mobile operators with LTE roll-outs – YooMee will go live in Cote d’Ivoire in February

Issue no 683 29th November 2013

A nice mobile music and video service with a handset attached – Solo launches in Nigeria and turns the business model on its head

Issue no 682 22nd November 2013

Google invests an estimated US$14 million in a Metronet in Kampala to open up the market

Issue no 681 15th November 2013

Hybrid provider Eduze wants to get local content available offline on smartphones at high footfall locations

Issue no 680 8th November 2013

Africa reaches the point where the Digital Divide will turn into a yawning power divide

Issue no 679 1st November 2013

VoD platforms in Africa will be a key driver of the next spike in bandwidth capacity

Issue no 678 25th October 2013

Improvements in mobile data in Liberia spur radio station to do international online hook-up to promote local music

Issue no 677 18th October 2013

Central Africa: Some fibre network breakthroughs in the continent’s slow lane for development

Issue no 676 11th October 2013

Rwanda’s Liquid Telecom will build Fibre-To-Wherever and 1 meg minimum access speed by next year

Issue no 675 4th October 2013

Nigeria: ipNX offers Fibre-To-The-Home and guarantees a 4 mbps connection as a minimum

Issue no 674 27th September 2013

Balancing Act launches a new web TV channel – SmartMonkeyTV .com – out to capture the energy at the crossroads between culture and technology

Issue no 673 20th September 2013

Vodacom Lesotho Launches M-Pesa and reaches a critical mass of users in three months

Issue no 672 13th September 2013

Angels over Johannesburg – South Africa hosts the first Pan-African event to introduce ICT entrepreneurs to angel investors

Issue no 671 6th September 2013

Welcome to Gulu – What it feels like being an Internet user at the edge of the network

Issue no 670 30th August 2013

African LTE momentum is building despite all the obstacles along the way

Issue no 669 23rd August 2013

VoIP services in Africa already driving the transition to data – video will accelerate that trend

Issue no 668 15th August 2013

The irresistible Law of Circles – getting mobile and online content to African users in a fragmented market

Issue no 667 8th August 2013

Mobile incumbents start to make early moves towards an all-data future by targeting online transactions and services

Issue no 666 1st August 2013

Bozza steps up its game to become a platform for new African talent – 300,000 users without marketing

Issue no 665 25th July 2013

iSpace joins the wave of incubators setting up across the continent but questions still hover over the ecosystem

Issue no 664 19th July 2013

Flashcast’s hybrid play seeks to create both an ad medium to reach the new middle classes and a mass-based Twitter

Issue no 663 12th July 2013

Africa’s mobile media moves beyond ringtones, football scores and news headlines

Issue no 662 5th July 2013

Hunting Africa’s newest Holy Grail – An affordable Internet and content device for the home

Issue no 661 28th June 2013

Online film platform Buni TV reaches 2 million views in year and uses comedy shorts to drive traffic

Issue no 660 21st June 2013

DRC: The enemies of promise gather to throw away the digital opportunity

Issue no 659 14th June 2013

Egypt’s regulator NTRA tries to hold back the wave of the future by banning apps like Viber and What’s App on investment and security grounds

Issue no 658 7th June 2013

Music to the ears – African online mobile music platforms break out all over the continent

Issue no 657 31st May 2013

Google and Microsoft pitch TV White Spaces as a way to wring out more spectrum and beat the digital divide in rural areas

Issue no 656 24th May 2013

Kenya’s Sleepout.com raises seed funding to expand its offer across Africa and into the Middle East

Issue no 655 17th May 2013

LTE insurgent challenger Smile does a hard launch in Tanzania and will open its network on a wholesale basis to other operators

Issue no 654 10th May 2013

Despite setbacks, Somalia begins to pick itself up and looks at bringing international bandwidth to Mogadishu

Issue no 653 3rd May 2013

African gaming looks set to raise its game with Kulaya.com raising seed stage investment, giving US$2 million valuation

Issue no 652 26th April 2013

The Buying and Selling Game in Africa – A backstage look at the way Mergers and Acquisitions Happen

Issue no 651 19th April 2013

TV White Spaces trial in South Africa seeks to accelerate access to managed spectrum

Issue no 650 12th April 2013

Mali: TSF reconnected Timbuktu’s population with the rest of the world.

Issue no 649 5th April 2013

Smartphones vs feature phones – The handset war that will shape the coming transition to all-data services

Issue no 648 28th March 2013

Sproxil aims to make counterfeiting unprofitable in Africa with mobile product authentication

Issue no 647 22nd March 2013

Africa’s race for data – making sense of the transition through everyday services today

Issue no 646 15th March 2013

TV White Spaces Proof of Concept offers promising route for rural coverage

Issue no 645 8th March 2013

Out of Nigeria and the UK, Gbamm! bids to become Twitter for football fans

Issue no 644 1st March 2013

Corporate use of MPLS in Africa drives data growth and bandwidth provision increases

Issue no 643 22nd February 2013

Augmented reality comes to Africa – what is it and what can it do for the continent?

Issue no 642 15th February 2013

VoD will be a major opportunity for African telecoms operators and investors...now

Issue no 641 8th February 2013

Mobile content – Africa’s no longer a spectator at the feast but big challenges ahead

Issue no 640 1st February 2013

The new business model – Everything becomes data but what does it mean for operators in Africa?

Issue no 639 25th January 2013

Game on ! – Call of Duty 4, multi player games and the arrival of LTE in Uganda

Issue no 638 18th January 2013

Metronet Fibre Networx wants to close the last mile fibre gap in South Africa and help open up 4G

Issue no 637 11th January 2013

Happy New Year Africa, 2018 – Imagining a different kind of future

Issue no 636 18th December 2012

Balancing Act’s News Update: Seasons Greetings to our Readers, Clients and Advertisers

Issue no 635 14th December 2012

Gambia’s Unique Solutions will launch national WiMAX network to meet new demand from ACE fibre cable launch

Issue no 634 7th December 2012

Smile Telecoms offers a real insurgent data challenge by delivering LTE – first in Tanzania and Uganda and then in Nigeria and DRC

Issue no 633 30th November 2012

Cameroon: Seemoh Networks launches a data and voice MVNO with former incumbent Camtel

Issue no 632 23rd November 2012

Games distribution on mobile deal highlights the future growth of key content stream

Issue no 631 16th November 2012

Africa Com 2012 – Separating out the anxiety signals from the overwhelming noise

Issue no 630 9th November 2012

Tuluntulu’s low bandwidth video streaming service could open up video to a new market ahead of LTE

Issue no 629 2nd November 2012

South Africa’s Maboneng Project offers a clue to potential urban regeneration strategies for Africa using high speed broadband

Issue no 628 26th October 2012

Mimiboard gets nearly 1 m users through working with media owners, sets a target of 5 m by February 2012

Issue no 627 19th October 2012

Senegal – land of the de-facto Internet monopoly – is urged to encourage greater competition and innovation to improve penetration levels

Issue no 626 12th October 2012

LTE cannot just be for the big guys if Africa is to reach its full broadband potential

Issue no 625 5th October 2012

Africa’s future data architecture beginning to fall into place – exchange points and data centres

Issue no 624 28th September 2012

The wall that stands between Africa and a fully functioning online content ecosystem

Issue no 623 21st September 2012

Social media content platform biNu attracts 0.5 million books readers on low-end smartphones and feature-phones; 42% are in Nigeria

Issue no 622 14th September 2012

South Sudan: Government planning fibre link connections to lower the cost of connectivity

Issue no 621 7th September 2012

Convergence Partners looks at investment opportunities in infrastructure and services across the continent

Issue no 620 31st August 2012

Tanzania’s NICTBB crashes national backbone wholesale prices for the second time in five months

Issue no 619 24th August 2012

Hybrid base station power supplier Orun Energy conducts successful tests in India and is close to rolling out in Africa

Issue no 618 17th August 2012

CAPCOM aims to become Nigeria’s biggest retail broadband operator, offering faster fibre connections and triple play

Issue no 617 10th August 2012

Africa's insatiable thirst for social networking spurs the growth of local mobile brands in key markets

Issue no 616 3rd August 2012

Lifeline sells rugged, solar powered MP3 player/radio for rural education – next generation device will have video

Issue no 615 27th July 2012

Nigeria mobile money special: Mobile money providers still struggling to get to grips with the need for strong agency network and the scale of the market

Issue no 614 20th July 2012

Mobile number portability slowly begins to take off in Ghana – Need for high profile MNP awareness schemes

Issue no 613 13th July 2012

YouTube opens the road to new online business models in Africa with video streaming

Issue no 612 6th July 2012

Liberia: Cellcom rolls out HSPA+ network and gains a technology edge over its competitors

Issue no 611 29th June 2012

First shots fired in the coming mobile content war – competition breaks out amongst music streaming and download platforms

Issue no 610 22nd June 2012

Mauritius: Bharat Telecom Ltd to launch island-wide fibre network and high-speed FTTH broadband

Issue no 609 15th June 2012

Online games sector for PCs and mobile springs into life in Nigeria – free now, pay-for later

Issue no 608 8th June 2012

VOD services are beginning to gain traction but are operators ready for this kind of traffic?

Issue no 607 1st June 2012

Open Innovation Africa Summit – The end of the beginning offers new opportunities for entrepreneurs but roadblocks remain

Issue no 606 25th May 2012

South Africa: VoIP begins to change the landscape for both consumers and business users

Issue no 605 18th May 2012

A new business model being born – Exit, stage left some of the Masters of the Universe

Issue no 604 11th May 2012

South Africa: Data centre professionals get together to talk green and expansion plans across the African continent

Issue no 603 4th May 2012

A new tool that will help identify African Internet market share and allow content providers to optimise delivery

Issue no 602 27th April 2012

Tanzania: Government’s national backbone completes second phase and lowers prices

Issue no 601 20th April 2012

Umuntu Media’s Mimiboard looks to create social engagement for traditional media and a new monetizable business model

Issue no 600 13th April 2012

African games sector stutters into life but needs some oxygen to help it breath

Issue no 599 5th April 2012

Welcome to the Future: A world of big data, voice without revenue and shared infrastructure for Over-The-Top services

Issue no 598 30th March 2012

Supplying diesel to the BTS: An every day nightmare for African mobile operators

Issue no 596 16th March 2012

Mobile data revenue: the long road ahead for African mobile operators

Issue no 595 9th March 2012

Head in the clouds – new opportunities emerge for African cloud-based services as bandwidth improves

Issue no 594 2nd March 2012

Africa’s ICT entrepreneurs – On the brink of the long Summer of Love

Issue no 593 24th February 2012

Mobile Money – Liberia opts for bank-centric approach but gets low take up

Issue no 592 17th February 2012

Shoden acquisition: Japanese giant Hitachi focuses on data centres to expand its IT footprint in Sub-Saharan Africa

Issue no 591 10th February 2012

It came out of nowhere – Low-end, mobile social network Eskimi shoots to 2.5 million subscribers in Nigeria

Issue no 590 3rd February 2012

Taxing international inbound calls: Is there a middle way between fleecing consumers and monitoring international voice traffic transparently?

Issue no 589 27th January 2012

The beginning of Africa’s long, slow transition away from SMS – new browser kids on the block making mobile Internet access easier

Issue no 588 20th January 2012

Vodafone Egypt launches MVNO Bladna targeted at Egyptian diaspora living in Italy

Issue no 587 13th January 2012

Maintenance and up-time – the Achilles Heel of Africa’s new fibre network revolution

Issue no 586 6th January 2012

Making best use of international cable capacity: a real wind of change for Africa in 2012?

Issue no 584 9th December 2011

Despite high costs, iLab creates a new initiative to promote ICT in Liberia

Issue no 583 2nd December 2011

Mobile data service in Africa: too much talk for very little revenue

Issue no 582 25th November 2011

WASACE: A new cable project that bundles together all of Africa’s fibre dreams

Issue no 581 18th November 2011

The cost of diesel for Africa’s mobile operators: 2012 may be the year that this bird comes home to roost

Issue no 580 11th November 2011

AfricaCom: African telecoms ready for another growth spurt if world economy doesn’t tank

Issue no 579 4th November 2011

Adventures in social media – What we’ve discovered over 12 months

Issue no 578 28th October 2011

Nigerian online content and services begins to make inroads despite the lack of affordable, reliable broadband

Issue no 577 21st October 2011

Liquid Telecoms’ fibre network connects Southern Africa and may go into DRC but what’s happened to the carriers’ carriers?

Issue no 576 14th October 2011

Data moves centre-stage: the delights and perils of Wi-Fi offloading, pricing models and access

Issue no 575 7th October 2011

Africa and TV White Spaces: The ghosts in the machine could provide additional spectrum at low cost

Issue no 574 30th September 2011

Operator-agnostic mobile money transfer services Pata Express carves a niche for itself in Congo-Brazza and plans to launch Phone Page directory

Issue no 573 23rd September 2011

Congo: “Fibre to the people” – how to make the best use of the new international capacity

Issue no 572 16th September 2011

Achieving a high-speed Africa: Closing the gap between the potential promise and current reality

Issue no 571 9th September 2011

More African mobile operators embrace dynamic billing for their voice services as they look to differentiate themselves from the competition

Issue no 570 2nd September 2011

African online content and services come of age – business models, users and delivery platforms begin to crystallize

Issue no 569 26th August 2011

Tax on international inbound calls: Too good to miss… as more African countries are tempted to go this way

Issue no 568 19th August 2011

Africa’s mobile operators start to offer Blackberry-style e-mail and IM services

Issue no 567 12th August 2011

Starfish Mobile sees mobile Internet and smarpthones’ growth in Africa as an opportunity for value added services

Issue no 566 5th August 2011

South Africa gets its first comparison website for broadband services

Issue no 565 29th July 2011

Sprucing up mobile networks can add between 6-18% more capacity, says TIA Telecom's CEO Lance Dickerson

Issue no 564 22nd July 2011

Liberia: Cellcom introduces a paperless SIM card registration process

Issue no 563 15th July 2011

New report gives insights on mobile apps potentials in Africa

Issue no 562 8th July 2011

Kenya’s Eat Out generates real cash not burn rate and plans to expand across East Africa

Issue no 561 1st July 2011

Senegal: Jokkolabs hosts the first Mobile Monday Dakar

Issue no 560 24th June 2011

Movirtu rolls out a Cloud Phone aimed at low-income users: first market is Madagascar, others will follow

Issue no 559 17th June 2011

Cheap Triple Play offers in Africa may be stifled by regulation that looks at the future through the rear-view mirror

Issue no 558 10th June 2011

New business model to save African cybercafés – higher bandwidth, higher margins and transactions

Issue no 557 3rd June 2011

Uganda’s gorillas get their own Facebook pages – e-tourism in Africa starts spreading post World Cup

Issue no 556 27th May 2011

Targeting different groups of pre-pay customers - Business Logic wants to help African mobile operators get smarter

Issue no 555 20th May 2011

Orange Tunisie to launch Africa’s first apps store at the end of May

Issue no 554 13th May 2011

SIM registration in Africa: Subscribers number down but what about revenue and ARPU?

Issue no 553 6th May 2011

Mobile Web Ghana rewards two local mobile apps developers

Issue no 552 28th April 2011

African telcos can claim carbon credits under a new scheme launched by Nedbank Capital

Issue no 551 21st April 2011

Africa’s Facebook explosion – user numbers double in many countries in just seven months

Issue no 550 15th April 2011

Moving pictures – the next step for Africa’s mobile Internet users

Issue no 549 8th April 2011

Rural roll-out, White Spaces and Wi-Fi: Scottish Isles meets Africa on the same road to providing service to scattered populations

Issue no 548 1st April 2011

Tanzania: New survey highlights steady growth of mobile as media

Issue no 547 25th March 2011

Orange Mauritius turns IPTV and Fibre-To-The-Cabinet into “a driver for growth”

Issue no 546 17th March 2011

Glo has ambition to become a major West African player for both mobile and fibre

Issue no 545 11th March 2011

Mobile payment pricing structure: a two speed service with most African mobile operators

Issue no 544 4th March 2011

NICE pioneers second generation low cost internet access points in Gambia – Will roll out in Tanzania and Zambia

Issue no 543 25th February 2011

Interview: Airtel Nigeria CEO – Cash-flow positive in 18 months, no low price market strategy

Issue no 542 18th February 2011

Price wars in East Africa – Safaricom and Orange Uganda CEOs on the pressures on operators

Issue no 541 11th February 2011

When will African mobile operators go “green”? – not yet, concludes a new report

Issue no 540 4th February 2011

Kenya’s Jamii Telecom to launch Sub-Saharan Africa’s first Fibre-To-The-Home offering

Issue no 539 28th January 2011

Are mobile phone penetration rates in Sub-Saharan Africa really as low as they seem?

Issue no 538 21st January 2011

Africa’s power shortages threaten the development of data centres and the cost of running base stations

Issue no 537 14th January 2011

Uganda’s ban on refurbished computers sparks the law of unintended consequences

Issue no 536 7th January 2011

Going from shortage to abundance – strategies to target Africa’s broadband consumers

Issue no 535 17th December 2010

Slimtrader targets everyday transactions with SMS and mobile web-enabled transactions

Issue no 534 10th December 2010

Liberia creates Special Purpose Vehicle for landing station and national fibre backbone

Issue no 533 3rd December 2010

Open Innovation Africa Summit focuses on ways to expand the mobile internet market

Issue no 532 26th November 2010

Kenya to launch an open access LTE network to help drive down prices and extend coverage

Issue no 531 19th November 2010

FSO technology: Can it help African mobile operators to deal with an increasing demand for data bandwidth?

Issue no 530 12th November 2010

AfricaCom 2010 – Bigger than ever but wide-scale changes as the industry seeks to absorb changes

Issue no 529 5th November 2010

AfricaCom: Africa’s mobile industry needs to re-invent itself to meet tomorrow’s challenges

Issue no 528 29th October 2010

Worldreader.org trials Amazon Kindles in Ghanaian schools and plans to roll-out in other African countries

Issue no 527 22nd October 2010

Namibia: WACS cable will arrive in 2011 but monopoly legacy holds back prices and growth

Issue no 526 15th October 2010

Naspers backs Kenyan launch of Mocality to get into services and apps sector

Issue no 525 8th October 2010

Tower sharing can save mobile operators “north of 20%” in costs, says Eaton Towers CEO

Issue no 524 1st October 2010

3G licence prices in Africa: how are they set?

Issue no 523 24th September 2010

The QoS Moment of Truth – Tunisian regulator INT starts monitoring broadband services

Issue no 522 17th September 2010

SMS message ban in Mozambique raises difficulties operators and Government will have to deal with

Issue no 521 10th September 2010

Time is ripe for African innovators in the online services and apps market to up their game

Issue no 521 10th September 2010

Global Voice Group - An Apology

Issue no 520 3rd September 2010

Launch of Samung’s Galaxy Tab will spark the beginning of device wars with Africa’s mobile operators offering tablets

Issue no 520 3rd September 2010

Global Voice Group - An Apology

Issue no 519 27th August 2010

Google in Liberia – an overnight stay, or the start of a long-term relationship?

Issue no 518 20th August 2010

Africa’s mobile market will go open access – it’s not if but when and how it all work out

Issue no 517 13th August 2010

Geo-location – The what of the where is it begins to be the next apps wave in Africa

Issue no 516 6th August 2010

A hybrid wind and sun solution for base station energy that claims to cut diesel costs by over 90%

Issue no 515 30th July 2010

Growing Africa’s Internet use: Top down vs bottom up - Which way is up?

Issue no 515 30th July 2010

Growing Africa’s Internet use: Top down vs bottom up - Which way is up?

Issue no 514 23rd July 2010

Digicel may enter African market – Cape Verde’s ANAC to offer three 3G licences later this year

Issue no 513 16th July 2010

Africa’s Cloud Computing: what will it take for it to become big across the continent?

Issue no 512 9th July 2010

Wind power may be part of the answer to Africa’s base station energy supply problems

Issue no 511 2nd July 2010

EASSy arrival will bring down prices, spur national backbone roll-out and reduce satellite use

Issue no 510 25th June 2010

Vodacom becomes the first operator to switch on an LTE network on the continent

Issue no 509 18th June 2010

A tale of two countries – services and apps uptake in Kenya and Tanzania

Issue no 508 11th June 2010

Creating the right weather for Africa’s services and applications entrepreneurs – new money and opportunities open up

Issue no 507 4th June 2010

Orange Money nears critical mass in Cote d’Ivoire and will launch in all African territories by end 2010

Issue no 506 28th May 2010

SMS becomes e-mail and chat – Safaricom implements new service and others will follow shortly

Issue no 505 22nd May 2010

Protecting Africa’s ICT Consumers in a fast changing market

Issue no 504 14th May 2010

Madagascar: Telma joins the league of mobile operators offering mobile transfert services

Issue no 503 7th May 2010

UNICEF and Text to Change: how they are using technology in different ways

Issue no 502 30th April 2010

Sudatel operates a 3-in-1 SIM for GSM, CDMA and 3G and Expresso will go GSM

Issue no 501 23rd April 2010

Arrival of mobile music downloads heralds the beginning of a real services sector in Africa

Issue no 500 15th April 2010

Satellite to fibre – Africa’s big change is really under way, says new report

Issue no 499 8th April 2010

The imminent arrival of “fibre heaven” in Africa spoiled by a number of nagging questions

Issue no 498 1st April 2010

Foris Telecoms and Smile Telecom join the ranks of Africa’s insurgent challengers with a Ugandan WiMAX voice and data offers

Issue no 497 26th March 2010

Kencall sees the growth of new local outsourcing opportunities as telecoms companies realise call centres are not core business

Issue no 496 18th March 2010

Madagascar: Despite political uncertainty, two new international cables offer market growth and new BPO opportunities

Issue no 495 12th March 2010

Ghana: New survey results uncover more complex patterns of mobile phone and Internet use

Issue no 494 5th March 2010

Burundi carriers form Africa’s first national infrastructure consortium to develop fibre backbone

Issue no 493 26th February 2010

US$99 smartphone ready to hit emerging markets: will it make it into Africa?

Issue no 492 19th February 2010

Liquid Telecom to launch Southern African fibre network at “good prices the like of which have not been seen”

Issue no 491 12th February 2010

Satellite to fibre – Africa’s big change is really under way, says new report

Issue no 490 5th February 2010

Zambian Government reinforces Zamtel monopoly as country heads for competition

Issue no 489 29th January 2010

National survey shows Kenyan Internet market heading towards “critical mass”

Issue no 488 22nd January 2010

A new telecoms tax epidemic sweeps across Africa : Increases of up to 100% in international calling costs

Issue no 487 15th January 2010

Regulator penalises leading mobile companies for QoS issues by shortening their licence period

Issue no 487 15th January 2010

Rwandatel Management has no case against former CEO.

Issue no 486 8th January 2010

M-Money reaches critical mass of users in East Africa – Where next?

Issue no 485 18th December 2009

UCC's Quality of Service survey shines a spotlight on MTN's challenges in a crowded market

Issue no 484 11th December 2009

South Africa’s Broadband Infraco to launch in Q1, 2010: Mission? Bringing national and international prices down

Issue no 483 4th December 2009

Malawi’s Access Communications targets fixed line niche market with CDMA2000 EVDO Rev A network

Issue no 482 27th November 2009

The power to make it happen: Ugandan mobile operators to form rural power consortium

Issue no 481 20th November 2009

Ghana’s NCA set to offer voice and data WiMAX licences but with conditions

Issue no 480 13th November 2009

World Bank financing approved for Central African Backbone and completion date set for 2011

Issue no 159

E-RATE FOR AFRICAN SCHOOLS ­ HOW WOULD IT WORK AND WHO PAYS?

Issue no 320

Hitting the spot – African Wi-Fi hot spots come of age

Issue no 233

Ghana - GISPA signs agreement with GT for new, low prices on SAT-3

Issue no 397

Issue 396: Infrastructure sharing to speed roll-out

Issue no 285

KENYA’S SKYWEB TECHNOLOGIES STARTS UP CALL CENTRE USING VOIP

Issue no 181

Nigeria’s NITEL set to cut international call rates in half

Issue no 340

Four African countries try to turn back the clock by creating monopoly international gateways again

Issue no 249

ACCELON TO LAUNCH INTERNATIONAL VOIP SERVICE IN NIGERIA IN 4-6 WEEKS TIME

Issue no 145

DESPERATE GHANA TELECOM SHUTS OFF OUTGOING ISP LINES, BLAMES VOIP BUT...

Issue no 421

ITXC judgement lifts the carpet on bribes to seven African telcos for contracts

Issue no 305

Most common complaints about phone service are price, quality and access, says new report

Issue no 211

ENERGY SPECIAL - GENERATING ELECTRICITY FOR ICT IN REMOTE LOCATIONS

Issue no 372

West African licence tendering processes – a case to answer

Issue no 283

MAURITIAN INCUBATOR HELPS ICT ENTREPRENEURS OVER START-UP HURDLES

Issue no 174

TELKOM KENYA’S IP NETWORKS READIES ITSELF FOR THE END OF ITS MONOPOLY

Issue no 333

Raid on Siemens throws new light on seamy side of buying and selling telco equipment

Issue no 241

iTOUCH BUILDS ITSELF A MOBILE DATA BUSINESS IN SA AND ROLLS OUT IN MOROCCO

Issue no 404

Zain Ghana’s Sowah will offer customers a “Rolls-Royce” network

Issue no 292

Gambia special – new telecoms bill is the starter’s gun for liberalisation

Issue no 202

ICT SECTOR WAITING FOR THE SALE OF ONATEL THE END OF ITS MONOPOLY

Issue no 363

Benin: Regulator plays poker with Moov and MTN by cutting networks over increased licence fees

Issue no 267

Blogging and podcasting start to take off in Africa: first mobile phone podcast from Accra ?

Issue no 268

INFINITY WORLDWIDE PLANS NEW WEST AFRICAN FIBRE CABLE TO RIVAL SAT-3

Issue no 158

AFRICAN INTERNET FRAUD BEYOND 419s - ORGANISED SCAMMERS OPERATING FROM CYBERCAFES

Issue no 434

Nigeria’s Suburban set to operate a Lagos-Abidjan regional terrestrial fibre link

Issue no 323

EASSy parties in disconnect over end of the beginning– negotiations continue

Issue no 239

Technology put to the test as parts of East Africa reel from effects of Asian tsunamis

Issue no 392

Indian Ocean islands agree a scheme to connect themselves by fibre

Issue no 282

WSIS special: World Bank offers East African fibre consortium EASSy funding

Issue no 187

Cote D'Ivoire: the unresolved civil war undermines a once strong ICT sector

Issue no 341

Tradenet launches market intel platform for buying and selling agricultural goods

Issue no 244

The sun's rays power up laptops for primary schools in Rwanda

Issue no 147

AFRICA’S NEW COMMUNICATIONS USERS - WHAT DO THEY USE AND WHY?

Issue no 429

Egypt tries to control the use of GPS by banning except with individual licences

Issue no 309

Rwanda – the small country with a strong desire to succeed

Issue no 212

MOBILE OPERATORS CASH IN ON WEST AFRICAN PEACE DIVIDEND IN LIBERIA AND SIERRA LEONE

Issue no 374

Just as the power of the incumbent fades, the vertical integrators are on the march again

Issue no 286

Thank you for your purchase – a mobile phone turns into a credit card terminal

Issue no 175

SA’S SENTECH TO LAUNCH WIRELESS BROADBAND BY THE END OF THE YEAR

Issue no 337

Vivendi goes into Sub-Saharan Africa with Onatel purchase

Issue no 245

African international bandwidth set to grow by 81% to 2008 driven by mobile and broadband

Issue no 404

CORRECTIONS:

Issue no 292

QUANTUMNET USES ITS US$2 MILLION WI-FI NETWORK TO DELIVER BROADBAND

Issue no 202

INTERNET: GROWTH OF A SMALL MARKET CRAMPED BY GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT

Issue no 264

Kenya Telkom's new MD Sammy Kirui promises explosive growth and action on revenue leakage

Issue no 157

GHANA SPECIAL: CAN IT REALLY SUCCEED AS AN AFRICAN MID-SCALE PLAYER?

Issue no 318

AFRICA'S TRANSITION TO FIBRE LIKELY TO BE SLOWER THAN EXPECTED, SAYS NEW REPORT

Issue no 222

COMOROS SET TO PRIVATISE INCUMBENT TELCO AS POLITICAL DUST OF LAST DECADE SETTLES

Issue no 399

Mauritius’ Nomad: Voice and Internet combine in the coming Wi-MAX business model

Issue no 282

WORLD BANK OFFERS EAST AFRICAN FIBRE CONSORTIUM EASSY FUNDING

Issue no 182

MALI'S SOTELMA MAKES RETAIL VOIP AGREEMENTS BUT PRIVATISATION LUMBERS ON

Issue no 344

The convergence moment – Gateway launches pan-African pay-TV service

Issue no 247

The SAT3 fibre - a monopoly that stands in the way of cheaper international bandwidth

Issue no 143

GABON - MARKET GROWS IN THE LONG RUN-UP TO PRIVATIZATION

Issue no 411

Chinese-supplied CDMA 2000 becomes hybrid convergence challenger for African operators

Issue no 309

DUOPOLY PLAYERS GET FULL SERVICE LICENCES

Issue no 216

CSIRT: A ROUTE TO COMBATING AFRICA'S POSITION AS ONE OF THE WORLD'S CYBER-BADLANDS

Issue no 373

Ghana’s Soft Tribe carves itself a niche in the Nigerian ERP software market

Issue no 273

MWEB Nigeria uses non line-of-sight wireless to pitch broadband and VOIP services

Issue no 170

MALI SPECIAL - COMPETITION BEGINS TO HAVE AN IMPACT ON SOTELMA

Issue no 338

Jobs SMS services might offer mobile companies the killer app

Issue no 243

Botswana liberalisation special - Re-arranging the deckchairs or the real thing?

Issue no 400

M- money services – The rise and rise of Africa’ s “killer-app” for 2008

Issue no 292

TWO MOBILE CONTENDERS BATTLE IT OUT AND WAIT FOR THIRD OPERATOR

Issue no 202

REGULATION AND POLICY: NATIONAL ICT POLICY SOON TO BE COMPLETED

Issue no 356

Transcorp looks at new carriers carrier strategy for“car wreck” Nitel

Issue no 265

The strange case of Somalia and the lessons of war-induced anarchy

Issue no 157

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH OYSTEIN BJORGE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, GHANA TELECOM

Issue no 430

iVeri’s implementation of e-commerce by debit card looks set to widen the user base

Issue no 317

Revealed: the SAT3 consortium’s shareholder agreement they don’t want you to see

Issue no 225

COMPETITION EMERGES IN THE LIBYAN MOBILE MARKET AS GOVT COMPETES AGAINST ITSELF

Issue no 387

North Africa: Morocco to get full local loop unbundling in July 2008 and pressures to unbundle grow in Tunisia

Issue no 282

AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES COME TOGETHER TO SET UP NRENS AND BUY INTERNATIONAL BANDWIDTH

Issue no 188

GUINETEL EMBROILED IN DIALER SCAM FRAUD, SEEKS WAYS OF CLAMPING DOWN ON ABUSERS

Issue no 248

CDMA SPECIAL - COST AND TECH ADVANTAGES BUT CAN IT BREAK INTO AFRICA'S GSM MARKETS?

Issue no 141

AFRICAN LAKES IN THE PROFIT SPOTLIGHT AFTER COLLAPSE OF IFC DEAL

Issue no 414

Race to build a west coast fibre promises to push international bandwidth prices to new lows

Issue no 309

FULL COMPETITION IN THE ISP SECTOR BUT RELATIVELY SMALL MARKET

Issue no 218

VOIP TELEPHONY WILL BE LEGALISED FIRST IN WEST AFRICA, SAYS NEW REPORT

Issue no 375

Low-cost voice operators: Technology without a business model yet in sight

Issue no 272

Ethiopia puts off privatising ETC but rolls out nationwide fibre network

Issue no 178

Satellite and fibre: Good friends or the best of enemies?

Issue no 338

M4G LAUNCHES JOBS SERVICE FRANCHISE AFTER SUCCESFUL KENYA TRIAL

Issue no 243

BOTSWANA’S INCUMBENT BTC IN POOR SHAPE AS PRIVATISATION LOOMS

Issue no 407

M-Money: New competitor services throw their hats into the ring in Ghana and Tanzania

Issue no 292

GIPFZA TO ATTRACT NOKIA SERVICE CENTRE TO AIRPORT FREE ZONE?

Issue no 202

COMPUTING: MARKET IS CHAOTIC AND LARGELY INFORMAL

Issue no 357

Two new fibre contenders – this time it’s Southern Africa

Issue no 262

Heavy blow to COMTEL fibre project as Ericsson says it will not be an investor

Issue no 157

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ALBERT KAN-DAPAAH, MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, GOVERNMENT OF GHANA

Issue no 433

Ushahidi helps people by tracking what’s happening in a crisis by web and SMS

Issue no 314

Powerline deployed in SA and Uganda– IP-TV trial this autumn

Issue no 229

Bridges handheld apps competition focuses on health, ed and agriculture

Issue no 380

West Africa: The great mobile pricing mystery – who’s cheap and who’s expensive

Issue no 282

FEAR AND LOATHING IN TUNIS - WELCOME TO FLIC CITY, THE GATED COMMUNITY OF THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

Issue no 189

MADAGASCAR: WIDENING LIBERALISATION LOOKS SET TO CREATE FOUNDATION FOR NEW ECONOMY

Issue no 248

A TECHNOLOGY BRIEFING: WHAT IS CDMA AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

Issue no 140

GHANA - CAUGHT ON THE HORNS OF THE CONTRACTING DILEMMA

Issue no 413

Fight the power: Ghana’s insurgent challenger ISPs set to take on the vertical-integrators

Issue no 309

GOVERNMENT HAS AMBITIOUS PLANS IN ITS VISION 2020

Issue no 213

POWERLINE TECHNOLOGIES FOR INTERNET AND VOICE ACCESS - AFRICAN TRIALS UNDER WAY

Issue no 375

Reader’s Responses

Issue no 275

Bottom-of-the pyramid markets - the sub-USD100 laptop and the search for the holy grail

Issue no 167

DRC IXP WORKSHOP HERALDS THE START OF THE DISCUSSION FOR REGIONAL IXPS

Issue no 338

MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IS THE NATURAL EXTENSION TO ONLINE RECRUITMENT

Issue no 243

BTA CONSIDERS MVNO AS THIRD MOBILE OPERATOR

Issue no 406

Mobile Internet take-up is speeding the take-up of IPv6 in Africa

Issue no 297

Kenya – legal VOIP begins to shake up the market and bring prices down

Issue no 202

PEOPLE SPECIAL: AN INTERVIEW WITH SYLVESTRE OUEDRAOGO, YAM PUKRI

Issue no 203

NEW RESEARCH FINDINGS POINT TO HIGH RATES OF PHONE USE EVEN IN NO OR LOW SERVICE AREAS

Issue no 354

Kenya special: market gets ready for cheaper bandwidth

Issue no 256

Mobile fraud in Africa: the scams that are pulled by wily dodgers

Issue no 153

SOUTHERN AFRICAN INTERNET FORUM CALLS FOR LIBERALISATION TO ENCOURAGE GROWTH

Issue no 319

Burundi’s Onatel seeks South African govt help to retrieve scam payment

Issue no 226

SHANGHAI TELECOM LOOKS SET TO BECOME SNO EQUIVALENT IN CAPE VERDE BY DECEMBER

Issue no 383

Algerie Telecom becomes first operator to pioneer Fibre-To-The-Home strategy

Issue no 281

Twenty African countries have introduced broadband and more set to follow, says new report

Issue no 185

NORTH AFRICAN ADSL ROLL-OUTS - THE BEGINNING OF THE SPREAD OF HIGHER BANDWIDTH OFFERINGS

Issue no 343

The African Lakes sale – questions begin to pile up

Issue no 248

CDMA IN AFRICA: SEEKING TO ENTER A GSM WORLD

Issue no 137

SOUTH AFRICA’S TORTUROUS LIBERALISATION: SNO, SNO, QUICK, QUICK, SNO...

Issue no 410

Mauritius call-centre and BPO sector needs lower international bandwidth prices to stay competitive

Issue no 308

Two Kenyan companies get to grips with the new business model

Issue no 217

GHANA TELECOM TRIES TO STRONG-ARM GISPA'S MEMBERS OUT OF THE MARKET WITH PREDATORY PRICING

Issue no 371

Nigeria’s Mainstreet Technologies to build new international west coast fibre

Issue no 274

Top story: African telecoms skills levels on the rise but still gaps in revenue assurance and logistics

Issue no 169

CALL CENTRE SPECIAL - AFRICA FIGHTS FOR ITS SHARE OF A GLOBAL MARKET

Issue no 243

ISPs WANT TO GET OUT AND SELL VoIP

Issue no 403

African Telecoms, Media and Technology Fund to invest US$75 million in its chosen sectors plus an SME fund

Issue no 296

Interconnect Special: lower interconnect rates in Africa have not led to lower prices for customers, says new report

Issue no 296

VOIP PEERING – HOW WILL IT AFFECT INTERCONNECTION PRACTICES?

Issue no 205

Dash me - An anatomy of corruption in the ICT business - an off-the-record Briefing

Issue no 354

AFRICA ONLINE’S NEW CEO LAYS OUT HIS STALL

Issue no 254

Africa’s mobile operators – are they the new incumbents?

Issue no 154

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ECONET’S STRIVE MASIYIWA ON AFRICAN TELECOMS OPPORTUNITIES

Issue no 316

Cameroon’s Matrix Telecom looks to VOIP as MTN set to provide nationwide internet service by November 2006

Issue no 224

ACT 2004 -TROUBLE IN PARADISE AS LIBERALISATION HURRICANE PASSES OVER

Issue no 381

France Telecom scores two in a row – will it make it a hat trick with Ghana?

Issue no 281

FIRST REPORT ON MOBILE HANDSETS IN NIGERIA IDENTIFIES USER PREFERENCES

Issue no 183

CYBER-CAFÉ USERS CANNOT FIND LOCAL CONTENT THEY WANT, SAYS CCOAK SURVEY

Issue no 345

Somalia’s civil war hides steady growth of internet services

Issue no 248

CDMA ON SHOW: WHAT THE REGULATORS AND OPERATORS HAD TO SAY

Issue no 137

ZIMBABWE’S SNO APPROVED AFTER A "PAINFUL WAIT"

Issue no 419

Libya’s LPTIC heads for full NGN implementation with pilot local access projects

Issue no 308

KDN TRIALS ADSL2 AND MESHED WI-FI IP VOICE

Issue no 210

NIGERIA'S VEE NETWORK: THE TRANSACTION THAT SUNK A DEAL AND COST TWO SENIOR PEOPLE THEIR JOBS

Issue no 378

Rules of the game changing as DSL subs head for 1 million and international fibre prices fall to all-time low

Issue no 276

South Africa's Business Connexion finds new business growth from across the continent

Issue no 168

SONATEL’S DOMINANCE A MIXED BLESSING FOR DEVELOPMENT OF SENEGALESE MARKET

Issue no 330

Satellite dominates cellular backhaul, says new study

Issue no 243

PROPOSALS ON LIBERALISATION SEEM SHAPED BY FEAR OF INCUMBENT FAILURE BUT RECOMMENDS VoIP LEGAL BY 2006

Issue no 398

SAT3 to get a competitor – Infinity set to finalise $865 million financing

Issue no 295

Sudan special – oil fuels rapid growth in telecoms and internet sectors

Issue no 192

THE IMPACT OF ICT ON SMES - A MOTOR FOR FUTURE ECONOMIC GROWTH IN HARD-PRESSED TIMES

Issue no 354

KDN’S FREE ACCESS OFFER UNCOVERS EXTENT OF WI-FI DEVICES

Issue no 255

Zimbabwe: TeleOne's 'turnaround agent MD Wellington Makamure on "living on the edge"

Issue no 155

LESOTHO - GOVT SELLS INCUMBENT AND OPENS UP INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIVITY A BIT

Issue no 435

WiMAX establishes a clear foothold in Africa with over 100 installations across the continent

Issue no 312

Cable theft – the cancer eating at the heart of the fixed network

Issue no 227

EVERYTHING SOLID MELTS INTO AIR – WELCOME TO THE NEW BUSINESS MODEL

Issue no 389

Nigeria’s Galaxy Backbone gears up to meet the needs of 1 million civil servants

Issue no 284

SA's USALs get off to a slow start by reselling mobile minutes

Issue no 184

POLICE AND THIEVES: FAKE CARTRIDGE SELLERS, E-MAIL SCAMMERS AND CYBER-COPS

Issue no 342

African VoIP report reveals steady uptake of ip among carriers and grey market persisting despite price falls

Issue no 248

CUEINCIDENT USES CDMA FOR CRIME PROTECTION SURVEILLANCE

Issue no 137

STWS OPENS A MAJOR INTERNATIONAL CALL CENTRE

Issue no 417

VoIP wars – The battle moves closer to the mobile operators

Issue no 308

JAMBO TELECOM SEEKS TO FIND THE BUSINESS SHAPE OF TOMORROW

Issue no 219

WEST AFRICA'S FIRST VOIP LICENCE - NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON'T

Issue no 376

Continued high Internet and telecoms growth in West Africa, says new report

Issue no 279

Zantel's new CEO Noel Herrity on expansion plans, IP networks and its investment in EASSY

Issue no 164

SMS VALUE-ADDED SERVICES - CELL PHONES AN IDEAL CONTENT AND SERVICE PLATFORM

Issue no 332

Kenya begins the countdown to cheap international fibre

Issue no 243

NEW BOTSWANA ICT STRATEGY – AMBITIOUS BUT ACHIEVABLE?

Issue no 390

African countries’ ICT policy– going from the blah, blah, blah cycle to getting something done

Issue no 395

Altech Buys 51 Per Cent Stake in Sameer ICT Ltd

Issue no 295

INCUMBENT SUDATEL FACES NEW COMPETITION FROM SNO CANARTEL

Issue no 194

GUINEA-BISSAU: LAST AFRICAN COUNTRY GETS MOBILE ROLL-OUT AT LAST

Issue no 252

Nigerians experience interactive TV using SMS: Happy birthday and I love messages on screen

Issue no 150

VISA’S STUART BROCKLEHURST ON AFRICAN E-COMMERCE AND PAYMENT SYSTEMS

Issue no 432

Liberian Government turns up the heat on Comium to Renegotiate Agreement

Issue no 315

EASSY members agree to hybrid SPV and KDN still going ahead

Issue no 220

 Enterprise software - finding a solution at a price to suit Africa

Issue no 386

SMS – Africa’s coming media generates millions of responses and revenues

Issue no 288

Imagining the future: Africa looking forward five years from now

Issue no 186

African ICT incubators: breeding new businesses and spreading innovation

Issue no 248

CAMPUSWISE USES CDMA FOR ONLINE LEARNING

Issue no 137

UUNET NAMIBIA PEERS WITH TELECOM NAMIBIA

Issue no 412

Dabba looks set to make micro low-cost voice telco operations a reality

Issue no 300

Algeria opens up its voice market to VOIP but sets the bar high

Issue no 215

 NALEDI3D FACTORY - INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL REALITY COMPANY SURVIVES AGAINST THE ODDS

Issue no 364

Mali: Mobile service helps bring down infant mortality

Issue no 277

New wave of African VOIP operators emerge from the shadows of the grey market

Issue no 163

NEW MODEL INCUMBENT TELCOS - TEN WAYS TO SURVIVE A COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT

Issue no 322

Spectrum conflicts threaten existing services and new technology take-up

Issue no 237

Private sector ICT lobbying: making friends and influencing people

Issue no 395

* What’s happening with Lap Green and Vodacom?

Issue no 295

SUDAN GOES FROM TWO TO FOUR MOBILE OPERATORS WITH NEW UNIFIED LICENCES

Issue no 199

KENYA’S NEW THIRD MOBILE OPERATOR WILL FACE A TOUGH ROAD TO SUCCESS

Issue no 259

Benin's OPT appoints two companies to sell ADSL and VOIP

Issue no 156

IXPS - THE "NO-BRAINER" SOLUTION TO KEEPING AFRICAN TRAFFIC LOCAL

Issue no 428

No free pass: global financial crisis will impact Africa’s telecoms sector

Issue no 311

KDN pips EASSy at the post in $115m deal with Flag – cost of bandwidth? Around $150 per mbps per month

Issue no 220

  SENEGAL'S SENLEC INSTALLS ERP TO ADDRESS MERGER ISSUES LEGACY

Issue no 382

Africa’s competition laboratory Kenya is the one to watch

Issue no 287

Apple makes a comeback in Africa with the halo effect of the iPod

Issue no 180

AFRICA'S DIGITAL DIVIDE INITIATIVES - TIME FOR A REALITY CHECK - AN OFF-THE-RECORD BRIEFING

Issue no 346

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that Fring – VoIP  nightmare for mobile operators

Issue no 240

South Africa leads the way in music download revolution but held back by broadband costs

Issue no 137

NIGERIA’S OPERATORS LAY OUT THEIR FUTURE SERVICE PLANS

Issue no 418

West African consumer broadband prices continue to tumble as OTI Telecom lowers its retail offer

Issue no 301

DRC heads towards peace with launch of 3G licence process

Issue no 214

SENEGAL: A POTENTIAL THIRD MOBILE OPERATOR WAITING IN THE WINGS?

Issue no 361

Power to the base stations – a modest proposition

Issue no 270

Digital television introduced to Africa - Mauritius and Senegal early adopters

Issue no 161

DRC - INTERNET AND MOBILE TELECOMS GROWING RAPIDLY AS WAR SUBSIDES

Issue no 329

South Africa’s coming convergence may hold lessons for rest of the continent

Issue no 234

Mobile goes Wi-Fi - an opportunity to expand internet usage?

Issue no 394

Convergence – Getting to grips with the contours of the new media landscape with real data

Issue no 295

SUDATEL’S UNWILLINGNESS TO WHOLESALE BROADBAND MAY SPELL END FOR INDEPENDENT ISPs

Issue no 197

Africa Online seeks the higher ground by targeting the corporate market

Issue no 253

AFRICA ONLINE AND TRANSTEL SELECTED AS REGIONAL CARRIERS BY AFRISPA

Issue no 148

GHANAIAN REGULATOR LOOKS SET TO ISSUE FRAMEWORK FOR NEW VOIP LANDSCAPE

Issue no 420

Double play in Nigeria: ipNX will use WiMAX to carve itself a niche offering voice and broadband

Issue no 313

Show me the money - English judge on Econet: “serious non-disclosure or misrepresentation of true position”

Issue no 220

   AIR MAURITIUS SEES IT AS A KEY BUSINESS DRIVER

Issue no 384

Living with confusion – African operators find themselves pulled in new directions

Issue no 289

Southern Africa leads the way with new trends, says just-published report

Issue no 171

KENYA SENDS OUT MIXED MESSAGES ON COMPETITION: VOIP IN CYBER-CAFES BUT NO JAMBONET COMPETITORS YET

Issue no 338

Two new deals signal wider investor interest in African telecoms and internet

Issue no 246

VOIP wars - Skype hits Africa and Telkom Kenya disconnects Sema cards

Issue no 137

SONATEL TO OFFER ADSL CONNECTIONS

Issue no 409

Triple play and broadband will power the next stage of growth for Africa’s Internet

Issue no 307

Two major North African markets look set to become legal VoIP pioneers, says new report

Issue no 204

KENYA AIRWAYS E-COMMERCE SITE SHOWS IT CAN BE DONE BUT CAN AFRICA’S BANKS KEEP UP?

Issue no 366

Portugal Telecom to create separate African subsidiary to up its profile

Issue no 271

Enablis gives ICT entrepreneurs much needed early-stage finance and support

Issue no 162

UGANDA SPECIAL - COMPETITION PUSHES INTERNET AND TELECOMS FURTHER AND FASTER

Issue no 328

GSM>3G Africa 06: masters of the universe face a tougher climb

Issue no 235

Rascom targets 0.25m rural users with its satellite service due in 2006

Issue no 238

Southern Sudan: SPLM bidding to put in place NGN communications

Issue no 391

Tomorrow’s Internet users today – African universities play catch-up with online content

Issue no 299

African mobile roaming charges – one of the last forms of legal daylight robbery

Issue no 196

KENYAN FILTERING ROW ONE MORE STOP ON THE WAY TO LEGALISING VOIP SERVICES?

Issue no 258

MVNOs to come to Africa with Virgin Mobile setting its sights on Nigeria and SA

Issue no 142

AGRIC-INFO SPECIAL - HELPING PRODUCERS MAKE MONEY FROM DIGITAL INFORMATION

Issue no 425

Orun Energy’s low-cost base station achieves 60% energy savings in tests with Ghana’s Kasapa

Issue no 310

The African ISP is dead! Long live the African ISP!

Issue no 220

   CENTRAL BANK OF UGANDA REVAMPS INFORMATION SYSTEMS TO SUPPORT GROWTH

Issue no 389

Nigeria’s Galaxy Backbone gears up to meet the needs of 1 million civil servants

Issue no 283

Mauritius special report - A status check on progress to the "cyber island" dream

Issue no 173

DIREQLEARN: DELIVERING SOLUTIONS INTO SCHOOLS ACROSS THE CONTINENT

Issue no 338

AFRICA ONLINE AT THE CENTRE OF A CONTESTED TAKEOVER BID

Issue no 246

SKYPE: THE PROGRAMME THAT WILL EAT THE LUNCH OF AFRICAN TELCOS

Issue no 137

SA’S DEPT OF COMMS WANTS ‘ILLEGAL’ TELECOMS EQUIPMENT

Issue no 408

Mi-Fone seeks to increase handset roll-out with sub-US$17 handset aimed at rural areas

Issue no 293

EASSY consortium reaches crunch point for choices about pricing, access and governance – interview with project co-ordinator, John Sihra

Issue no 208

THURAYA OFFERS A REAL ‘ANYWHERE’ PHONE FOR AFRICA BUT CAN THE PRICE DROP ANYTIME SOON?

Issue no 368

Tourist destinations the latest places to join Egypt’s hot-spot roll-out

Issue no 278

Uganda's Bwindi telecentre collects data on gorillas and targets tourists and locals

Issue no 165

HEALTH APPS USING PDAS AND CELLPHONES: THE RIGHT DEVICES AT THE RIGHT PRICE?

Issue no 324

Mauritania: arrival of third operator will shake up cosy duopoly

Issue no 321

Nigeria: the beginning of the end for Africa’s international grey market?

Issue no 232

Mozambique - TDM's MD Adriano wants a new interconnect agreement

Issue no 393

Vodacom set to take over Lap Green’s Rwanda and Uganda operations

Issue no 280

Knysna - Africa's first municipal wi-fi broadband network offers VOIP and internet access

Issue no 198

Newcomer Amitelo looks to enter telecoms and internet markets through acquisitions

Issue no 257

Power in the palm of your hand - Freeplay to launch self-powered mobile charger in Africa

Issue no 149

WASHINGTON LAUNCHES US$2 MILLION PRIVATE-PUBLIC INITIATIVE IN SENEGAL

Issue no 423

Second wave investment in broadband kicks off with Wananchi putting US$100 million into HFC networks for Triple Play delivery in Kenya and Tanzania

Issue no 302

Benin –DIY wireless enthusiasts launch Wi-Fi broadband and IP-to-IP calling

Issue no 220

   TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF MAURITIUS – IT-FREE TREASURY MANAGEMENT

Issue no 388

Africa’s mobile newcomers target off-centre country markets

Issue no 283

NETWORKPLUS OFFERS ISLAND-WIDE WIMAX COVERAGE

Issue no 177

E-MAIL THREATENS POSTAL SERVICES IN WEST AFRICA

Issue no 338

FLAG TELECOM ANNOUNCES IT WILL BUILD KENYA-SOUTH AFRICA FIBRE ROUTE

Issue no 246

TELKOM KENYA DISCONNECTS VoIP CALLING CARD SEMA AS IT PUTS HEAT ON ITS INTERNATIONAL REVENUES

Issue no 137

NIGERIAN ISPs LOBBY NCC OVER ISM BAND

Issue no 402

Second Africa ICT Best Practice conference in Ouaga – Closing the gap between words and action

Issue no 294

Cameroon’s Douala1.com launches T-CDMA wireless broadband service

Issue no 201

MWEB LOOKS TO BUILD ITS AFRICAN INTERNET BUSINESS IN SUSTAINABLE MARKETS

Issue no 369

Senegal – As competition starts, enter the new service providers

Issue no 266

Top story: Ghanaian powerline test - exclusive report on performance and cost

Issue no 166

GUINEA-BISSAU GOVERNMENT RESCINDS PORTUGAL TELECOM’S MONOPOLY AND TAKES BACK CONTROL

Issue no 325

Industry’s dirty little secret - cross-country transit prices keep SAT3 international bandwidth prices high

Issue no 236

South Africa - niche VOIP telecom player promising average 37% cuts on all calls

Issue no 393

READER’S COMMENTS:

Issue no 280

STORM AND CITY OF TSHWANE TO CARRY OUT PROOF OF CONCEPT PROJECTS

Issue no 191

THE CURSE OF THE AFRICAN E-MAIL CLASSES - WHAT IS IT?

Issue no 250

ZAMBIA’S FIRST WIRELESS ISP OFFERS HIGH SPEED BROADBAND SOLUTION

Issue no 144

WITH THE WAR NEARLY OVER, THE TELECOMS BOOM BEGINS...

Issue no 422

Zambian Minister and International Gateway – When you’re in a hole, stop digging

Issue no 303

The new scramble for Africa – acquisitions reshaping the communications landscape

Issue no 228

Senegal's Netcom challenges CFAO Technologies in francophone West Africa

Issue no 377

Congo-Brazzaville’s incumbent Sotelco on the verge of bankruptcy

Issue no 283

NEW CDMA OPERATOR SET TO CREATE GREATER COMPETITION IN MOBILE MARKET

Issue no 172

ACT 2003 REPORT - A NIGERIA SPECIAL FROM AFRICA’S FASTEST GROWING MARKET

Issue no 336

MTC Namibia signs push-to-talk trial with police

Issue no 241

Mobile data special - Africa's mobile users soon to go text-mad

Issue no 137

Connectivity News - In Brief

Issue no 401

The battle for mindspace – Africa’s mobile operators get serious about branding

Issue no 290

Sudan archiving project turns dry-as-dust documents into bits for easy access

Issue no 206

AFRICAN TELECOMS INDICATORS - THE STORIES BEHIND THE NUMBERS BEAN-FEST

Issue no 362

Kenya’s economy held back by lack of online payment authorisation systems

Issue no 260

WSIS host Tunisia guilty of denying access to information by filtering internet

Issue no 160

EFFECTIVE INTERCONNECT - AFRICA’S NEXT LIBERALISATION FRONTIER

Issue no 431

Cheaper international fibre prices in 2009 will put the squeeze on national backbone prices

Issue no 326

One for the money, two for the show…Cabo Verde Telecom launches IP-TV

Issue no 230

Kenya the latest African entrant to the international outsourcing market

Issue no 396

Sharing infrastructure to speed up roll-out – reaching the parts you can’t reach by yourselves

Issue no 285

THE OPENING OF THE MARKET KICKSTARTS A STAGNANT INTERNET SECTOR

Issue no 190

NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT THREATENS "FORCED RE-DELEGATION" ON DOMAIN NAME BODY

Issue no 355

IATA e-ticketing deadline creeping up fast on Africa’s unprepared airlines

Issue no 251

AND THEY'RE OFF: AFRICA'S FIRST LEGAL VOIP SERVICES SET A CRACKING PACE

Issue no 146

LIQUIDAFRICA - BUYING AND SELLING AFRICAN SHARES ONLINE

Issue no 424

O3B Networks promises low latency satellite bandwidth at US$500 a meg or less by 2010

Issue no 306

EASSy project enters the final lap with critics on all sides

Issue no 223

SOUTH AFRICA'S DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS UNDERGOES A COMPETITIVE MIND-SHIFT BUT...

Issue no 370

The end of the beginning: DRC plans ambitious infrastructure development

Issue no 283

THE LEGAL TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF THE ISLAND'S VoIP PIONEERS

Issue no 176

NIGERIA'S ADESEMI PIONEERS VOIP FOR BOTH TELEPHONY AND INTERNET SERVICES

Issue no 331

Tunisie Telecom: Foley bought in to transform company’s culture

Issue no 241

KENYA'S SAFARICOM - ONE OF AFRICA'S "FIRST-MOVERS" ON GPRS

Issue no 139

KENYA’S JAMBONET BLOCKS THE INTERNET BUT THE PRIVATE SECTOR FIGHTS BACK

Issue no 405

Botswana and Cape Verde join the ranks of the real VoIP legalisers

Issue no 209

NITEL’S CEO ZWOLSMAN; "30-40% REVENUES LOST TO INTERNAL FRAUD" BUT COMPANY IS NOW INVESTING

Issue no 367

The Nigerians are coming – investing in Benin and Ghana

Issue no 263

Cheaper mobile phone-based POS could make African credit card sales easier

Issue no 151

BROADBAND WIRELESS ACCESS - COULD IT GIVE INCUMBENT TELCOS A RUN FOR THEIR MONEY?

Issue no 152

AFRICAN TELCOS AND INTERNATIONAL CALL TIME: FINDING A NEW NEGOTIATING HAND

Issue no 327

Walls come tumbling down: Uganda licences VoIP service provider

Issue no 231

Guinea-Bissau: Eguitel defends its license and moves ahead with VOIP telecentres

Issue no 397

Ghana Telecom joins operators offering “almost” triple-play offers, by introducing IP-TV

Issue no 285

TELKOM KENYA CLOSE TO THE FINANCIAL BRINK IF REDUNDANCY PACKAGE NOT SORTED

Issue no 193

TELECENTRES SPECIAL: REACHING THOSE PARTS THE MARKET CANNOT YET REACH

Issue no 355

HOME GROWN SOLUTION FROM GHANA’S EXPLAINER DC

Issue no 242

The great African telecoms equipment giveaway - who stands to benefit?

Issue no 146

FIN-X-SIDE sa, LAUNCHES SWIFT SERVICE BUREAU FOR EUROPE

Issue no 426

Central Africa markets fail to get the attention they deserve, says new report

Issue no 304

MTN’s purchase of Cameroonian ISP may spell the end of independent ISPs

Issue no 221

AFRICA ONLINE GOES INTO PROFIT BUT ITS HOLDING GROUP IS NOT YET OUT OF THE WOODS

Issue no

African Telecoms and Internet Markets

Issue no 283

ICT SECTOR LOBBYING FOR LOWER INTERNATIONAL BANDWIDTH PRICES

Issue no 179

IXPS DRAFT REQUEST FOR SERVICE THAT WILL KICK-START THE AFRICAN INTERNET EXCHANGE

Issue no 335

Blame the foreigner - Ghana Telecom’s Norwegian management kicked out

Issue no 241

ONE WORLD INTERNATIONAL ROLLS OUT JOBS AND HEALTH SMS INFORMATION SERVICES

Issue no 404

Ghana special: Celtel to launch as Zain in Q3 and considering 3G roll-out

Issue no 298

A new breed of wireless VOIP providers– mobile operators’ nightmare may be just around the corner

Issue no 202

Burkina Faso: Anger at three day outage of ONATEL’s international internet Connection

Issue no 365

Buyer beware: Maroc Telecom mired in fall-out from Gabon Telecom purchase

Issue no 261

Kenyan supermarket chain uses its ERP System to turn its fortunes around

Issue no 479 6th November 2009

Liberalised South Africa starts to create market-opening mechanisms that allow cheaper access to fibre

Issue no 478 30th October 2009

Phase3 Telecoms to open Lagos-Accra terrestrial route in Q2, 2010 and set to go inland to landlocked countries

Issue no 477 23rd October 2009

Mali’s school students prepare themselves for the arrival of OPLC’s laptops

Issue no 476 16th October 2009

Dropping the ties that bind – how Africa can help itself to get lower bandwidth prices

Issue no 475 9th October 2009

African universities will buy 60 Gb of bandwidth and set up a continental network

Issue no 474 2nd October 2009

Africa’s Internet Exchange Points score well on lowering latency and local download speed but did not contribute to lowering of end-user costs, says new study

Issue no 473 25th September 2009

Main One will land in five places in Africa and makes alliance with Tata for European connections

Issue no 472 18th September 2009

Zambia soon to feel the double-effect of international fibre and liberalisation

Issue no 471 11th September 2009

African mobile ARPUs set to fall up to 2013 in most countries except in those with mobile data potential, says new report

Issue no 470 4th September 2009

The world of virtual networks: Effortel seeks to enter African market with an MVNO offer

Issue no 469 28th August 2009

New tax on international incoming traffic takes Côte d’Ivoire one step backwards

Issue no 468 21st August 2009

Togo: Moov subscribers go on to the streets in Lome to protest at closure of Moov

Issue no 467 14th August 2009

Zain vs Vodacom row in Zambia hits a raw nerve over Africa’s 3G anxieties

Issue no 466 7th August 2009

AppLab launches new SMS services after testing use and take-up with potential users – promising early use figures

Issue no 465 31st July 2009

Central African Backbone project looks set to connect Africa’s fibre free triangle

Issue no 464 24th July 2009

As industry gears up for fibre gear- shift, data centres become the next big growth area

Issue no 463 17th July 2009

D-day for East Africa - Seacom fibre arrives but SAT3 monopoly is still in place

Issue no 462 10th July 2009

Mobile-XL offers handset browser aimed at low-cost GPRS phones to raise ARPUs

Issue no 461 3rd July 2009

East African and Indian Ocean markets will get a “growth bump” from the arrival of the international fibre cables

Issue no 460 26th June 2009

East Africa’s mobile competition cauldron grinds up new entrants and spits them out

Issue no 459 19th June 2009

Fibre backbone cables spreading across the continent should lead to cheaper traffic between countries

Issue no 359 17th June 2009

One laptop per child starting pilots in South Africa and Nigeria

Issue no 458 12th June 2009

Belgacom ICS to launch GSMA approved international M-money services called Home Send for mobile carriers this summer

Issue no 358 10th June 2009

Google appoints Wananchi’s Mucheru to head up its new operation

Issue no 457 5th June 2009

East African mobile operators outsource call centres and HR to concentrate on winning competition battle

Issue no 456 29th May 2009

Kenya’s Pasha Centres initiative seeks a new way to reach out into un-serviced areas

Issue no 455 22nd May 2009

Strategies for shrinking former incumbents: double or quits in Togo, Gabon and Congo-Brazzaville

Issue no 454 15th May 2009

Getting ready for the Big Change - Putting the local into African services and applications

Issue no 453 8th May 2009

Going virtual - Africa’s maturing markets offer new wholesale and retail service opportunities

Issue no 452 1st May 2009

Africa’s rapid mobile Internet growth will drive network expansion and media spend

Issue no 451 23rd April 2009

Low-cost phone and voice operator bounces back with entrepreneur support from Cisco

Issue no 450 17th April 2009

M-Money services a huge success in Kenya but waiting for their breakout moment elsewhere

Issue no 449 10th April 2009

Satcom 09: Africa’s satellite providers find themselves looking at a less rosy future

Issue no 448 3rd April 2009

Ugandan’s Lord’s Resistance Army uses technology to elude capture

Issue no 447 27th March 2009

Africa’s powerline pioneers look set to get traction over the next three years

Issue no 446 20th March 2009

DRC: Work now under way to link the country by fibre to its neighbours and the world

Issue no 445 13th March 2009

Cote d’Ivoire: Warid Telecom pays for licence but can’t get enough spectrum to operate

Issue no 444 6th March 2009

Jet Net’s new Jordanian investor plans voice and data challenge using WiMAX

Issue no 443 27th February 2009

Broadband pricing strategies the key to future international bandwidth growth, says third edition of BA voice and data forecasts

Issue no 442 20th February 2009

Financial tide goes out on incumbent telco privatisations - who will buy Africa’s “problem children”?

Issue no 441 13th February 2009

Minimum CAPEX, Maximum OPEX - Expresso’s strategy for African expansion

Issue no 440 6th February 2009

Senegalese consumers called to boycott mobile phones to protest 2% tax increase on wide range of services

Issue no 439 30th January 2009

Nigeria – shaping up to become the next big M-money market

Issue no 438 23rd January 2009

West Africa: New international fibre entrants playing a dangerous game of poker

Issue no 437 16th January 2009

Kenya’s Steadman Group to research who will be watching the 2010 World Cup

Issue no 437 16th January 2009

Ethiopia’s ETC: The elephant in the room slows down ICT development

Issue no 436 9th January 2009

The Year of Living Dangerously – how to survive in a low growth world

Issue no 416 1st August 2008

Communauté Electrique du Bénin issues tender to operate fibre network over its transmission pylons in Benin and Togo

Issue no 379 9th November 2007

Marching to a different drum – Africa enters the age of mobile content

Issue no 360 24th June 2007

Vyke introduces VoIP retail calls to Africa at near to wholesale rates

Issue no 353 6th May 2007

Second edition of BA voice and bandwidth projections forecast large increase in wireless broadband

Issue no 352 29th April 2007

Liberia: four mobile companies bring lowest prices in West Africa

Issue no 350 15th April 2007

ANGOLA – OIL REVENUES FUEL RAPID GROWTH IN TELECOMS

Issue no 350 15th April 2007

MOVICEL LAUNCHES 3G SERVICE AND ATTRACTS 3000 CUSTOMERS

Issue no 350 15th April 2007

TWO ANGOLAN OPERATORS OFFER VoIP SERVICE

Issue no 349 8th April 2007

Outsider east coast fibre project comes in from the cold – Seacom goes public

Issue no 348 1st April 2007

Telkom Kenya on the block – mobile licence sweetens the package

Issue no 347 25th March 2007

African satellite prices rise in the wake of NSS8 burn-out

Issue no 334 3rd December 2006

Battle for the cheap education computer hots up

Issue no 291 5th February 2006

Sonatel and Gamtel heading towards "triple-play implementation"