Telecoms in Africa
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1026 on 29 May 2020
Nigerian online transport start-up Plentywaka in the eye of the Covid-19 storm – how it’s weathering difficult times
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1025 on 22 May 2020
2Africa cable promises a huge international capacity uplift in 2023/2024 and will be available through Open Access landing stations and carrier-neutral data centres
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1024 on 15 May 2020
South Africa’s TooMuchWifi gives free data for correct answers to Covid-19 quiz – planning to build out its tried and tested ‘pay for’ model
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1023 on 7 May 2020
Retail and online sales survey for mobile handsets and tablets in 6 African countries shows how sales will be hit and looks at the bounce back after lockdown ends
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1022 on 1 May 2020
New KaiOS survey identifies barriers to mobile money and internet use among younger phone users in Nigeria –fine-tuning the pitch to get better use
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1021 on 24 April 2020
Never let a good crisis go to waste – Covid-19 as the midwife of changes in digital behavior
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1020 on 9 April 2020
Gist Mobile aims to connect diaspora Nigerians with their families – virtual numbers and VoIP access at low rates
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1019 on 3 April 2020
South Africa’s Routed offers the continent’s first vendor neutral cloud platform with self-service products
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1018 on 27 March 2020
Rural coverage in Africa finally begins to come of age – New contracts drive the process but Covid-19 will mean delays
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1017 on 20 March 2020
Covid-19 casts a long shadow across Africa’s communications industry – an opening snapshot of what’s happening and what it means
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1016 on 13 March 2020
Connectivity Capital targets African ISPs needing loans to expand their business; will offer them between US$200,000 to US$2 million
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1015 on 5 March 2020
Mali’s new Minister of Digital Economy and Foresight outlines digital will change things in her country – DRC and Senegal also want to be part of the coming change
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1014 on 28 February 2020
African e-commerce – more promise than delivery as African economies stutter and Coronavirus hits supply from China
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1013 on 21 February 2020
Legislating Africa’s digital economy – Rwanda commits to protect personal data and Uganda to license digital platform drivers
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1012 on 14 February 2020
OpenRAN pitches itself to African mobile operators as a way of cutting costs and helping rural roll-out
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1011 on 7 February 2020
DRC: 4G drives uptick in date use and new planned fibre connections will drive further growth
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1010 on 31 January 2020
Big shifts in the Ugandan market bring new opportunities – Roke Telecom sees FTTH as having retail potential
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1009 on 24 January 2020
New East African cable DARE1 will be operational in March 2020 and Ella Link will add new West African connections this year
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1008 on 17 January 2020
Next generation of African teachers will be key telco customer segment – some surprises with new survey findings
Seasons greetings from Balancing Act – The highlights of 2019
Seasons greetings from Balancing Act – The highlights of 2019
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1006 – 13 December2019
Djibouti Telecom corruption scandal revealed: who paid what to whom and how big the bribe was
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1005 – 6 December2019
Congo Telecom plans to make major bandwidth increases for its FTTH customers but to hold to the same prices
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1004 – 29 November 2019
Telkom in trouble as South Africa’s key players struggle with the implementing the new digital playbook
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1003 – 22 November 2019
Exclusive interview: Angola’s Isabel dos Santos on Unitel’s plans to expand into other African countries and the lack of a level playing field in her home market
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1002 – 15 November 2019
AfricaCom 2019 – For four days it’s the human social media of Africa’s communications industry
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1001 – 8 November 2019
Start-up Turn.io upgrades social impact messaging and engagement to smartphones – dealing with hundreds of thousands of queries and responses using machine learning
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 1000 – 1 November 2019
Balancing Act’s News Update Reaches its 1000th issue – Looking back over almost 20 years and looking forward to what happens next
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 999 – 25 October 2019
MTN wants to build a WeChat-style platform to compete with the likes of WhatsApp and Messenger – David Gilarranz on building all things digital for the Big Yello
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 998 – 18 October 2019
The transition to eSIMs has arrived in Africa – digitalizing the customer experience and getting rid of multiple plastic SIMs
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 997 – 11 October 2019
Vodacom rolls out Upstream’s free data platform Zero-D as Flex – High volumes of users but now the challenge of financing via advertising, more African roll-outs planned
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 996 – 4 October 2019
Giving PEACE a chance – New carrier neutral cable will be complete by 2021 and offers a new range of connections for East Africa
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 995 – 27 September 2019
Telecoms vendor Ericsson’s Foreign Corrupt Practices fine of around US$1 billion puts the spotlight on Djibouti Telecom – Who took the bribe? Who authorized it?
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 994 – 20 September 2019
Logistics aggregator Kobo360 to expand out of Nigeria to neighboring countries – B2B applications are driving digital transformation and bringing new telco and ISP business
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 993 – 13 September 2019
Satellite going through its fibre moment – how this will help Africa reach beyond fibre networks to more remote areas
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 992 – 6 September 2019
Kymeta targets Africa’s ‘on the move’ and remote business cases with its mobile satellite antenna
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 991 – 30 August 2019
Niger: And the winner is…..A tax avoiding Nigerienne businessman who appears in the Panama papers
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 990 – 23 August 2019
Do the Right Thing: Two key African Governments make clear commitments to liberalizing their telecoms sectors
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 989 – 16 August 2019
Raxio on course to launch new Tier III carrier-neutral data centre in Uganda – its investor First Brick Holdings wants to launch four more by 2021
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 988 – 9 August 2019
Solar power coming of age for Sub-Saharan Africa’s remote base stations – completely replacing maintenance-heavy diesel generators
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 987 – 2 August 2019
Mauritania on the cusp of the digital change -Local cloud founder Yehdhih Ould Mohamed Moctar, Xseeg on local apps, bandwidth shortage and quality issues
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 986 – 26 July 2019
Looking for mobile money V2.0 – South African start-up uKheshe wants to become the universal way of doing payments for the informal sector
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 985 – 19 July 2019
Data free messaging platform Moya Messenger's CEO set to roll-out in Nigeria and signs partnership with MTN to sell its services
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 984 – 12 July 2019
Ugandan Government and regulator want to take control of local IXP – the latest in a disturbing pattern of regulatory interventions
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 983 – 5 July 2019
Google and Facebook get into African submarine cables – what they are up to and what will it do to other cables
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 982 – 28 June 2019
Orange pulls out of Niger over tax dispute – One of likely buyers is a tax avoider named in the Panama Papers
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 981 – 21 June 2019
Dynamic spectrum likely to play a key role in African regulation V2.00 - Opening up opportunities to reach the parts others cannot reach
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 980 – 14 June 2019
AfDB signs agreement with Tchadian Government for US$32 million to finance Chad-Niger section of Trans Sahara fibre route
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 979 – 7 June 2019
South Africa’s Onli SMS app seeks to update the messaging old faithful by adding encryption, translation and adding to message length
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 978 – 31 May 2019
New players take a run at creating a cross-border Western African Digital Pool connecting Guinea, Mali and Sierra Leone in pilot fibre project, say more countries to follow
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 977 – 24 May 2019
Cameroon: Former Camtel D-G David Nkoto Emmane is under investigation for two corruption allegations, forbidden to leave the country
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 976 – 17 May 2019
GVA is targeting the big cities of Francophone Africa with its FTTH vision – High-speed household access at more “affordable” prices
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 975 – 10 May 2019
The vanishing point for African online use - Why mobile apps will have a tough time succeeding Africa
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 974 – 3 May 2019
Orange makes a back-door entry into the Gambian market and causes much tongue wagging
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 973 – 26 April 2019
The challenges of being a small ISP in Ghana:” The regulator looks after larger operators rather than competition through local entrepreneurs...these would provide more jobs and choice for local users”.
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 972 – 18 April 2019
Stop Press: Angolan President cancels fourth mobile licence after shareholding controversy
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 971 – 11 April 2019
Central African fibre links beginning to fall into place with the soon-to-be realised Congo-Brazzaville to Central African Republic connection
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 970 – 5 April 2019
Pinning down internet use behavior and buying habits in Sub-Saharan Africa – new report brings together wide range of data
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 969 – 29 March 2019
Moving from VAS to Visual Notification Ads – Supa Pesa takes on a major FMCG brand to compete with the likes of Facebook and Google
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 968 – 22 March 2019
African mobile operators aren’t capitalising on 4G connectivity and as a result the whole ecosystem is suffering
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 967 – 15 March 2019
Freeconferencecall.com looks to expand its footprint in Africa and can offer broadcast calls to 5,000 people
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 966 – 11 March 2019
New report identifies the heroes and villains of Africa’s mobile data pricing and why women are being excluded from Africa’s digital life
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 965 – 1 March 2019
The long plod of local loop unbundling or a short, sharp dose of private sector innovation? The lessons from Morocco’s glacial progress
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 964 – 22 February 2019
Cote d’Ivoire: Raising mobile money rates by adding taxes is killing the golden goose
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 963 – 15 February 2019
Hitting the low-spot in South Africa: TooMuchWifi’s Ian Thomson on delivery of better data deals for the “have-nots” and the scary margins of the MN0s
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 962 – 8 February 2019
Senegal: Sirius Telecom kicks off the MVNO process by promising a June launch, two other MVNOs will follow
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 961 – 1 February 2019
CSquared’s new Group CEO Lanre Kolade promises more country roll-outs and wholesale FTTH
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 960 – 25 January 2019
biNu 2.0 – the data free challenger to WhatsApp that allows companies to offer #datafree access for customers
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 959 – 18 January 2019
The Great Liberian Hacking Scandal Part 2 – Cellcom manager paid for botnet attack on MTN Liberia, says British Court, hacker gets jail sentence
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 958 – 11 January 2019
Getting a head on the 5G business case for Africa – looking beyond the vendor hype for real revenues
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 957 – 4 January 2019
Changing times for African satellite reseller BSS Africa as it seeks to grow broadcast and maritime business
Seasons Greetings from Balancing Act
Seasons Greetings from Balancing Act
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 955 - 14 December 2018
Kenya: Angani turns talk into business as the transition to the Cloud begins to take wing
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 954 - 7 December 2018
Nigerian FTT provider Legend doubles its speeds for Double and Triple Play Customers – increased video use drives consumption
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 953 - 30 November 2018
The Digital Life of Kenya’s smallholder farmers – who’s using what phones to access information and loans
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 952 23 November 2018
KaiOS helps a low-cost featurephone become a smartphone – Launching in Africa with Orange and MTN
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 951 16 November 2018
AfricaCom 2018 – The need for cloning technology to see everything you want in this mega meet point
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 950 9 November 2018
Privatization of Africa’s state-owned telcos is stuck in a rut – potential assets are wasting away
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 949 2 November 2018
Got my Moja working – BRCK’s free Wi-Fi service targets bus and matatu users in Nairobi and Kigali
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 949 2 November 2018
Freeconferencecall.com looks to expand its footprint in Africa and can offer broadcast calls to 5,000 people
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 948 26 October 2018
Airtel Africa dodges the bullet – set to raise US$1.25 bn from IPO, gets Singtel investment in advance
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 947 19 October 2018
Kirusa’s ‘make your life easier’ apps target changing how African MNOs get revenues from voicemail, roaming and enterprise calling
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 946 12 October 2018
Togo’s partial privatization will not solve the market blockages that are holding back the country’s full potential
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 945 5 October 2018
Aldo Mareuse Telkom Kenya on its partnership with Google on Project Loon and the “gargantuan task” of getting the Government to rein in Safaricom’s dominance.
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 944 28 September 2018
Djibouti Data Centre’s John Melick III on two new international cable connections for the region and operating neutral, third party combined landing stations and data centres
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 943 21 September 2018
Africa’s first major terrestrial cable takes ten years to complete and connects 660+ cities and towns – Liquid Telecom’s next pan continental route may be east-west
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 942 14 September 2018
Three Kenyan operators seeking to extend the Internet to new groups of people: home customers using 35GB a month
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 941 7 September 2018
Study shows Uganda’s OTT taxes have hit economic growth but Benin jumps into the OTT tax hole
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 940 – 31 August 2018
Africa’s mobile operators are failing to meet the innovation challenge in their own backyard
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 939 – 24 August 2018
Nigeria: Interconnection ‘debt mountain’ may threaten the health of the telecoms sector
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 938 – 17 August 2018
Vodafone Wholesale puts in second fibre link for regional connectivity but huge disparities exist in African wholesale rates as prices fall
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 937 – 10 August 2018
Going digital to tackle traffic accidents and crime – Senegal and Rwanda adopt two very different approaches
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 936 – 27 July 2018
Two new Africa-South America Undersea Cables will open in Q3, 2018 adding to downward pressures on international wholesale prices
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 935 – 20 July 2018
Africa’s three major mobile operators now have a digital playbook – highlighting the continent’s digital services sector
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 934 – 13 July 2018
West Africa Com 2018: The end of the beginning for operator digital transformation and so much more
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 933 – 6 July 2018
New taxes on OTT services will damage Africa’s digital transformation and its benefits – Uganda’s “big man” says:” Social media chatting is a luxury”
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 932 – 29 June 2018
Financial services a key battleground in Africa’s digital transformation: Ecobank offers the unbanked KYC-lite accounts, card-less ATM payments, signs agreement with MTN
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 931 – 22 June 2018
Africa’s Slowest Moving Fibre Project begins to fall into place –Congo-B tenders for links to Cameroon and Central African Republic
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 930 – 15 June 2018
Wari’s CEO Kabirou Mbodje on why he wants to buy Tigo Senegal and how he’s creating an open access financial global brand
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 929 – 8 June 2018
ISOCEL to launch first FTTH service in Benin, first in capital Cotonou and then more widely
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 928 – 1 June 2018
Nigerian start-up Paystack has grew ten times last year and has handled near US$10 million in monthly transactions
News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 927 – 25 May 2018
Nigeria’s BCN will use its new NW Infraco licence to become more of a national player – fibre roll-out starts Q1, 2019
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, B2B services and content for its digital future
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
Rwandatel Management has no case against former CEO.
Issue no 487 15th January 2010
Regulator penalises leading mobile companies for QoS issues by shortening their licence period
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 372
West African licence tendering processes – a case to answer
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 333
Raid on Siemens throws new light on seamy side of buying and selling telco equipment
Issue no 245
African international bandwidth set to grow by 81% to 2008 driven by mobile and broadband
Issue no 404
Zain Ghana’s Sowah will offer customers a “Rolls-Royce” network
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 363
Benin: Regulator plays poker with Moov and MTN by cutting networks over increased licence fees
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 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 397
Issue 396: Infrastructure sharing to speed roll-out
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 340
Four African countries try to turn back the clock by creating monopoly international gateways again
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 421
ITXC judgement lifts the carpet on bribes to seven African telcos for contracts
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 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 337
Vivendi goes into Sub-Saharan Africa with Onatel purchase
Issue no 243
Botswana liberalisation special - Re-arranging the deckchairs or the real thing?
Issue no 404
CORRECTIONS:
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 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 434
Nigeria’s Suburban set to operate a Lagos-Abidjan regional terrestrial fibre link
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 392
Indian Ocean islands agree a scheme to connect themselves by fibre
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 341
Tradenet launches market intel platform for buying and selling agricultural goods
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 429
Egypt tries to control the use of GPS by banning except with individual licences
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 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
Jobs SMS services might offer mobile companies the killer app
Issue no 243
BOTSWANA’S INCUMBENT BTC IN POOR SHAPE AS PRIVATISATION LOOMS
Issue no 400
M- money services – The rise and rise of Africa’ s “killer-app” for 2008
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 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 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 399
Mauritius’ Nomad: Voice and Internet combine in the coming Wi-MAX business model
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 344
The convergence moment – Gateway launches pan-African pay-TV service
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 411
Chinese-supplied CDMA 2000 becomes hybrid convergence challenger for African operators
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 213
POWERLINE TECHNOLOGIES FOR INTERNET AND VOICE ACCESS - AFRICAN TRIALS UNDER WAY
Issue no 375
Low-cost voice operators: Technology without a business model yet in sight
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
M4G LAUNCHES JOBS SERVICE FRANCHISE AFTER SUCCESFUL KENYA TRIAL
Issue no 243
BTA CONSIDERS MVNO AS THIRD MOBILE OPERATOR
Issue no 407
M-Money: New competitor services throw their hats into the ring in Ghana and Tanzania
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 356
Transcorp looks at new carriers carrier strategy for“car wreck” Nitel
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 430
iVeri’s implementation of e-commerce by debit card looks set to widen the user base
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 387
North Africa: Morocco to get full local loop unbundling in July 2008 and pressures to unbundle grow in Tunisia
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 414
Race to build a west coast fibre promises to push international bandwidth prices to new lows
Issue no 309
GOVERNMENT HAS AMBITIOUS PLANS IN ITS VISION 2020
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 375
Reader’s Responses
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 338
MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IS THE NATURAL EXTENSION TO ONLINE RECRUITMENT
Issue no 243
ISPs WANT TO GET OUT AND SELL VoIP
Issue no 406
Mobile Internet take-up is speeding the take-up of IPv6 in Africa
Issue no 296
Interconnect Special: lower interconnect rates in Africa have not led to lower prices for customers, says new report
Issue no 203
NEW RESEARCH FINDINGS POINT TO HIGH RATES OF PHONE USE EVEN IN NO OR LOW SERVICE AREAS
Issue no 357
Two new fibre contenders – this time it’s Southern Africa
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 433
Ushahidi helps people by tracking what’s happening in a crisis by web and SMS
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 380
West Africa: The great mobile pricing mystery – who’s cheap and who’s expensive
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 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 413
Fight the power: Ghana’s insurgent challenger ISPs set to take on the vertical-integrators
Issue no 410
Mauritius call-centre and BPO sector needs lower international bandwidth prices to stay competitive
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 371
Nigeria’s Mainstreet Technologies to build new international west coast fibre
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 243
PROPOSALS ON LIBERALISATION SEEM SHAPED BY FEAR OF INCUMBENT FAILURE BUT RECOMMENDS VoIP LEGAL BY 2006
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
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
Kenya special: market gets ready for cheaper bandwidth
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 383
Algerie Telecom becomes first operator to pioneer Fibre-To-The-Home strategy
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 343
The African Lakes sale – questions begin to pile up
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
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 378
Rules of the game changing as DSL subs head for 1 million and international fibre prices fall to all-time low
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 330
Satellite dominates cellular backhaul, says new study
Issue no 243
NEW BOTSWANA ICT STRATEGY – AMBITIOUS BUT ACHIEVABLE?
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
AFRICA ONLINE’S NEW CEO LAYS OUT HIS STALL
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 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 381
France Telecom scores two in a row – will it make it a hat trick with Ghana?
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 345
Somalia’s civil war hides steady growth of internet services
Issue no 248
CUEINCIDENT USES CDMA FOR CRIME PROTECTION SURVEILLANCE
Issue no 137
STWS OPENS A MAJOR INTERNATIONAL CALL CENTRE
Issue no 137
UUNET NAMIBIA PEERS WITH TELECOM NAMIBIA
Issue no 417
VoIP wars – The battle moves closer to the mobile operators
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 376
Continued high Internet and telecoms growth in West Africa, says new report
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 332
Kenya begins the countdown to cheap international fibre
Issue no 237
Private sector ICT lobbying: making friends and influencing people
Issue no 390
African countries’ ICT policy– going from the blah, blah, blah cycle to getting something done
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 354
KDN’S FREE ACCESS OFFER UNCOVERS EXTENT OF WI-FI DEVICES
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 435
WiMAX establishes a clear foothold in Africa with over 100 installations across the continent
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 389
Nigeria’s Galaxy Backbone gears up to meet the needs of 1 million civil servants
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 342
African VoIP report reveals steady uptake of ip among carriers and grey market persisting despite price falls
Issue no 248
CAMPUSWISE USES CDMA FOR ONLINE LEARNING
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 412
Dabba looks set to make micro low-cost voice telco operations a reality
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 364
Mali: Mobile service helps bring down infant mortality
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 322
Spectrum conflicts threaten existing services and new technology take-up
Issue no 234
Mobile goes Wi-Fi - an opportunity to expand internet usage?
Issue no 395
Altech Buys 51 Per Cent Stake in Sameer ICT Ltd
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 432
Liberian Government turns up the heat on Comium to Renegotiate Agreement
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 386
SMS – Africa’s coming media generates millions of responses and revenues
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 246
VOIP wars - Skype hits Africa and Telkom Kenya disconnects Sema cards
Issue no 137
SONATEL TO OFFER ADSL CONNECTIONS
Issue no 418
West African consumer broadband prices continue to tumble as OTI Telecom lowers its retail offer
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 361
Power to the base stations – a modest proposition
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 329
South Africa’s coming convergence may hold lessons for rest of the continent
Issue no 235
Rascom targets 0.25m rural users with its satellite service due in 2006
Issue no 395
* What’s happening with Lap Green and Vodacom?
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 428
No free pass: global financial crisis will impact Africa’s telecoms sector
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 382
Africa’s competition laboratory Kenya is the one to watch
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 346
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that Fring – VoIP nightmare for mobile operators
Issue no 338
Two new deals signal wider investor interest in African telecoms and internet
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 409
Triple play and broadband will power the next stage of growth for Africa’s Internet
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 366
Portugal Telecom to create separate African subsidiary to up its profile
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 328
GSM>3G Africa 06: masters of the universe face a tougher climb
Issue no 238
Southern Sudan: SPLM bidding to put in place NGN communications
Issue no 394
Convergence – Getting to grips with the contours of the new media landscape with real data
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 420
Double play in Nigeria: ipNX will use WiMAX to carve itself a niche offering voice and broadband
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 384
Living with confusion – African operators find themselves pulled in new directions
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
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 408
Mi-Fone seeks to increase handset roll-out with sub-US$17 handset aimed at rural areas
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 368
Tourist destinations the latest places to join Egypt’s hot-spot roll-out
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 324
Mauritania: arrival of third operator will shake up cosy duopoly
Issue no 232
Mozambique - TDM's MD Adriano wants a new interconnect agreement
Issue no 391
Tomorrow’s Internet users today – African universities play catch-up with online content
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 425
Orun Energy’s low-cost base station achieves 60% energy savings in tests with Ghana’s Kasapa
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 389
Nigeria’s Galaxy Backbone gears up to meet the needs of 1 million civil servants
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 241
Mobile data special - Africa's mobile users soon to go text-mad
Issue no 137
Connectivity News - In Brief
Issue no 402
Second Africa ICT Best Practice conference in Ouaga – Closing the gap between words and action
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 369
Senegal – As competition starts, enter the new service providers
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 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
Vodacom set to take over Lap Green’s Rwanda and Uganda operations
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 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 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 388
Africa’s mobile newcomers target off-centre country markets
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 176
NIGERIA'S ADESEMI PIONEERS VOIP FOR BOTH TELEPHONY AND INTERNET SERVICES
Issue no 336
MTC Namibia signs push-to-talk trial with police
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 401
The battle for mindspace – Africa’s mobile operators get serious about branding
Issue no 209
NITEL’S CEO ZWOLSMAN; "30-40% REVENUES LOST TO INTERNAL FRAUD" BUT COMPANY IS NOW INVESTING
Issue no 362
Kenya’s economy held back by lack of online payment authorisation systems
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 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 393
READER’S COMMENTS:
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 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 422
Zambian Minister and International Gateway – When you’re in a hole, stop digging
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 377
Congo-Brazzaville’s incumbent Sotelco on the verge of bankruptcy
Issue no 283
THE LEGAL TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF THE ISLAND'S VoIP PIONEERS
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 331
Tunisie Telecom: Foley bought in to transform company’s culture
Issue no 241
ONE WORLD INTERNATIONAL ROLLS OUT JOBS AND HEALTH SMS INFORMATION SERVICES
Issue no 405
Botswana and Cape Verde join the ranks of the real VoIP legalisers
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 367
The Nigerians are coming – investing in Benin and Ghana
Issue no 261
Kenyan supermarket chain uses its ERP System to turn its fortunes around
Issue no 152
AFRICAN TELCOS AND INTERNATIONAL CALL TIME: FINDING A NEW NEGOTIATING HAND
Issue no 431
Cheaper international fibre prices in 2009 will put the squeeze on national backbone prices
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 396
Sharing infrastructure to speed up roll-out – reaching the parts you can’t reach by yourselves
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
IATA e-ticketing deadline creeping up fast on Africa’s unprepared airlines
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 424
O3B Networks promises low latency satellite bandwidth at US$500 a meg or less by 2010
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 370
The end of the beginning: DRC plans ambitious infrastructure development
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 335
Blame the foreigner - Ghana Telecom’s Norwegian management kicked out
Issue no 241
iTOUCH BUILDS ITSELF A MOBILE DATA BUSINESS IN SA AND ROLLS OUT IN MOROCCO
Issue no 404
Ghana special: Celtel to launch as Zain in Q3 and considering 3G roll-out
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 365
Buyer beware: Maroc Telecom mired in fall-out from Gabon Telecom purchase
Issue no 267
Blogging and podcasting start to take off in Africa: first mobile phone podcast from Accra ?
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
Ghana Telecom joins operators offering “almost” triple-play offers, by introducing IP-TV
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 355
HOME GROWN SOLUTION FROM GHANA’S EXPLAINER DC
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 426
Central Africa markets fail to get the attention they deserve, says new report
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
African Telecoms and Internet Markets
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"
