Issue no 267
Top Story
Blogging and podcasting start to take off in Africa: first mobile phone podcast from Accra ?
"Leaving the Annan Centre, David and I drove across town past the sprawling campus of the University of Ghana until we reached the site of my workshop on blogs, podcasts and video blogs. When we arrived, I discovered the cards were stacked against me; the facility had no projector (nor an empty wall on which to project, even if we had found one), and its Internet access was having problems. What those problems were, no one could really explain, but the end result was that my connection was no more than 10k per second. Frustrating as this was, it was…
Telecoms
INVESTORS SET TO INJECT USD200M INTO EASSY FIBRE PROJECT
Over USD200m in investment interest has been made by African telecom operators to develop the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) after an initial data gathering meeting in Cape Town,…
Telecoms
MOBITEL INJECTS TS35BN INTO SERVICES, INFRASTRUCTURE
MIC Tanzania Limited (Mobitel) has announced a major reinvestment of some TS35bn geared at improving its services in the coming 12 month-span. Company Director of Sales and Marketing Roney Mtawali…
Telecoms
KENYAN GOVT FAILS TO FIND ENOUGH FROM SAFARICOM SALE TO FUND TELKOM KENYA REDUNANDCY PROGRAMME
Kenya Telkom's plans to make 12,000 of its employees redundant may have suffered a setback because the Kenya Government has failed to find the amount of money it was looking…
Telecoms
SOUTH AFRICA'S ICASA MULLS MOVES TO CUT MOBILE PRICES
South Africa's telecoms regulator is considering imposing new rules on the country's mobile operators, the watchdog said, after competition between the three firms has failed to bring down prices. The…
Telecoms
GSM TARIFFS TOO HIGH IN NIGERIA, SAYS SUBSCRIBER SURVEY
Mobile subscribers in Nigeria are still convinced that the current charges for both voice and data by GSM operators are too high. In a country where the majority of citizens…
Telecoms
SACKED SENEGALESE REGULATOR QUESTIONED BY DIC OVER EMBEZZLEMENT CHARGES
Sacked Senegalese regulator Malick Gueye underwent ten hours interrogation at the Department of Criminal Investigations in connection with allegations of embezzlement. This investigation was initiated after the discovery of a…
Telecoms
MAURITANIAN OPERATOR MATTEL UPGRADES PREPAY PLATFORM
Mattel (la Mauritano-Tunisienne de Telecommunications) in Mauritania has awarded a Prepaid System upgrade and expansion contract to Tecnomen. This delivery consists of additional prepaid value added services such as Discount…
Telecoms
Telecoms News - In Brief
- Nigeria’s four biggest mobile operators – MTN, Vee Networks, Nitel GSM and Globacom – have teamed up to lobby the government for an extension to their tax exemption status.…
Telecoms
TELECOMS, RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE
* Cell C is confident that it will meet its licence obligation to roll out 52 000 community service telephones (CST) to under-serviced areas nation-wide by 2008. To date, Cell…
Internet
3G INTERNET BOOM ON ITS WAY IN SOUTH AFRICA, SAYS BMI
South Africa is set to achieve nearly 870 000 broadband access subscribers by 2009, says BMI-TechKnowledge's latest report. This figure represents access to the Internet using PCs. An additional 4.4 million subscribers…
Internet
NETCOM'S 3G MOBILE BROADBAND SOLUTION LAUNCHED IN NIGERIA
Axcera, a leading manufacturer and integrator of best-of-breed technology for the broadband wireless access industry, and Netcom Africa Limited, a leading IP infrastructure provider of satellite and wireless broadband solutions…
Internet
TELKOM-CONTROLLED ADSL PRICE WAR LOOMS
Following Telkom's June announcement that it will drop its ADSL pricing by 18% and 31% depending on the ADSL product, smaller Internet service providers (ISPs) say they will also bring…
Internet
MTN, UGANDAN GOVT TO CONNECT NINE SCHOOLS ON INTERNET
MTN Uganda and the ministry of Education have agreed to jointly provide Internet services to nine schools through the schools connectivity programme. The programme being managed by Uconnect, a project…
Internet
SA'S MTN BRINGS BROADBAND TO SOHOS
MTN Network Solutions (MTN NS) this week unveiled four packages that will give users high-speed access to virtual private networks (VPNs) and the Internet. The asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL)…
Internet
Internet News - In Brief
- Namibia's telephone directory will soon be accessible on the Internet. Ferdinand Tjombe, public relations manager at Telecom Namibia, says some sections of the directory are already accessible on the…
Computing
COMPUTER AID STARTS REFURBING IN NAIROBI
Computers donated from the developed world are both fuelling and feeding an appetite for computers in Africa where a new machine could cost more than a year's wages. The Masai…
Computing
FUJITSU SIEMENS COMPUTERS BROADENS SERVICE REACH IN AFRICA
Fujitsu Siemens Computers followed up its recent announcement that it has increased the number of service partners in SA with an announcement that it has also trained several service partners…
Computing
AMAZON.COM LAUNCHES SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT CENTRE IN SOUTH AFRICA
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has announced that it is launching a software development centre in Cape Town, South Africa. The centre will focus on developing new and innovative web services…
Computing
ALGERIA TO INVEST USD5 BILLION IN PROJECT TO PROVIDE COMPUTERS FOR FAMILIES
Algerian minister of post, information and telecommunication technologies, Mr. Boudjemâa Haichour, declared that the investment needed for providing 6 million computers for Algerian families is estimated at $5 billion, it…
Computing
KENYAN UNIVERSITY TO OFFER LINUX TRAINING
Kenyan company Circuits & Packets Communications (C&P) last week signed a deal with Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) to offer advanced GNU-Linux training at the university.…
Computing
STANDARD BANK SIGNS MULTI-MILLION MS DEAL
Standard Bank on Wednesday announced that it has signed an enterprise licensing agreement with Microsoft SA for the upgrade of its 42 000 desktop PC platforms over the next three…
Computing
Computer News - In Brief
- The Sebeta School of the Blind in Ethiopia has reportedly introduced computerized braille technology. Computer Section Coordinator with the school, Abeya Bidika said that the new software called "Emboser"…
Computing
READERS' RESPONSES AND CORRECTIONS
ISSUE 266 - Ghanaian powerline test One reader who prefers to remain anonymous wrote:" This Cactel thing is hilarious. Electricity Corpotration of Ghana's problem is not just electricity dropping out…
digtool
MOBILE PAYPHONE BOOST FOR SMES
A GSM handset that street vendors can use as a public payphone could create a million jobs in Africa over a 24-month period, says its creator. The payphone developed by…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
MOROCCO TO SELL ITS SHARE IN MAROC TELECOM BEFORE 2007
Morocco intends to sell the rest of its share in Maroc Telecom Company, which amounts to 34%, towards the end of this year, reported Reuters, based on a document released…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
CELTEL PAYS LE27 BILLION TAX TO GOVERNMENT IN SIERRA LEONE
Celtel's Financial Manager and Acting Managing Director, Andy Jones has disclosed that by virtue of the position of Celtel as a corporate citizen doing business in Sierra Leone, it now…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
ZIMBABWE'S TEL*ONE LOOKS SHORT OF CASH AS IT PAYS ONLY USD1 MILLION ON USD168 MILLION CONTRACT WITH HUAWEI
Zimbabwe's sole landline provider Tel*One has paid Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei Technologies close to US$1 million for the supply of equipment to roll out an ambitious five-year development plan. It…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
On The Money - In Brief
- The Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) has revealed plans to invest ETB5.4 billion (USD644 billion) in the expansion of its telecoms infrastructure in the Ethiopian fiscal year, which began on…
Digital Content
MOBILE PHONES BOOST KENYA'S SMALL BUSINESSES
The mobile phone has become the most essential work item for small businessman who, like so many others in the East African nation, makes a living from various different jobs…
Digital Content
SMS MESSENGER SIMPLIFIES THE SENDING OF SMS IN KENYA
Until now, sending bulk SMS messages has been clumsy and a big hassle to the extent it is almost impractical. That is not so anymore, thanks to SMS Messenger, a…
Digital Content
'NATION' TO OFFER NEWS THROUGH MOBILE PHONE
Nation Media Group has launched a service to deliver news alerts to subscribers' mobile phones. The new service, to be known as nationMOBILE, will allow cellphone subscribers in Kenya and…
Digital Content
Web And Mobile Data News - In Brief
- Business Council for Sustainable Development Zimbabwe has launched its new website, which contains information on the background to and overview of the BCSDZ, most notably its objectives and activities.…
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PEOPLE
-Arivia.kom has appointed four female executives to key positions, placing the IT company at the forefront of the industry's gender empowerment drive and cracking the "stiletto ceiling" which separates women…
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EVENTS
AFRICA SOURCE II September 2005, Uganda For more information visit http://www.tacticaltech.org/africasource2
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JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIES
HEAD OF MARKETING AND CUSTOMER RELATIONS IN NIGERIAN IT COMPANY Suitable candidates will have a Degree in Business/Marketing/Engineering/Electronics or similar and will have a minimum 5 year sales/marketing experience. Must…
