Issue no 791 21st August 2015
Top Story
Kooba set to become the first carrier-independent data centre in East Africa – Will target international content companies
South Africa has had an independent data centre company (Teraco) and Nigeria has one as well (Rack) but until now there has not been one in East Africa. This will all change in Q1 2016 when Kooba launches its first data centre in Mombasa. Russell Southwood spoke to Kooba’s founder and CEO Richard Bell about what he’s got planned. Founder of Kooba Richard Bell is a long-time veteran of the tech industry in Kenya and East Africa. He launched one of the first East African ISPs Swift and subsequently grew KDN. While at KDN he built a data centre at…
Telecoms
Google Launches Low-Cost Smartphone in Africa
Mobile users in six African nations are being targeted by Internet giant Google, which has launched an inexpensive smartphone with them in mind. The Android One program is designed for…
Telecoms
Viettel's Lumitel signs up 10th of Burundian population
Lumitel, Viettel Group's mobile operator in Burundi, has signed up 1 million subscribers, or 10 per cent of the African country's population, in the four months since it began operations.…
Telecoms
Smile - African telco expects to invest nearly $100M this year
African telecommunications operator Smile Communications expects to launch commercial LTE services in the Democratic Republic of Congo in January, the company’s COO Tom Allen told RCR Wireless News. Allen said…
Telecoms
Buhari Demands Report on Sale of NITEL
President Muhammadu Buhari has demanded a comprehensive report on the sale of the Nigerian Telecommunications Company (NITEL). A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and…
Telecoms
ARTP Senegal: mobile market up 0.82% in second quarter
Senegal’s Autorite de Regulation des Telecoms et des Postes (ARTP) has published its market development report for the three months ended 30 June 2015, noting that the total number of…
Telecoms
Telecoms – In brief
The government of Mozambique is having to recapitalise the struggling state-owned mobile operator mCel to keep the business afloat. Local newspaper Noticias reports that mCel is ‘currently experiencing some financial…
Internet
Internet censorship bill for South Africa has been approved by cabinet
Cabinet has approved the submission of the films and publications amendment bill which is guided by policy that has been criticised for seeking to curb internet freedoms. A cabinet statement…
Internet
Movies add to Tshwane free WiFi mix
Tshwane residents can now make free calls as well as download movies free of charge on the Tshwane free WiFi network. The municipality claims Tshwane is the first city in…
Internet
South Africa: Vodacom Launches Voice Over Wifi in South Africa
Vodacom has made its first ever commercial voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) call in South Africa. Although the service is currently live across the Vodacom network, it is limited to one…
Internet
Naspers starts Showmax with free 7-day trial of all content
Naspers has formally launched its ShowMax video on demand service in South Africa, ITWeb reported. ShowMax is offering a seven-day trial period, with free access to the entire library in…
Computing
MTN, Microsoft cosy up for cloud services
MTN Business and Microsoft have entered into a partnership to provide pan-African cloud computing services from the telecommunications operator’s data centres, the companies said on Thursday. The platform is powered…
Computing
Amazon to open Johannesburg cloud technology hub
Amazon will open its new Johannesburg office during 2015/16, recruiting over 250 local engineers, network specialists, media specialists and other technology staff to service the growing number of Amazon Web…
Computing
Kenya Open Data Portal Hits 44 Million Page Views
The Kenya Open Data portal has announced today that it has hit over 44 million page reviews since its launch 4 years ago. This was announced by Linet Kwamboka ,…
Computing
What is DHL Express doing with pocket-sized, all-touch computers in Africa?
Unlike consumer-grade devices, the TC55 is an enterprise-oriented touch computer with aesthetic appeal and usability of popular personal devices, but has integrated data capture capabilities and is built to withstand…
Money Transfer
Millicom International Cellular: Tigo Pesa and Worldremit Enable Easy International Money Transfers for the Tanzanian Diaspora
Millicom has announced that Tigo Pesa, its Mobile Financial Services in Tanzania, has joined with WorldRemit, the London-based online peer to peer money transfer service. The partnership will enable the…
Money Transfer
Continued success for Seamless’ transaction switch with substantial new order for Nigeria and Ghana
Seamless (OMX: SEAM) has received an order from a leading African mobileoperator group for the installation of its transaction switch. The contractmeans Seamless enters into the strategically very important Nigerian…
Money Transfer
Bitcoin Academy launched in Cape Town, South Africa
Africa’s first Bitcoin Academy has been launched at the Bandwidth Barn in Cape Town, South Africa. The academy will be offering basic, intermediary and advanced training on the use of…
Money Transfer
Mobile money booths out-number bank branches
The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Mr Ebenezer Asante, says the new Bank of Ghana (BoG) guidelines that empower non-banking institutions such as mobile money operators to participate in…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
Thumbs down for Telkom-MTN roaming deal
Johannesburg - The Competition Commission has struck down a proposed network sharing and roaming agreement between Telkom and MTN. In April 2014, the two telecommunication networks approached the Competition Commission…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
Crowdfunding Gone Bad: MyC4 Struggles To Recover $1M From Kenyan Micro-Lenders
Danish investment firm MyC4, that crowd-funds from investors in European countries and lend to small businesses and startups in Africa, has closed its operations in Kenya after it ran into…
Digital Content
Naspers in Talks With Vodacom to Offer Africans Video-on-Demand
Naspers Ltd. is in talks with wireless carrier Vodacom Group Ltd. about delivering video content to mobile devices across Africa as the media company seeks to compete with Netflix Inc.…
Digital Content
African data journalism gets significant boost from Gates Foundation
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has signed off on a $4.7 million grant to promote data journalism in Africa. The pilot programme will initially run in three regional ‘hub’…
Digital Content
M4JAM acquires digital research company Pondering Panda to fuel African expansion
South African micro-jobbing startup M4JAM (Money for Jam) had a good first year. The Stellenbosch-based company lured high-profile talents such as Brett StClair from Google South Africa into its den,…
Digital Content
Loeries 2015: All the digital and interactive winners
While digital may be playing an increasingly important part at The Loeries, South Africa’s premiere awards showcase, the big awards are still going to big agencies. That much was evident…
Digital Content
South African Companies Create Virtual Bitcoin Credit Card App
Even though Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies are slowly taking off around the world, the major problem with them is that you can typically use them only for goods and services…
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Events
Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation Forum 14-16 September 2015Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, KenyaThe Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation Forum is an annual three-day conference and exhibition which brings together government ministers and senior officials,…
