Issue no 805 27th November 2015
Top Story
African users fear of data – Time for the continent to stop selling its customers shortage
The way almost all African operators are selling data to their customers is the biggest barrier to developing a broadly based consumer data market. African users’ fear that they will run out of data too quickly makes them cautious consumers. Russell Southwood seeks to chart a path out of this dilemma. There is now no shortage of international data capacity to and from the continent: potentially terrabytes of data are now available for sale. However, international fibre capacity is a perishable commodity. You cannot sell yesterday’s fibre capacity. So the unsold portion of capacity is better sold sooner rather than…
Telecoms
Smile launches first Voice-over-LTE service in East Africa
Smile Telecom Holdings Ltd (Smile) has launched the first voice over LTE (VoLTE) service in East Africa offering high-definition voice and video calling services. Smile intends to provide VoLTE throughout…
Telecoms
Simbox fraud: How Afriwave intends to stem the menace
Ghana's licensee Interconnect Clearinghouse (ICH) operator, Airwave Telecom said its robust systems have been set up to significantly arrest SIM Box Fraud once it goes into full operation. SIM Box…
Telecoms
MTN, Etisalat ask court to dismiss subscribers’ suit
Telecommunications companies, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited and Etisalat Nigeria, have asked a Federal High Court in Lagos to dismiss a suit filed against them by aggrieved subscribers whose lines were…
Telecoms
Econet loses appeal against tariff cuts
Zimbabwe’s Administrative Court has blocked a bid by the country’s mobile market leader Econet Wireless to implement a hike in its tariffs. The Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe…
Telecoms
Official: Nigerian president to decide on $5.2B MTN fine
A Nigerian government spokesman says President Muhammadu Buhari will make the final decision on whether to lower the gigantic $5.2 billion fine meted out to African telecommunications giant MTN. The…
Telecoms
Gabon Telecom Introduces 4G+ Network; claims 233Mbps downlink
Gabon Telecom has activated its new ‘4G+’ network, a year after introducing its LTE technology. Speaking at the launch event, Director General Abderrahim Koumaa revealed that the improved infrastructure supports…
Telecoms
Israeli Spacecom Satellite Loses Contact Over Africa, Disrupts Service Mostly In Africa
Israeli satellite operator Spacecom lost contact at 06:45 a.m Saturday Israeli time with its Amos 5 communications satellite in orbit over Africa, causing service disruption to an unspecified number of…
Telecoms
Telecoms – In brief
The ITU World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15), currently in session 2-27 November, has taken a key decision that will provide enhanced capacity for mobile broadband in the 694-790 MHz frequency band…
Internet
Africa should accelerate IPv6 migration now to avoid a scramble later
The Internet community across Africa needs to prepare for the inevitable day when AFRINIC, the Regional Internet Registry (RIR), will run out of IPv4 addresses to allocate to its members.…
Internet
Cell C LTE to hit Western Cape soon
Cell C has announced that it will launch LTE connectivity in the Western Cape on December 1. The launch comes just in time for the festive season, the network noted.…
Internet
The Place to Be for African Web Activism Will Be Dakar, Senegal From November 26-28
ABLOGUI, the Guinean association of bloggers, have announced the launch of a new project and a conference named Africtivistes on their website GuineeVote.com. This event will mark the formation of…
Internet
Internet – In brief
Ecobank Nigeria has unveiled an online marketplace, www.mymall.com.ng, aimed at driving the growth of the SME sector in Nigeria. Head of SME Business for Ecobank Nigeria Sunkanmi Olowo said Mymall…
Computing
Access to global cloud providers available at Teraco through Internet Solutions’ CloudConnect
Internet Solutions (IS), a pan-African communications service provider, has connected at Teraco, a vendor neutral data centre provider in South Africa, enabling clients to have a secure connection and single…
Computing
Kenya Open Data Portal hits 58 Millions Views as more Government Departments Share Data
In 2011, the Kenyan government launched the Kenya Open data project. The Open data project was meant to release important data to the public domain. Most of the data was…
Money Transfer
Kenya: Mobile Money Providers Sue Safaricom for Service Stoppage
Safaricom has been sued by two mobile money service providers for suspending their services through alleged intimidation. Lipisha Consortium Limited and Bitpesa Limited Friday went to court over termination of…
Money Transfer
Transfast partners First Bank, Ecobank, Heritage Bank for more reach
Transfast has geared up its world of online remittances in Africa by partnering with major Nigerian banks such as First Bank, Ecobank, and Heritage Bank. It also aims to ensure…
Money Transfer
Sika Wants To disrupt Money Transfers in Ghana
Personal Finance App, SIKA, aims to innovate the banking world in Ghana with a low cost local and global money transfer service, directly from your mobile phone The idea for…
Money Transfer
Airtel Africa Launches ‘Tap2Pay’ Service
Bharti Airtel Africa has revealed direct to consumer services for merchants and content providers across Africa via a new service, which has been dubbed by the company “Tap2Pay.” The new…
Money Transfer
URA opens up to mobile money for tax payments
After previous attempts with Warid Telecom failed, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has now tapped MTN Uganda in order to allow tax payments using mobile money services. The second attempt at…
Money Transfer
MFS Africa Announces Global Partnership with Vodafone for mobile money
Port-Louis, 25 November – MFS Africa is proud to announce the signature of a group framework agreement with Vodafone, expanding the partnership between the multinational mobile operator and the pan-African…
Money Transfer
WeChat ties up with Standard Bank on digital wallet
WeChat has teamed up with Standard Bank to introduce a digital mobile wallet, ITWeb reported. The wallet will allow users to send cash to friends and family, store bank cards…
Money Transfer
Money Transfer - In brief
Qatar Airways, the national airline of the State of Qatar, has announced a strategic partnership with Vodacom, one of the world’s leading mobile money service providers, to enable customers to…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
Sudatel Group reports growth in profit, subscriber base in 3Q15
Sudatel Telecom Group (STG) has announced its preliminary results for the third quarter of 2015, reporting consolidated revenues of USD105.738 million, a marginal 0.6% increase year-on-year from USD105.132 million in…
Digital Content
Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) Announces Partnership with mobile surveying company GeoPoll and Kantar Media
The Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association today announced that it has partnered with mobile surveying company GeoPoll (http://www.Geopoll.com) to be the provider of media data to GIBA members, who include TV,…
Digital Content
South Africa: New Mobi App to Improve Health Services
Pretoria — The national Department of Health has launched a mobile application that seeks to improve primary health care services in the health sector in South Africa. On Wednesday, Health…
Digital Content
Nigeria: Facebook and Jumia Nigeria Partnered to Host the First 'Boost Your Business’
Facebook and Jumia Nigeria partnered to host the first 'Boost Your Business' event in Nigeria where more than 500 Nigerian entrepreneurs gathered to network, hear about marketing best practices, and…
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Events
IIC Telecommunication and Media Forum, Johannesburg8-9 December, 2015Best practice decision making to drive connectivity, accessibility and competitivenessSupported by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the International Institute of…
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Opportunties
Western Cape entrepreneurs invited to pitch for investment at funding fair The second annual Western Cape Funding Fair will take place in Cape Town in May of next year, with…
