Author: Cyrus

Businessmen all over the world see Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria as the most favourite ICT investment destinations in Africa. A survey conducted by Africa Business Panel among 800 business professionals shows that these countries are a great favourite with them in the next 5 years. Ghana, Egypt, Rwanda, Botswana, Angola, Uganda and Zimbabwe are the runners up and complete the top ten countries out of 53 economies on the African continent. The top-10 key players in the African ICT sector in the next five years South Africa Nigeria Kenya Ghana Egypt Rwanda Botswana Angola Uganda Zimbabwe What do you think…

Safaricom has launched unlimited data bundles after getting lots of pressure from the clients. The problem is that the speeds will be limited to a maximum of 128Kbps. I don’t know when I last used the 128Kbps links but I assure you that there is noway I am going to use a 128 Kbps link with all these cables serving Kenya with up to 14Tbps links. Even in 2006 I could not agree to use the 128Kbps link so there is noway I am going to use such low speeds. Safaricom should have limited the speeds at 512Kbps. We know…

Safaricom seems to be listening to its clients a lot. Just yesterday, I wrote the Safaricom CEO one hearty open letter on various issues including data rates and the PostPay options. Grapevine has it that through a newspaper advert, Safaricom has introduced new data rates and might even have an Unlimited Data bundle in the pipeline. This move will be to the greatest advantage of young Kenyan techies and social media addicts who have to part with everything just to access the net. It is also not clear if the move comes after the intervention of the government as we…

Kenya’s Ministry of Information and Communications through the state sanctioned Kenya ICT Board is making calls for proposals for the Tandaa Digital Content Grant. The main aim of the grant is to spur the local content scene but there have been complaints that the 2010 Tandaa Local Content grant was awarded to mostly foreigners who developed applications just to win the grant. Kenya ICT Board in the announcement says that “the grant is offered to Kenyan citizens and companies registered in Kenya for the development of innovative web or mobile phone applications.” Many foreigners have rushed to register companies locally…

You might want to know who you can get on Google+ from the big social media families. People have gone ahead and compiled a list of all Twitter, Google, Facebook and Linkedin employees on Google+. Some of the accounts might be much more private, dormant or plainly idle, others will amaze you with the kind of information you get out there. Click on the names to go to their Google+ profiles and add them to your circles Here is the Twitter List Founders  Biz Stone (left Twitter) Evan Williams (left Twitter)Others Alex McCauley (Business Operations) Anamitra Banerji (Product Manager) Britt Selvitelle (Lead, UX Team) Chloe Sladden (Content…

DSTV Premium subscribers in South Africa can now rent Blockbuster Movies from the comfort of their homes. The Pan-African Pay Tv provider has today launched the Video-On-Demand service. The service, named Box Office, allows for qualifying subscribers to download movies straight onto their PVR decoders at R25 in HD or SD format and watch at their convenience. A release on DSTV SA website reads; The BoxOffice service will be rolled out in several phases. The first phase is today’s launch of a satellite-based value added offering to DStv Premium subscribers via their PVRs. The next phase of the BoxOffice roll-out…

CCK has awarded Kenyan digital broadcasting signal distribution license to  Pan African Network Group (PANG), a company with some Chinese shareholding. Major shareholder of PANG are Star Times of China. Nation Media Group and Royal Media formed part of a local  consortium to bid for the signal distribution tender. NMG and Royal Media went immediately for the throat of CCK accusing it for many things including awarding tender to Chinese dictators, disqualifying locals on “minor technicalities” among other things. It was all propaganda war last witnessed during the campaign against the Kenya Media Bill in 2008. Many journalists and media personalities were…

Hitachi has announced a new mobile 3D screen which can be viewed using the naked eye today. The screen is IPS-based LCD and is sized at 4.5 inches, view pictures in 3D and has 400 cd/m2 brightness in 2D mode and 470 cd/m2 brightness in 3D mode. The screen also comes in a very impressive 1,280×720 resolution. This screen can perfectly fit onto the standard Smartphone though the uptake of TV on mobile phones is not that encouraging. The parallax barrier system which separated images before for 3D viewing have been eliminated by changing the Picture optical path through LCD feature focusing. The screen…

Microsoft on Wednesday last week announced the winners of the ninth annual Microsoft Imagine Cup, the world’s premier student technology competition, honoring student innovations that address global problems such as improving road and fire safety, eradicating poverty, and creating a more sustainable environment. The company also unveiled plans to launch a three-year, $3 million competitive grant program to help recipients realize their vision of solving the world’s toughest problems. “The innovators, entrepreneurs and humanitarians who compete in the Imagine Cup have developed an inspiring spectrum of projects, raising the bar higher and higher each year,” said S. Somasegar, senior vice…

Dear Sir, This might get to surprise you but I have privately contacted you and shared these issues with you but nothing seems to be going on in making sure that the issues are addressed. I have been forced to do this because you are in charge of East and Central Africa’s biggest telecommunication company despite the fact that it operates only in one country. After being enticed with the two post paid offerings, PostPay 1,000 and PostPay 2,500, I decided to join the post paid 2,500 tariff. This tariff gives me; 2,200 Safaricom to Safaricom minutes 300 Safaricom to…

ITU that the Republic of South Sudan has been assigned the international dialing code 211. The move follows the country’s formal recognition as a UN Member State. The application for the 211 country code was made by the country’s Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services. The particular code represents the year in which South Sudan gained independence (2011), the date of its referendum (which took place in the first day of the first month of 2011). On independence and after recognition by the UN General Assembly, a country may apply to ITU for a country code. ITU officials are said…

LG Electronics (LG) is not letting anyone leave them behind in the new PC craze. The in this now is the all-in-one PC which features Film-type Patterned Retarder (FPR) display, found in its popular CINEMA 3D TVs. LG V300 is developed in partnership with Intel and was unveiled at Computex 2011, Asia’s largest IT exhibition, in Taipei. Basically, this is a 3D PC. It packs the Intel’s Sandy Bridge Processor, In Plane Switch (IPS)  screen technology creating a 178 degrees viewing angle and triple camera for full multi-touch experience. “The combination of the newest Intel Core processor and the FPR…

We told you about the Google’s Android Challenge calling for more localised Android apps. They are doing it through the Android Developers’ Challenge. On 15th July, thee finalists were announced and Sub-Saharan Africa has produced many promising apps. The list has great apps from Kenya, Uganda, SA, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. Sudan is excluded from the competition. Sub-Saharan Africa is grouped into West & Central, East and South Africa goups. The finalists will be awarded Android devices and given a chance to better their apps. The overall winners in each category will be awarded $25,000 adding up to $75,000 for…

South Africa’s special police squad, Hawks, have raided the offices of Chinese telecoms infrastructure provider, ZTE. The raids which were carried out nationally, involved the anti-fraud police units and the immigration department. Around 18 workers of Chinese origin were arrested with many more documents confisticated for authentication. A statement from Home Affair’s read in part ; “crack down on the illegal facilitation of foreign nationals into SA, using fraudulently acquired documents which is in line with government’s commitment to stem the tide of illegal immigration into SA”. The raid netted around 18 Chinese workers with 17 being male and 1…

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) and IBM have jointly announced a decade long agreement to provide comprehensive IT solutions to Airtel’s employees across 16 African countries. IBM will provide a standard operating environment, ‘help desk’ and ‘desk side’ support to enhance employee efficiency and convenience. In terms of the new agreement, IBM will provide comprehensive end user services to Airtel employees across Africa, in French and English. It will also include an enhanced information enterprise security solution that further strengthens Airtel’s commitment to customer data privacy. IBM will also be responsible for the implementation and maintenance of a standard operating environment, using…