Author: Cyrus

Chicken have come home to roost. We alerted you to the fact that some of the operators were sounding the sabotage alarms over the Mobile Number Portability. Airtel’s MD Rene Meza went out full blast on Safaricom today and complained that subscribers were not being deactivated by Safaricom after application to port. And in a very quick rejoinder, Safaricom is complaining over serious unethical competitor behavior by Airtel in the implementation of mobile number portability and is looking for the intervention of CCK. We are just into the 11th day of the implementation of MNP an Safaricom says that the…

There are many mistakes and evils we have to endure while looking for service from the cellphone services operators. The companies. some using the excuse of low charges now to torture us with executive arrogance and inaction must be told off. I get irritated when people expect me not to complain just because they are used to shida from the operators. I have come with some problems which I think can be solved by the operators getting their acts together. And they are; Watchmen as Customer Care Reps This is very common and though I have experienced it at Airtel…

Rwandatel, which is Rwanda’s third largest telecom operator, has had its license revoked over failure to meet telecommunications standards. The Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA), which is the equivalents of Kenya’s CCK, gave Rwandatel notice on April 1, 2011 in accordance with the law governing telecommunication operations in Rwanda. Rwandatel is part of Green Network and has Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAP) holding 80% while Social Security Fund of rwanda holds the remaining 20%.  Rwandatel was a state corporation until 2007 when it was privatised with LAP emerging as the highest bidder beating even the South African Telecom giant, MTN. According…

The Help Kenya Project has appointed an SEO Companyand Press Release Distribution/Social Media Marketing site to propel their mission of helping the children of Kenya across the Internet. OneSEOCompany.com, a Dallas-based SEO Company, has already created the website http://www.hkenyaproject.org and will continue to work with the Help Kenya Project to manage and optimize the site. Additionally Social Media Marketing activities will be provided by Press Release Distribution site SubmitMyPressRelease.com. Started in New York by Jude Ndambuki, a native Kenyan, the Help Kenya Project focuses on helping Kenya’s youth through charitable donations. The organization collects used computers, books, clothing, sports equipment and other supplies,…

Microsoft is going down down and down to the grassroots with the hope of getting more of the population on board. The tech giant was last year in various counties in Kenya (they were districts then) to show case some of the innovative products they have as well as carry out various charitable initiatives. This weekend, Microsoft was at Kenyatta University where a very thoughtful group (Africa MathScience, Technology, Research and Education Foundation) led by Kerine Menya, were mentoring students and teachers from various secondary and primary schools on Mathematics and Sciences. It is at this event that Microsoft represented…

First, don’t be jealous. It was arms length but I can assure you that Amileena is such a darling. Ok! Back to blogging and stopping to have dreams and building castles in the air. I had a chance to meet to Amileena Mwenesi and Steve Nyabwa who were some of the top contestants in the Tusker Project Season 4. I grabbed them, put them down and demanded to know their views about social media and entertainment in Kenya and how they were finding it. I found the duo easy to talk to and they were very much honest. Twitter is…

It has been long and I have been very patient. I need to rant about this and tell it as it is. It sucks and sucks big time. Ok!! This is where the problem is and this is how it started. I bought a business phone on offer with Safaricom post paid services. The offer was enticing and so I couldn’t resist it. And the phone was going to help me do some serious work. I bought the phone and took the Safaricom Ksh 2,500 postpaid package with the phone. I changed my usual line 0726 xxx530 to postpaid and…

Just last month, Google was out doing a series of mapping parties in Kenya. And after that the Tech giant took a similar initiative in Kigali, Rwanda,  and its surroundings. The whole function had government officials, land and mapping experts, students and other mappers in a once in a lifetime opportunity to create a visual map of Rwanda. The participants were just required to come out with their passion for mapping and Google equipped them with Google Map Maker to map businesses, schools, hospitals and roads, whilst networking with other students and professionals in the field. The whole idea of  Rwanda Bus…

There is chaos in CCK. And the chaos is being brought by the politics of the day. CCK Board conducted an appraisal on the performance of the CCK Director General. Key areas were relations with staff, strategic and industry performance and overall performance of the Mr Charles Njoroge. The benchmark is and has always been 70% for the DG to qualify for renewal of contract. The minister, Mr Poghisio, has taken so long to act on the recommendations of the board that the board saw it fit to let the CCK Director General, Mr Njoroge, go on a compulsory leave…

Ivory Coast is going through a lot. The country is a crisis of leadership for the last 4 months. There are massive killings and looting and the International Criminal Court has said that it is launching formal investigations into allegations of crimes against humanity. For the population to get help and information, they need communication. It is in this regard that Orange Ivory Coast has given its clients in the country free calls for one month. The other incentives in the offer are; Mobile customers, a bonus of 2,000 francs CFA valid for 1 month for all calls to Orange…

South Africans are set to enjoy faster and maybe cheaper internet connection with the landing of another cable. The 14 000 km long undersea fibre-optic West Africa Cable System (Wacs) which was being built by Alcatel -Lucent is expected to reach Yzerfontein in the Western Cape in April. The total cost of the cable is $600 USD and MTN has invested $90-million in the system, making it the largest single investor . MTN would in return receive 11% of the initial capacity when it goes operational in the second quarter of 2011.The cable links Southern Africa and Europe through the west coast…

Net Prophet, South Africa’s premier tech start-up event, is betting big. The event is offering promising technology start-up ventures once in a lifetime opportunity to receive three free days of personal hands-on mentoring and coaching at the Startup Acceleration Workshop, which takes place prior to the conference being held on 12 May, in Cape Town. The workshop will be facilitated by world-renowned senior Seedcamp Mentor and Angel investor, Permjot Valia (founder and CEO of Help with Sales Ltd), and backed by Old Mutual. The mentoring sessions looks to help South African start-ups to fast-track their businesses towards commercial success, and…

In all the work, we must also remember to do some CSR. We can do it in a creative way. There is an event at Nailab on Friday, 8th April. The event will start at 10am and end at 6pm East African time. The event is dubbed “Eight Hour Action” and runs on a theme of  “Haba na Haba” which in English means “bit by bit”. The target is to raise 1000 Euro (Ksh. 100,000) through social media i.e. Facebook, Twitter and mobile donations like Zap and Mpesa. The target project is called Less Is More and is based in Githurai, a suburb…

The Creative Content Task Force in Kenya today launched an awareness campaign named Mzuka. It will help sensitize the creative sector,its players, business prospects and investors on the residual capacity and economic potential. According to analysts, the sector is worth Ksh 25 Billion which is a substantial amount of the Kenyan GDP. Mzuka also seeks to establish Kenya as the hub of creative content generation in the region across the Africacontinent. The Task force has already set out a definition of the Creative Content industry in Kenya. It is the digital animation (visual effects & soundeffects), broadcast (TV, Radio and…

This is one of the most creative adverts which will get the attention of the viewers for some time. Barclays had an advert some time back with a dancing ATM but that was then. You would love this. The advert is set to promote the new free ATM services started by the bank as we reported earlier. Did you like it?