Author: Cyrus

The Motorola Solutions today announced its return into the Kenyan market and highlighted the importance of its array of advanced communication solutions for East African companies with the launch of major road show in Kenya, which runs from 26th to 27th October 2010. Motorola expects to deliver the first ever live demonstration of its Dimetra IP Micro system digital radio technology. The company which boats of 82 years will also see the introduction of the  TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) digital radios to the East Africa market. The Digital Communications radios are customized to meet the needs of mission critical users…

In May 2009 The EastAfrican reported that MTN had acquired 60% of UUNET Kenya. In the same year Standard reported that MTN was eying the then Econet Kenya and now Essar Kenya. Nothing much came from the news with no denial nor confirmation. The former seems to be true now that UUNET is now branding as MTN Business Kenya. It will be interesting to know what was in the deal but MTN must have acquired quite a big chunk of the data giant.Already the MTN Business Kenya website is on (http://www.mtnbusiness.co.ke).

The AccessKenya Group have announced that they have expanded their wireless network to Nyeri and Nanyuki. This expansion will see Nyeri and Nanyuki as well as areas such as Mukurweini covered under AccessKenya’s Wimax (wireless) network allowing the group to extend its network presence to all major towns in the country. Jonathan Somen the Group Managing Director said “our entry into these towns is clear testimony of our commitment to making our impressive range of services more easily accessible to a wider client range. There has been numerous requests for our services in these areas hence our roll out to…

A sugar cane vendor / farmer from Homa Bay is the latest Sh5 million winner in the ongoing Masonko na Safaricom consumer promotion. Mary Atieno Angwen became the fourth Sh5 million winner in the promotion that seeks to reward Safaricom loyal clients and also counter the competition from the other operators. Ms Angwen had made only 53 entries into the promotion was presented with the Sh5 million cheque alongside seven other winners of the daily Sh1 million.

Motorola is set to launch some very interesting products this week in Nairobi. The exclusive media invite talks of the portfolio being seen in the Kenyan market for the first time. I hope that Motorola is going to launch the Droid in the market. The mobile handset maker might just break the market with the array of Android based phones the local smartphones addicts have been waiting for. The media Launch will be on Wednesday. Lets wait and see.

If you are in Kenya then you are lucky as you can now pay for your goods at supermarkets using the M-PESA service. Safaricom has partnered with Uchumi and Naivas supermarkets to make your shopping easier. The service is named Nunua na M-PESA and will be available at all the branches of the two Supermarket outlets across Kenya. The service will be enjoyed by the over 12.7 million M-PESA subscribers. Clients will in the meantime enjoy the service free of-charge following an introductory offer by Safaricom. The service will however attract transaction charges at the end of the offer which…

Zain Kenya clients can now withdraw money from their Zap accounts at any Pesapoint ATMs countrywide without the need for an ATM card. The mobile services company today entered into a partnership with the Paynet Group, the proprietors of the Pesapoint ATM network, as it continues to increase the Zap Agency footprint countrywide. All Zap withdrawals from Pesapoint ATMs will earn the customer free airtime worth 10% of the value withdrawn. Managing Director Rene Meza said the partnership will give Zap a stronger presence across the country, a move that will contribute immensely in the journey towards achieving market leadership…

Orange (Telkom Kenya) has announced a price reduction on its wireless (CDMA) and fixed networks, effective today. The Communications Solutions provider says the move is a product of the recent successful integration of the different platforms used by the company to support all their telephony services, and informed by the changing market dynamics. Under the new tariffs announced by Orange CEO Mickael Ghossein today, CDMA customers will make calls for as low as Shs.2 per minute to fellow Orange wireless users, Orange fixed line and Orange mobile users. Calls from the wireless service to other networks will be charged at…

For those who are in Uganda and are on Zain and have 3G enabled phones, please check your phones. The service provider is reportedly testing its 3G service ahead of launch. The company announced way back in mid 2009 that they were deploying the service but it was not to be until last week when some of the subscribers started seeing the 3G sign on their Zain connected handsets. For the last 3 years, Zain Kenya has been promising us 3G. But since they recently bought the 3G license, they might just soon launch it. Are you in UG? Are…

As we continue to celebrate our Mashujaa this week, Techmtaa has compiled a list of the ICT Gurus / Shujaas. Comment below on what you think of the list. Dr Shem Ochuodho DR Shem Ochuodho is the Senior Advisor of the Ministry of Telecom & Postal Services, Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), Juba. He is also Kenya Community Abroad (KCA) 2007 Excellence Award Winner and AfricaOnline 2005 Industry Pioneer Award Recipient also voted the Father of Internet in Kenya (CSK 2000). Through the African Regional Centre for Computing (ARCC – Kenya) which he founded, he pioneered Internet into Eastern Africa.…

Somali rebel group are becoming more and more funny imposing a ban on anything especially those. They have banned wearing bras, ringing school bells, playing music on radio and watching football. They have now imposed a ban on the mobile money transfer service known as ‘Zaad’, according to  Reuters. The militant group, al-Shabab has given Somali telecoms companies offering Zaad to stop the service by 31 December 2010, alleging that the service poses a threat to the national  economy. The Al-Qaeda group claims that use of Somali shillings has declined in recent months. But according to one of the ZAAD…

You all know the famous Google Adsense product. It is turning to be one of the tools Google is actually misusing to steal from Publishers. Google is using the “Terms and Conditions” statement to illegally close accounts which have accrued thousands of dollars. A case in point is the complaint below which I just received from one of my friends. I have been using Google Adsense as my main source of revenue for my blogs which we earning more than 1,000 per month. Google recently closed my account without any valid reason. I believe that it is wrong for Google…

A local Tech company has teamed up with an Indian firm to provide affordable video conferencing facilities to Kenya’s institutions of higher learning. The partnership between Information Convergence Technologies Ltd (ICT) and VMukti, an on-line video streaming solutions provider from India will enable institutions of higher learning rollout easy, faster and secure video streaming solutions for lectures, conferences, and seminars with capacity to reach over 50,000 participants in a single session. VMukti has assembled the technological tools to promote interactive learning and educate each and every student, on bandwidth as low as 150kbps. VMukti connects learners and educators to a…

It seems we still have web developers or webmasters who cant do their thing well. A careless mistake of not checking uploads for malware seems to have brought problems to one of Uganda’s most popular daily’s website, New Vision / Sunday Vision. Some of the Hacks by Realqw are evident in this search though. Some hacker by the nickname Realqw corrupted files in the website and had the above banner displayed as evidence of their action. Some of the so called “hacking” in East Africa can also be cases of sabotage by web professionals who act the way they do…

Two Kenyan University of Nairobi students are not taking Nokia stealing their invention lightly. This week, through Milimani Commercial courts in Nairobi, the students have sued Nokia for the exploitation of their innovation. As you can remember when Nokia’s Vice-President, Rick Simonso, was in Nairobi to launch some phones and also the pedal charger /bicycle charger. We contacted Nokia about the alleged theft. We managed to talk to Nokia communication staffers in EMEA HQ but the local head of communication, Dorothy Ooko, has become arrogant and aloof. She has resorted to bribing bloggers and Tech scribes through phone gifts and…