Author: Cyrus

Things are happening at Nokia. They are preparing for this big Nokia World conference in London and the only press release we are being treated to is the resignation of Executive VP Mobile Solutions, Anssi Vanjoki. Mr vanjoki has apparently given a 6 month notice of resignation. He is listed here as speaker and also says in the press release that he will be at the Nokia world conference. Nokia should have sent this out after Nokia World. Or did they pre-empt a leak? Anyway lets wait for what Nokia will unveil on 14th and 15th in London. At the…

Safaricom has entered into a partnership with data services company, Quintica that will see it offer affordable communication solutions for corporate clients of all sizes. Under the said arrangement, Safaricom’s data clients ranging from big corporates, Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to Small Office and Homes (SOHOs) will benefit from a huge menu of hosted and managed services from Quintica. The Quintica Group provides a host of specialist IT service experts and is a division of the holding company Q-Venture, which for the past five years has been the fastest growing systems integrator in the market. While signing the deal, Safaricom…

Telkom Kenya has assured all Orange customers that they are working on rectifying the disruption experienced earlier this week by some customers using the company’s Orange Internet Everywhere 3G+ internet services. The intermittent disruptions affecting some customers were occasioned by technical hitches experienced after the migration of the platform that supports the Orange Internet Everywhere 3G+ that took place over the past weekend. The migration and upgrade is aimed at improving the quality of service for all our wireless internet customers. “The Orange customer care teams on help line 121 from Orange Mobile & 0202222121 from Telkom landline or from…

Essar Kenya (YU) CEO was being hosted by Larry Madowo on KTN’s Financial Report programme. I liked what I was getting from the guy (YU CEO). He seems to have a good grasp of the market and the dynamic and is pretty honest considering that they are still just controlling 8.2% of the market and so no dictattorial tendencies and arrogance displayed by the other networks. But his points were clear especially in regards to Dr Ndemo’s comments yesterday to Reuters which upto now looks like a PR war the Ministry if fighting for Safaricom. When Dr Ndemo talks of…

IBM has today announced the appointment of fellow forumnite and blogger David Sawe as Business Development Manager for its Tanzania operations. He will be based in Dar es Salaam and will double as head of IBM East Africa’s operations in Tanzania. IBM is handling several projects including notably a recently signed agreement with National Microfinance Bank, Tanzania’s bank with the most extensive branch network. IBM is signed an agreement with Tanzania’s Ministry of Edducation to build a Silicon Valley like campus next to University of Dodoma in Dodoma.

Leading Kenyan Technology Company – Virtual City has developed a mobile based technology to help in tracking of produce from the farm – in each of the processing stages – till they reach the shelves in European supermarkets. The company says the technology will help Kenyan companies be able to adhere to the stringent ‘rules of origin’ requirements – a system of due diligence used by EU authorities to ascertain the origin of exports destined for the EU market. Virtual City Managing Director, Mr. John Waibochi said there were significant benefits for the companies as their produce could be easily…

Kenya’s prominent entertainment TV station, KISS TV, seems not to be very good in paying debts. The station website is currently on “Suspended” mode probably for  non-payment of hosting fees. The website is hosted by Glowhost, an Atlanta based data hosting company. It would be interesting to see how KissTV responds to this. We have reached to KissTv management and are awaiting response.

Kenya’s leading telecoms solutions provider, Safaricom has apologized to its customers for hitches experienced by customers on its network in the last few days and reassured them on ongoing efforts to improve services. The problem is said to have been occasioned by a switch to a new data billing platform, carried out over the weekend. Most affected were data customers, who had challenges purchasing data bundles and experienced intermittent access to internet. As a result, some customers were unable to make calls despite the fact that they still had sufficient balance on their accounts.

AccessKenya Group has  today announced that it is breaking ground to dig and lay its own Metro Fibre Optic Network infrastructure in Mombasa in its ongoing plans to build what will be the largest IP based fibre network in Kenya. The network which will be initially laid around parts of Mombasa island will use full ring topology for uptime which will allow AccessKenya to deliver outstandingly high broadband speeds and 100 per cent redundancy to itsr corporate  and residential customers. Group MD, Mr Jonathan Somen, says the work on the infrastracture has commenced.

Google’s G-Kenya event in Nairobi kicks off yesterday and is expected to last till Wednesday 8th September. It has brought together many local and regional  tech savvy entrepreneurs and developers and students at a web and mobile conference at Strathmore University. It will have hosted more than 1200 engineers, product managers, entrepreneurs, students and web developers discussing the future of web application development, and receive training on Google’s products and online business skills as well as meet and engage with top Google executives. Google also announced today the Kenyan launch of Android Market . The market is an open distribution channel for…

If you haven’t noticed, Zain seems to be fighting now for the ultimate conquer of the market. There has been fight in the market mainly between Zain and Safaricom with Yu and orange joining in. But this afternoon, I have noticed that google is running some big banners through Google advertising arm, Adwords / Adsense. What do you think of the Zain’s new onslaught? You think it is going to make a difference in the market?

Safaricom’s M-Pesa innovation is spreading in uptake. We know that the stories in Afghanistan, Kenya and Tanzania have been unique but South Africa’s Vodacom has just dipped its hands into the pudding jar and hope to come out with something worthwhile. M-Pesa was launched in South Africa on 1st September as promised. Vodacom launched the innovative money transfer solution in SA together with Nedbank. We will see how that works but I don’t think that much headway will be achieved when the service is launched anywhere with partnerships from banks. Banks are rigid and bereaucratic. They are also a competition…

Kenya’s telecoms operator Safaricom has moved to reassure its subscribers in the wake of widespread rumours asking them not to receive calls from certain numbers which subscribers have come to call “The Death Number” or REDCALL by tweeps. The specific information, being relayed through text messages and e-mail, asks subscribers not to pick calls from the following numbers: 7888308001, 9316048121, 9876266211, 9888854137, 9876715587. It says the numbers “come in red and if received, one would get brain haemorrhage due to high frequency.” The messages also claim 27 people had died from receiving the calls. It urges recipients to inform friends…

Following three days of interactive workshops, teacher exhibitions and judging by a renowned panel of African education experts, Microsoft Partners in Learning announced the regional winners of the 2010 Innovative Teacher Awards at the Pan-African Innovative Education Forum. Hosted at the Aga Khan Academy, Mombasa, Microsoft recognised and rewarded teachers that demonstrated exemplary uses of technology in the classroom to improve student learning. The 18 winning teachers were chosen from among the 54 representing more than 15 countries at the Forum and will go on to represent Africa at the sixth annual Worldwide Innovative Education Forum being held in South…

Mobile Phone operators have been ordered by PS Bitange Ndemo to disconnect numbers that are not registered in their database by September 16. This move follows the expiry of the SIM card registration exercise, whose deadline expired on Tuesday 31st August. Information and Communication Permanent Secretary Dr Bitange Ndemo said that operators had been given the next 15 days to compile their databases. But the move is likely to be met with opposition with consumer rights organisations asking which laws are being used to buldoze Kenyans into accepting every roadside declaration? The PS says he based the decision on section…