Author: Cyrus

Nation Media is doing what it does best, copy-paste and hope that they some magic will make the venture succeed. They launched their N-SOko classifieds website sometime back but it is lagging behind everyone else because of strategic blunder. Money can’t buy everything. They have now forayed into the daily deals business hoping to earn some returns with a business which is globally believed not to have any future. I just stumbled across the N-SOKO Deals website hoping to get some jaw-dropping deals after seeing a newspaper ad of the same. What I found is a complete disappointment. I can…

UAP Insurance has launched a mobile app where potential and existing individual medical insurance clients can access its range of offerings. The AfyaImara the mobile application is free and available on the Android platform and can also be accessed via the USSD code *827#. It is also available on personal computer as a web application. UAP Insurance Managing Director explained that the firm was making deeper forays into technologically enabled distribution channels. He also revealed that the insurance firm was on a mission to simplify its product portfolio. UAP insurance has invested in a ‘do-it-yourself’ insurance starter pack and an…

North Korea is reporting that it has produced its first home-grown smartphone. But pundits are disputing the origin of the phone with many claiming that it might just be a Chinese knock-off. They argue that the secretive communist state has no capability to produce such an electronic device. North Korea has had a mobile network which is closely monitored by the state since 2008. The network maintained by Egypt’s Orascom is run by the government. It once allowed mobile internet but that was not to last. The more than 2 million citizens who have the device are blocked from having…

South Africa’s leading operator, Telkom, is set to announce a “mega challenge” to all South Africans at the 6th annual Innovation Summit taking place at the Industrial Development Corporation in Sandton from August 27-29. The operator will launch its first ever “open innovation” challenge at the summit which is targeted at South Africa’s renowned innovators, academics and business people seeking to learn, share, market and network innovations and ideas. The nature of the challenge, to be announced on the first day of the summit, will be announced by Dr Brian Armstrong, Telkom’s Chief Operating Officer and run for six months after the…

Kenya’s International airport, JKIA, was gutted by a huge fire this morning. The fire which consumed the whole of International Arrivals unit also cause damages to other sections of the airport including part of the air bridge. Kenyans took to Twitter to share breaking news and stories as well as experiences. Two hashtags were mostly used to report on the JKIA fire. These are #JKIAFire and #JKIAonFIRE. But some Kenyans went further and listed JKIA as on sale on the OLX classifieds network. It looks like OLX is using every situation to market itself. This might not be coming from…

Orange has announced a new set of mobile payment services in conjunction with Visa for Orange Money subscribers. Botswana will be the first country to benefit from the new program which will allow access to funds 24 hours a day, bringing new point-of-sale, online and ATM transaction options to consumers. Currently, Orange Money allows customers to use their mobile phones to transfer funds to any mobile phone subscriber in or outside the country, buy airtime, and pay bills. From August this year, registered Orange Money subscribers in Botswana will be able to use their Orange Money account to make Visa…

A committee comprising of various media stakeholders has today reached an agreement to fast track digital TV migration. After a long meeting, the Digital Television Committee has agreed that digital migration will start from December 13th, 2013 where analogue signal will be switched off. The second phase will be on March 30th 2014 where the analogue signal will be switched off Mombasa, Malindi, Nyeri, Meru, Kisumu, Kisii, Webuye, Nakuru and Eldoret. The third phase to be implemented by June 30th 2014 will see all other sites in the country switched off. Though the adoption has been slow, the government hopes…

According to reports appearing in the Indian press, Vodafone Group may be forced to sell its 4.4 per cent stake in rival Bharti Airtel in order to comply with new rules about cross ownership among mobile operators. The stake worth over $1 billion might soon be up for grabs soon. With the new regulations published on Friday, no carrier can be allowed to hold a direct or indirect stake in a rival operating in the same segment.  India has 22 licensing ”circles” with Bharti and Vodafone being the country’s number one and two operators being present in every service area. The previous rules…

Kenya Police has finally restored the defunct 999 emergency response line albeit in Nairobi. The move follows an order issued by the High Court through Judge David Majanja after a successful application by activist Okiya Okoiti Omtatah. The court ordered CCK and Kenya Police Service to activate the lines by end of July so as to enable citizens to report emergencies. Kenya Police has announced that they have activated 22 such lines within Nairobi with city residents being encouraged to call and report emergencies through the line. My effort to get through on the line was futile as the line…

According to the latest CCK report, the number of mobile subscribers in the country dropped from 30.7 million to 29.8 million between January and March this year attributing the decline to the de-activation of 2.4million unregistered SIM cards during the quarter. Were they really deactivated? I know of 3 unregistered SIM cards which are very much alive. But CCK claim that this decrease resulted in a decline in mobile penetration from 78% in the previous quarter to 75.8% in the period under review. Similarly, the total mobile traffic declined by 1.2 per cent to stand at 7.2billion minutes down from…

Equity Bank and Airtel Kenya have today announced a joint undertaking that will offer mobile commerce solutions to their customers in Kenya, through Airtel Money. The service is available to all Equity Bank customers with Airtel lines. Through the deal, the new service will enable customers from both Airtel and Equity Bank to access Airtel mobile banking platforms, perform agency cash transactions at Equity Bank branches and also enable Airtel services customers to withdraw money at any Equity Bank countrywide. Airtel Money will also enable customers to pay their utility bills, receive bank transaction alerts, check account balance and receive…

President Kikwete finally met mobile phone operators over the controversial TSh1,000 (Ksh 56) Sim card monthly fee. The mobile phone operators sought the ears of the President when they saw the Tanzanian government’s determination to implement the controversial levy which they believe that will stifle growth in the mobile sector. Five days ago, the same top officials in the industry met the country’s Finance Minister William Mgimwa where the government promised to review the controversial fee. The assurance did not convince them and so they sought the attention of the country’s CEO. Tanzania’s senior government officials have been making statements…

We have just read from some online sources that Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) website was on Sunday night attacked by some ‘Gaza Hackers.’ Sections of the website could not be accessed last night as hackers gained control of Kenya’s monetary policy fomulator and currency issuer’s website. The CBK website is hosted by Safaricom which also hosts many other key website including that of the IEBC. The host has suffered many attacks in in the recent past. Hacking attack can however not be blamed on the host as the webmaster handling the site security might also have let his guard down. Guy…

Orange Kenya has partnered with PC vendor, ASUS, to offer its customers an affordable way of acquiring computers for effective data usage. Through the agreement, Orange Kenya will stock the Asus VivoBook range of laptops at some of its shops in key towns like Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu. Orange Kenya will either sell the machines as standalone units, or bundled with either a 3G or a CDMA modem. The laptop devices that come with a host of features: large memory and storage capacity, HD graphics and the latest Windows Operating System, Windows 8, have a one year international warranty and will…

After a month in beta testing, African entertainment app Afrinolly has announced the launch of its Windows App for Windows Phone and Windows 8 becoming the first entertainment app for Windows 8 developed in Africa. With the adding of a Windows phone app, Afrinolly is now available on all major mobile operating systems. The app which has been developed by the young innovators at FansConnectOnline of Lagos in Nigeria, allows users to watch full length Nollywood movies, African movies, Trailers, Short films, Music videos and full length Bollywood movies on their Smart devices. On Afrinolly users get to watch the…