Author: Cyrus

South Africa’s Pay-TV provider, MultiChoice, is upping its delivery now to counter competition. With the launch of the new satellite covering Southern Africa, the company has added 7 new channels to its bouquet. Unfortunately, in East Africa we will only be able to get two new channels. Newly launched channels; KykNet Musiek (channel 146); Mzansi Music (channel 321); Blackbelt TV (channel 129); True Movies 1 Bay TV (channel 260); 1 KZN (channel 261); Dumisa (channel 340). The two new channels available to East Africans – Blackbelt TV and True Movies 1 – will be available across all bouquets on DStv (…

Kenya has been elected to chair the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO) Council for 2012-13. The elections took place during the 52nd CTO Council Meeting on 25th October 2012 in Mauritius. Also elected were Nigeria as the First Vice Chairperson and Trinidad and Tobago as the Second Vice Chairperson. Telkom South Africa and the Telecommunications Regulatory Board of Cameroon were elected to the CTO’s Executive Committee representing the Industry Partners and the Development Partners of the CTO, respectively. Before the election, Kenya was the 1st Vice Chair of the CTO during the 2011 – 2012 period. The Council is the oversight body of the CTO…

Safaricom Limited has today handed over a brand new Mercedes E-200 to Carol Adoga Mwanbihi, in the Timiza na M-PESA promotion grand draw. Ms. Mwanbihi, who is a pharmacist working in Nairobi’s Zimmerman Estate is a user of M-PESA who got surprised on receiving the  phone call informing her of the win. Now courtesy of Safaroicom, Carol who is a 29 year old mother of one, has earned the enviable distinction of having the luxurious vehicle as her first car. Carol told the Safaricom team who broke the news to her that she would sell the vehicle and use funds raised from…

Pay TV provider, Multichoice, through its mobile division, DSTV mobile, recently unveiled its 7″ version of the Walka device in some African markets. The 7″ display on the new Walka is double what was on the previous version of the Walka. I have been using the Walka 7″ for a month and I must say that I am impressed that I only want more channels on the device and a wider coverage area. First things first, the device is a bit heavier than the previous version or the  Samsung Galaxy 7 Plus. The device is not a replacement to the 3.5″…

Safaricom has suspended the Mombasa leg of the “Niko na Safaricom Live” tour citing security concerns at the Coast. The coastal towns in Kenya are facing security challenges as a gang of secessionists claim that the region is not part of Kenya. Safaricom’s move now affect all road shows, campus storms and the eventual concert which was slated for the 10th of November. Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said, “This was a tough decision because we were looking forward to having a wonderful engagement with our customers in Mombasa.  The cancellation is a precautionary approach to the Security situation in Mombasa and not a response to…

When they come to Africa, they potray power problems as an African problems. But today you can see that it is not an African problem per se. Safaricom has just said that M-Pesa has suffered complete outage due to a power problem on a Vodafone server in Germany. READ: As M-Pesa Celebrates 5 Years Since Launch In Kenya, Here Are My Thoughts Commenting on the development, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore has said; “Our technical teams both here and in Germany are working to restore normal services as soon as possible. However, we expect services to resume later on today (Sunday). We regret the…

Chase Bank Foundation and ZanaAfrica Group have announced the launch of The NiaNetwork, a mobile application to coordinate national sanitary pad distribution created for ZanaAfrica by Upande Ltd. The application can be downloaded through the Chase Bank website. The NiaNetwork is a campaign, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, the Girl Child Network, P&G, and others looking to bring greater awareness to the plight of over 800,000 girls who miss 6 weeks of school a year due to lack of sanitary towels. Chase Bank Foundation provided the means to create this app. “Partnering with ZanaAfrica ties in to our aspiration of being in the forefront of women empowerment, as women are the core pillarof our society” Duncan Kabui, Chase Bank CEO. This is Chase Bank’s second…

InMobi is shutting down its offices in Africa. The India based mobile advertising company could not survive the Googles and Facebook in Africa. The company spent lots of money events which seemingly did not give them returns. Now things are thick and the company is shutting down. The sales guy was the clueless Moses Kemibaro and the President for Africa was Isis Nyong’o. Ok tell what startup Isis really propelled to greater heights? Isis was recruited from Google Africa. What magic did Isis do at Google? None. Him and John Mucheru were on free roll. There is no magic they…

Safaricom has revealed that its leading performance venue the Michael Joseph Center, will be shut down in November as the company plans a major renovation of the facility. Safaricom does periodic renovations of its offices, customer experience centres and other facilities to upgrade the same with modern feel and look. With December holidays almost here, Safaricom’s MJ Centre might not be ready for use until sometime in early 2013. The centre is a well known venue for artistic exhibitions, live events and other interesting activities including performances by leading entertainers from Kenya and further. The MJ Centre has a A CSR…

This is a guest post by Otieno Sungu This morning, while driving to work, I listened to an expert discuss on one of the FM stations the whole issue of fake phones. The man contends that after all the publicity, hype, resources and energy put on switching off fake phones, the whole thing is as spurious just as the fake phones. This is why. First, he asked if you could identify any of your neighbors, friends of colleagues whose phones were switched off. If the answer is yes, then the phone is back and being used again. The reason there…

Safaricom has reported reduced service levels on it is Customer Care Service  most customers experiencing delays in accessing customer care service after work at its main service centre in Mlolongo was disrupted when an adjacent building caught fire. There were no casualties in the incident but Safaricom staff is now providing customer care services at a limited capacity from an alternate site. Speaking on the incident, Safaricom CEO, Bob Collymore regretted the inconvenience, “we appeal for patience during this time as our team works to restore normal services as soon as possible while guaranteeing the safety of working conditions for…

Bharti Airtel, with operations in 20 countries across South Asia and Africa, has moved up one notch in the world wide ranking to be the fourth largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscribers, according to Wireless Intelligence ‘Scoreboard’. Top Five Operators Globally: Operator Connections (millions)* YoY Growth, connections China Mobile 683.08 11 % Vodafone Group 386.88 5 % America Movil Group 251.83 7 % Bharti Airtel 250.04 13 % Telefonica Group 243.51 7 % (Mobile operator worldwide group global ranking by connections, Q2 2012) *Connections are aggregated as the sum of each group’s subsidiaries where a minimum…

Partners in the fund include The Green Belt Movement, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Kenya Community Development Foundation. ·         The fund will help nurture new ideas and initiatives, and encourage young people to lead the environmental conservation efforts in Kenya.   22nd October, Nairobi: The Green Belt Movement, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Kenya Community Development Foundation today announced the launch of The Wangari Maathai Scholarship Fund. The fund seeks to encourage and promote a youth-led sustainable development agenda that is grounded in values by encouraging creativity, activism and dedication to environmental issues. Prof. Wangari Maathai strongly believed in nurturing new ideas and initiatives…

Orange Kenya  has now simplified its data offerings as part of the firm’s recent bundle alignment. This will see customers have the same data bundles and prices across all Orange networks. With the alignment, the company will now offer 50 MB, 100 MB, 500MB, 1GB, 5GB, 10GB, 15GB and 20 GB bundles on offer. The company’s CEO, Mikhael Ghossein, has revealed that Orange is “already working on expanding its current networks into previously unreached locations as well as strengthening the same in towns and areas where customers are already enjoying the Orange network.” Without withdrawing the unlimited bundles, Orange Kenya…

Is iHub turning in to a very insecure space attracting all manner of criminals? When I got to hear many issues since mid last year, I thought they were isolated events. This got me asking if someone is trying to tarnish the name of iHub. Many innovation spaces were coming up in Nairobi and maybe with the ever dirty business rivalry in Kenya, some top corporate who controls the youth loyality was not loving it. I also thought that since Erik Hersman who is the main individual behind the iHub is not seeing eye-to-eye, someone might find it very convenient…