Author: Cyrus

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) today announced the launch of its operation in Rwanda, expanding its footprint on the African continent to 17 countries. Airtel has already said that it will invest over USD 100 million in its operations over the next three years and generate direct and indirect employment opportunities. Commenting on the launch, Mr. Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) & Joint MD, Bharti Airtel said, “We are delighted to launch our operations and bring Airtel to the people of Rwanda. We believe that Rwanda is an extremely promising market and this launch further strengthens our footprint in eastern Africa. It will…

Tanzania is pushing to have the population move to digital broadcasting by the year 2015. The adoption has been very slow by the broadcasters and end-users but this might change after the government launched a TV and radio advertising campaign to educated the average Tanzanian user on the pros and process of migration. The Tanzanian government has also formed a committee of experts with members from Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) and Ministry of Communication, Science and Technology. Charles Kitwanga, deputy minister, Communication, Science and Technology said “TCRA has already started educating the people but we think that there is a…

The King of Twitter is set to become King of Apple, as the “Two and a Half Men” star Ashton Kutcher is tapped to play Steve Jobs in the upcoming movie  “Jobs.” The upcoming movie will chronicle Steve Jobs from his early days as a wayward hip teen to a co-founder of Apple. It will be directed by Joshua Michael Stern (“Swing Vote”) while the script was written by Matt Whiteley. It will be financed and produced by Five Star Institute’s Mark Hulme. Production scheduled to start production in May while Kutcher is on leave from his hit CBS series.  CAA,…

Airtel Uganda seems to be the first East African country to use the flash mob marketing. The company recently staged a great mob marketing in one of the Kampala’s premier shopping mall. Within a few days. the flash mob has gained more than 10,000 YouTube views on the Airtel Uganda’s official YouTube channel httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtWkWdAp37w Other users have also uploaded the video on YouTube and Facebook. It is interesting to see East African consumers show love for Flash Mobs which is a popular marketing mechanism in the west. Airtel Uganda used the professional flash mob to market its new ‘Tsup tariff…

Swaziland’s Kingdom rulers are in the final stages of drafting laws which will ban online users from ever criticising King Mswati on Facebook and Twitter. Swaziland which has a population of 1.3 million with just over 50,000 Facebook users and just around 95,000 internet users, has of late faced offline and online protests by the country’s citizens over King Mswati’s governance style. The kingdom is worried after 2011 protest where Swazis too to the streets in to demand democracy and a solution to the nation’s deepening financial problems. The urgency to have such a censorship law has been hastened after…

The Central Bank will now start monitoring money transfer transactions to ensure that the platforms are secure. Communications Permanent secretary Dr. Bitange Ndemo said the mobile money transfer platforms could easily fall victim of the ongoing cyberspace crime if left unchecked. Dr. Ndemo said CBK will conduct annual reviews of all the transactions to ensure that the systems are not abused. Speaking at the Africa Mobile Money Research conference, the PS said securing mobile money transactions has been a key challenge for the government. “We are working on a regulatory framework to prevent cases of hacking,” he said. Dr. Ndemo…

Etihad Airways’ inaugural flight to Kenya today touched down at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO) in Nairobi. The new daily, two-class A320 service is the airline’s first to East Africa and a critically important next step in expanding its presence in Africa. The airline will also reach into West Africa with the introduction of flights to Nigeria in July 2012. Etihad Airways also commenced operations to the Seychelles in November 2011 and Libya in January of this year, building on existing services to Egypt, South Africa, Morocco and Sudan. A senior Etihad Airways delegation, led by Chief Commercial Officer Peter…

Intel launched an array of what is now commonly termed the world’s lightest and thinnest laptops otherwise known as the Ultrabooks, in the Kenyan. Ultrabooks are cool machines for long and extreme use. The great positives about them is that their battery lifetime with constant use stretches beyond the normal, they are portable and they can withstand use beyond 12 hours non-stop. Major drawbacks of the Ultrabooks is the price and also the fact that the light weight means that such additives like DVD–RW and more USB ports are discarded. Intel hopes to use the great positives associated to the…

yuMobile has signed an agreement with Cooperative bank to enable its subscribers to transfer money to any Cooperative Bank account through their registered yuCash lines. Through this arrangement, yuMobile subscribers can transfer money to any COOPBANK Account through the yuCash Bill Payment No. 100200. Commenting on the development, yuMobile CEO, Madhur Taneja said “This agreement is part of the company’s commitment to deliver innovative mobile banking and payments services that meet our customer expectations.”  Cooperative Bank Group Managing Director, Mr. Gideon Muriuki added “The service will encourage customers to save into their bank accounts and benefit from value added services of both yuCash and…

Samsung has announced that the Galaxy Note “phablet” has sold more than 5 million units. Samsung now controls 67% of the South Korean phone market while it has a marginal share of the sales of smartphones in China, France and Spain with the Galaxy Notes driving uptake in a major way. Other countries seeing the uptake of the Galaxy Note “phablet” are France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands. Samsung announced that the sales of the Galaxy Note was at 2 million around the end of February meaning that there has been accelerated uptake in the last one month. A source…

Safaricom has responded to our story about the exit of Maurice Newa. The company has said that Maurice resigned “for his personal reasons  and the company as a responsible employer has respected and accepted his decision.” The full statement from Nzioka Waita, Director of Corporate Affairs, reads: We can confirm that Safaricom’s Director of Customer Care and Strategic Marketing, Maurice Newa has resigned with effect from 28th March 2012. He resigned for personal reasons and the company as a responsible employer has respected and accepted his decision. There is currently no replacement for Maurice,but Safaricom has a competent and experienced…

Safaricom’s Director of Customer Care and Marketing Strategy, a Mr Maurice Newa who joined the company in August 2011 has reportedly been sacked. Maurice who was still on probation could not have resigned as claimed in the official circles. Rumours are abound that the Maurice was forced to resign after staff appraisal was conducted where his performance was brought into focus. It is not clear how Safaricom came to recruit a very green foreigner who had never held similar positions locally or regionally to take up such a strategic position which is always supposed to be held by locals, according to…

IMAX theatre system will open a 3D theatre at the 20th Century Plaza in Nairobi on Friday March 30. IMAX Theatre Development Vice President John Schreiner said at the theatre, they will be showcasing only the best Hollywood blockbusters and educational documentaries. He added “We’ve combined two cinema halls into one, raised the roof and we’ve installed a screen which goes from wall to wall; floor to ceiling,” he revealed. We changed the angle of the seating deck so that everything in the auditorium is completely different from what was there before and when the lights go down, the really powerful projectors…

A woman in Taiwan live tweeted her suicide mission on Facebook chat. The woman inhaled poisonous gases and died while chatting with her friends, none of whom alerted emergency services, police said Tuesday. To make it worse,March18th was Claire Lin’s 31st birthday and it is the same day she killed herself. Family members who reported her death were unaware of the Facebook conversations that accompanied it, Taipei police told journalists. Claire’s last Facebook updates show her chatting with nine friends, alerting them to her gradual suffocation. Mesages show her friends begging her to open the window and put out the charcoal…

Samsung is promising to give the Huawei, ZTE and LG a run for their money with quality but affordable mobile handsets. At the recent Samsung  Africa Forum in Cape Town South Africa, the company promised to localise the offerings with more rugged, tough and durable devices to come. The company is showing the seriousness by offering the Samsung Galaxy Pocket from May in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa with free music download through the Samsung Music hub. Samsung Galaxy Pocket is pocket friendly smartphone oozing a 832MHz single-core processor and a 2.8-inch display with QVGA resolution. The phone has a…