We Live-Tweeted The POTRAZ Consultative Meeting
Posted inConnectivity

We Live-Tweeted The POTRAZ Consultative Meeting

For the first time at Techzim today, we live tweeted an event. The result: a live update of the proceedings at a POTRAZ consultative meeting with Internet Access Providers and Internet Service Providers in Harare. Our followers were able to follow the event in realtime!
Posted inBroadband

PowerTel Presenting On The Impact of Connectivity Through Submarine Fibre

This month's Computer Society function is a presentation on the impact of Internet connectivity through the submarine optic fibre by PowertTel. The presentation will be made by PowerTel Sales and Marketing Manager, Willard Nyagwande and will be held at the Harare Club at 1730hrs today. In March, PowerTel became the first telecoms operator to connect to high speed submarine optic fibre cable through through Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC)
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Posted inBroadband

Econet’s 4500km Optic Fibre National Backbone

Last week, we got our hands on more information regarding the Econet fibre project. The largest telecoms company in Zimbabwe is constructing the largest fibre cable network in Zimbabwe. It’s arguably one of the largest in the Southern Africa region too. It’s a 4,500km optic fibre network linking all Zimbabwe cities and major towns. The main fibre route runs from Chirundu (Zimbabwe’s border with Zambia) through Chinhoyi, Harare, Chegutu, Kwekwe, Gweru, Bulawayo, Gwanda, West Nicholson, down to Beitbridge where it will connect to a Seacom cable in South Africa.
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Aquiva, Huawei
Posted inBroadband

Aquiva Closes US $7.2m Deal With HUAWEI

Today, news came out that Aquiva Wireless has sealed a telecoms deal worth US $7.2m with Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies. The deal itself is for the establishment of 92 bases stations for broadband Internet. This effectively sets Aquiva Wireless on a growth path to compete with Internet Access Providers that have extensive infrastructure in the country like Africom, Ecoweb, PowerTel, Telecontract and TelOne.
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The Zim Ubuntu 10.04 Release Party On This Weekend
Posted inConnectivity

The Zim Ubuntu 10.04 Release Party On This Weekend

Yes, the Zimbabwe Ubuntu LoCo Team finally said something. So all you party animals (and not-so-social geeks, seriously, here is your chance to interact with like minded dudes) make time this Saturday to celebrate freedom. The release party will take place at 335 Herbert Chitepo Street, Alliance Française in Harare and it starts at 2PM. You can send an email to events@ubuntu.org.zw for directions. And for all the naysayers out there (and Windows fanboys) who don't believe in freedom, there will be a demo to showcase the special features that distinguish Ubuntu as an Operating System.
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POTRAZ
Posted inBroadband

POTRAZ Calls ICT Providers To Help Define IAP/ISP Roles

The Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has invited all Internet Access Providers (IAPs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to a consultative meeting to be held in Harare next week. The purpose of the meeting: to discuss the role of the IAPs and the ISPs. POTRAZ has been trying to regularize the operations of ISPs lately. Currently, only IAPs are licensed by POTRAZ. This arrangement has problems. Numerous problems actually.
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NetOne
Posted inConnectivity

NetOne Introduces Per Second Billing

Heeding a directive from the Zimbabwe telecoms regulator, POTRAZ, NetOne has introduced per second billing for all calls within its network. NetOne confirmed today that subscribers will be charged US $0.0033 for each second. Multiply that by 60 seconds and you have your US 20 cents per minute, more or less. This is important. Important because it works out cheaper for subscribers to make short duration calls.
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ZESA loadshedding
Posted inConnectivity

ZESA Effectively Using Website To Update Customers

ZESA impressed us today. The national power company is using the internet to provide customers with daily updates on important issues affecting the customers. Visit www.zesa.co.zw to see what we’re talking about. The website loads fast, super fast actually. There’s lots of useful information. Some of it includes: “How to calculate your own bills” to “Taking your own meter reading” and tips on how to reduce your power usage.
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Posted inConnectivity

Telecel Surpasses A Million Subscribers, To Launch 3G In 2 Months

Telecel Zimbabwe yesterday celebrated its attainment of more than one million subscribers at a function held to coincide with the end of the Harare International Festival of the Arts, at which it was one of the major sponsors. Telecel took the opportunity to announce that it will launch 3G and GPRS data services on its network within the next two months. Indications that Telecel was going to launch internet services started back in January.
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The Ecoweb 4G Mobile WiMax Coverage Map
Posted inBroadband

The Ecoweb 4G Mobile WiMax Coverage Map

Since we posted that Ecoweb started selling 4G mobile WiMax last week, we’ve been trying to get some solid information on the network coverage of the new technology. We requested a coverage map but the response we got what was something to the effect of “tell us a location and we’ll tell you if it’s covered or not”. A polite way of saying “No”.
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Econet
Posted inConnectivity

Econet posts mega profits, declares dividend

This week Econet published their financial results for the year to February 2010. The results presentation, available on SlideShare here has a number of highlights but the outstanding one is the US $113 million Profit after Tax results! Total revenue for the period is US $362 million. Basic earnings per share per share were at a generous US 66c.
RBZ
Posted inConnectivity

The Broken Reserve Bank Website

Today I was going through an article we’ll post shortly on ICT security in Zimbabwe. In the article, reference was made by the writer to the fact that there are no major information security compliance or legislation requirements to govern the implementation of ICT security in Zimbabwe. That the only major requirement around is for banks to comply with the RBZ Bank Certification (Bank Supervision IT requirements). As is practice here, when we make a claim in an article, we make sure that we reference the source of the information. So I pointed my browser to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe website, to find any information on this RBZ ‘security’ requirement. It opened the neat RBZ site we all came to know during those mad ‘burning’ days.
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Posted inConnectivity

Ecoweb Launches Mobile WiMax

Last week, we revealed that Ecoweb was going to launch mobile WiMax this week. They just did. But that’s not the news. The news is this: It’s a staggering US$ 290 to get connected. The USB WiMax dongle, US$ 175, and the monthly bandwidth subscription, US$ 115. We say that because when we discovered that Ecoweb was planning to charge $170 for the USB WiMax dongle and some $100 monthly subscription last week, we complained that this was way too expensive. And to our surprise, at launch the service is US$ 20 more expensive.
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Axis Solutions
Posted inConnectivity

Axis Solutions Gets Cisco Select Certified Partnership

Axis Solutions has met the Cisco resource requirements for Small Business Specialization to become a Cisco Select Certified partner. This means Axis Solutions has demonstrated that it is qualified to sell, install and specifically to support Cisco solutions for the Small and Medium Business (SMB) market. Cisco Systems is a leader is communication solutions and known world over as the backbone of the Internet. Cisco is a common name in ICT network implementation in Zimbabwe and most companies have Cisco devices as part of their enterprise networking infrastructure.
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Someone Just Pushed The Wrong Button On The ZOL Site
Posted inConnectivity

Someone Just Pushed The Wrong Button On The ZOL Site

If you’ve visited the Zimbabwe Online (ZOL) homepage in the last 3 hours or so, you probably noticed something glaringly wrong with it; the website is showing stuff in 2s. There’s a double side menu, double top banner, double adverts, double footer… (UPDATE April 22: fixed) A bored someone at ZOL must be playing on the site. Or maybe they’re just learning their PHP on a live company site. Hey, maybe it’s just a radical new design!
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ZTE WiMax USB Dongle
Posted inBroadband

Ecoweb’s 4G Mobile WiMax Coming Next Week

We just got information that Ecoweb, the ISP arm of Zimbabwe telecoms giant, Econet, will start selling their 4G mobile WiMax next week. According to our source, Ecoweb is just waiting for an approval of the proposed pricing by the telecoms regulatory authority POTRAZ. We got a glimpse of the pricing and hey, dear reader, if you want a piece of the latest (and ideally fastest) mobile internet in town, please prepare to reach deep into your pockets. The mobile WiMax dongle like the one pictured here will cost US $170. The dongle attaches to the USB port to enable your PC to connect to the WiMax network. Like Econet’s 3G, internet access is a flat monthly charge. But don’t let that ‘flat’ word fool you; it’s US $100 per month!
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Claroline Logo
Posted inConnectivity

ZOU Starts Using Open Source eLearning Platform Claroline

On Thursday, the Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) officially launched a new Learning Management System website, ZOU Online. The new system uses the open source eLearning and eWorking platform, Claroline, and like typical Learning Management Systems, it allows lecturers to build online courses and manage learning and collaborative activities on the web. The Zimbabwe Open University has implemented the new system in partnership with a local ICT company. We’re yet to establish which ICT company this is. We will let you know once we find out.
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Axis and Westcon
Posted inConnectivity

Axis Solutions In New Partnership With The Westcon Group

On Thursday we attended the launch of a new partnership between Zimbabwe ICT infrastructure solutions provider, Axis Solutions, and South African based distributor of converged communications solutions, Westcon. The event was held the Crown Plaza Hotel in Harare. The event started with a presentation of the Axis’ main current drive and main business focus, which, as explained by Axis support executive Emmanuela Manyowa is information security, ICT service management.