• Why we need YoAfrica, ZOL and Aptics to do mobile broadband

    There’s one thing we love about two of Zimbabwe’s largest ISPs, YoAfrica and ZOL. It is that they understand the difference between local and international traffic. That local traffic does not cost them much to deliver and can therefore be given away free to customers. Aptics, a relatively new Internet Access Provider understands this too.

  • Crossing the line: G-Tide building a database of phone numbers

    If you’re a civil servant in Zimbabwe, and one day you receive an SMS from G-Tide that you never subscribing for, you’re going to wonder how they got your number. Here’s how:

  • Eco-cash:Opportunities for Zimbabwe’s technology entrepreneurs

    The announcement that Econet will be launching Eco-cash, a mobile payment solution is good news for the country. This will bring in new opportunities for technology entrepreneurs if the service takes off. We have to start thinking about businesses that will run on the platform. I will share some of the businesses that could be…

  • The impact of the politics that dog Telecel Zimbabwe

    Normally we like to keep clear of non-technology issues. It allows to focus and write about the things we know best. People at Telecel (or just people with interests in Telecel) however keep spending generous amounts of time generating news on the other side of the line. And it clearly affects the technology side of…

  • Tracking your vehicle, kids and more through SMS

    Some weeks ago, two gentlemen from a company called Ingoma Telecom, came to our offices to show us a car tracking product they’re distributing in Zimbabwe. The product itself is called Tramigo and it’s manufactured by a Finland based company going by the same name. We have been using the device for about 2 weeks…

  • biNu registers rapid growth in Zimbabwe mobile app market

    We came to know about biNu some several months ago when we wrote articles about eTXT. There was a lot of mention about it on our Facebook page. Readers compared it to eTXT and later Dasuba. The messaging component of biNu at least. I personally didn’t try biNu until 12 days ago, and what an…

  • South African government apprehensive about BlackBerry encryption

    Reports coming out of South Africa yesterday suggest the country’s government is apprehensive about BlackBerry services. The South African government is proposing allowing the police access to the BlackBerry encrypted messenger service supposedly in a bid to help catch criminals.

  • NetOne secures USD 60m funding, to launch mobile broadband by year end

    NewsDay, reports that state owned mobile network operator NetOne has secured US$ 60 million for mobile broadband services. According to the paper, the funds have been sourced from China Export-Import Bank, Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ), CBZ Bank and BancABC.

  • We have 3.9G technology, says Spiritage Communications

    Speaking at a Computer Society of Zimbabwe function yesterday, Spiritage Communications Managing Director Mr. Kangai Maukazuva disclosed the company has deployed a 3.9G network. Maukazuva was presenting the topic “Communication technologies for the future” to a huge group of information technology professionals. The presentation centered on the evolution in telecommunications to next generation networks (NGNs).

  • Bridging the digital divide with eTXT. Killing SMS one innovation at a time

    When eTXT launched in March this year we wrote “Econet launches eTXT, erases line between SMS and the Internet”. We wrote this because the application was another knife in the side for SMS. Yes, we want SMS to die. It’s super expensive for subscribers and belongs to a different era altogether.

  • About ICT systems security and the recent ZSE website hacking

    In the past few years we have seen major developments in the availability and growth of high speed internet services in Zimbabwe. Such developments are a characteristic of the modern information and global economic age. At the same time such developments have led to the massive development and production of all kinds of software (Web…

  • FBC Bank introduces MasterCard Prepaid services

    FBC Bank has begun offering a MasterCard Prepaid service that enables locals to shop online across various platforms worldwide. In a campaign dubbed ‘Load & Go’ the bank initially introduced the campaign through the endorsement of local music icon; Oliver Mtukudzi, advertising the service’s access to leading merchants around the world.

  • Details of the ZSE hacking. It happened twice and it was through Joomla

    On Saturday, we posted information revealing that the hacking of the ZSE website that happened last week was at the application level. We have since received more details of the hacking incident itself and it appears the ZSE website was used by the hackers to host viruses and a phishing website.

  • Zimbabwe paper’s questionable attack on Trustco

    As Techzim we are obliged to promote debate and dialogue. We were surprised to read an article in this morning’s Daily News (A Zimbabwe daily) that we believe was not generous with facts. The article’s opening shot begins by describing Trustco as “a company that appears to talk very big about itself”, and proceeds to…

  • Of prophets, spiritual airtime, VAS and POTRAZ

    We too saw last week’s story on spiritual recharge cards by a Zim church leader, Emmanuel Makandiwa. We too found the story somewhat confusing and were eager to find out more so we could write a short ‘explanation’ of how it works, technically. Yes, just the technical side of things; it’s not our place to…

  • It’s business as usual in Zimbabwe, says Trustco

    No sooner had we posted the news about the interim order the high court issued against Econet yesterday, than we got a press release from Trustco on the issue. The press release has a celebratory tone and seeks to assure shareholders that the mess in Zim has cleared up.

  • Telecel offers free data for every voice credit purchase

    Recently, Telecel introduced a voice for data promotion. For every $1 worth of airtime purchased, subscribers receive $1 worth of data for free. The company has not yet rolled out […]

  • PowerTel to launch mobile voice services, web hosting

    PowerTel Communications, the state owned subsidiary of national power company, ZESA, is set to launch mobile voice services on its network. PowerTel sales and marketing manager, Willard Nyagwande made the announcement at a function in Harare yesterday.

  • Airtel, MTN and four others court Netone

    According to a story by Godfrey Marawanyika on Bloomberg, Reward Kangai, the CEO of Netone has revealed that the company has been approached by six foreign investors with four having communicated within the last two weeks. Of the six, Bharti Airtel and MTN Group are front runners as they are spread across more African countries…

  • Africa’s Telecoms Titans: Vodacom Group

    Africa’s Telecoms Titans is a series by Techzim profiling the top 20 leading mobile operators on the continent. Each segment focuses on a specific mobile operator with insights into services provided including marketing and technical competencies.

  • Price of an eTXT SMS down to 5 cents

    When Econet launched eTXT in March this year, we praised the service for innovation in a space that no other provider is playing; linking basic mobile phones to internet services like Email, Facebook and instant messaging. With a mobile phone just capable of SMS and voice calls, subscribers could now effectively send emails, respond to…

  • Western Union introduces domestic money transfer

    Techzim has just found out that Western Union has been offering a domestic money transfer service since the 16th of May 2011. It appears as if not enough PR work was done in this regard as even an online search did not yield any information. The money transfer service enables locals to send and receive…

  • Brodacom’s “Reserve Your Number” finally up. Brodacom.com now down

    Yesterday, when we posted an article about Spiritage’s new voice telephony and Internet company, Brodacom, we echoed the message from Brodacom’s adverts that you could reserve your number on the site www.reserveyournumber.co.zw which, Brodacom had promised, would be available at 1400hrs yesterday. It didn’t happen. And by the time we left the office yesterday, the…

  • Spiritage Introduces Brodacom; Mobile voice telephony and 4G Internet

    Today, Spiritage Group introduced Brodacom, its new company that will offer new voice telephony and broadband internet services. A teaser advert appeared in the local papers yesterday and we incorrectly attributed the new services to Valley Technologies, a Spiritage owned internet access provider. And as we have learned today, the services are actually under the…

  • Interview with Big Law CEO. Company pioneering investor relations websites in Zimbabwe

    We contacted the Big Law CEO, Rob Strangroom, to get some information about the company and the work they do. Big Law is one of the few companies working on a problem that is widespread in Zim and other similar countries. The problem is that companies, listed or not, don’t seem to see the power…

  • The eTXT core system wins awards

    The ForgetMeNot Africa system powering Econet’s eTXT service won a Meffy’s award last week in the category for “Best Innovation in a Mobile First Market”. In the category, providers of mobile services and applications are awarded for successful service models in regions of growth where consumers use mobile devices as their first and primary means…

  • Huawei Tablet PC launched in SA. Africa calling

    Huawei, China’s ICT giant recently launched its Ideos S7 Tablet PC to the South African market. Huawei is well known as a telecoms infrastructure and enterprise hardware producer and has been moving into the consumer segment in recent years. Along with ZTE, the company is among a crop of Chinese brands that have gained ground…

  • How to: Ubuntu and mobile broadband connectivity

    I have said elsewhere in the series that the Ubuntu experience is not complete unless you have internet; good internet I mean. In addition, I provided a guide to choosing your ISP. In this article I will provide you with a guide to connecting to the internet using mobile broadband (the dongles) but before doing…

  • In depth focus: Zimbabwe needs to embrace cloud computing

    Information management has never been as hot a subject as it is today. In such a context cloud computing is revolutionising the way the world operates by reducing costs, risks and exponentially scaling capabilities.

  • Zimbabwe’s current mobile user base (June 2011). Telecel now third

    We’ve just received the updated POTRAZ statics of Zimbabwe mobile subscribers. We are told the figures have just been updated this past week and represent the statistics for the second quarter of the year.