• Global roundup – this week’s top stories

    Nokia releases N9 On 21 June, Nokia released its latest MeeGo-based smartphone, the N9. The N9 is Nokia’s first pure touch smartphone and it runs on Meego 1.2. The phone spots a curved glass 3.9 inch AMOLED display, a 8megapixel camera and comes with storage capacities of 16GB and 64GB.

  • Free SMS Zimbabwe launches. Our brief take on it

    How would you like using the internet to send free SMSs that have adverts appended? Something like “How are you Sumba? – Send money to Zimbabwe with ABC Zim Ltd,www.abczimltd.com”. Really, we would love to know, please comment below. In the meantime, here’s more about the this new service.

  • The TrustCo side of the story. TrustCo to protect its intellectual property rights

    Since TrustCo terminated the Econet agreement some 2 weeks ago, TrustCo hadn’t spoken about the issue. It is Econet Chairman, Tawanda Nyambirai, who gave the Econet side of the story which basically amounted to: TrustCo demanded more money than was due to them, spammed Econet subscribers, threatened to terminate the agreement when Econet complained about…

  • Africom yet to finalise interconnection, focus is on business customers

    When we posted the article about Africom’s very low voice tariffs last week, one of the readers commenting on the article expressed doubt that the Africom network has interconnection with the other voice networks (Econet, Telecel, NetOne and TelOne) to allow subscribers to make off-net calls. This week, we visited Africom and sadly found out…

  • NetOne set to roll out mobile broadband services

    NetOne, Zimbabwe’s state owned mobile operator, today started and advertising campaign for Internet services. The adverts promise NetOne is going to deliver “the world like you’ve never seen or heard it”.

  • Cruz Reader tablet giveaway: Spot what’s missing

    As you enter Harare’s CBD, a couple of massive billboards scream for your attention. They form a key part of Econet’s goliath advertising blitz. We spotted something missing from this particular ad, and thought of it as a great way to hold a competition.

  • Africom rolls out voice, more choice and very low price

    As you probably know already, Africom started an ad campagin for the launch of mobile telephony and some new data services last week. The full message of the availability of mobile telephony and the additional data services was made earlier this week. This morning, Africom sent us the tariffs for the new services.

  • The need for a self-regulating mobile VAS providers body

    There’s a growing appetite for mobile value added services (VAS) in the market. This is true for mobile network operators, developers and the mobile subscribers. Developers and entrepreneurs are seeing the opportunities that Zimbabwe’s (and that of African countries in the region) rising mobile penetration avails. Subscribers too are starting to use mobile phones in…

  • Get Ready: Zimbabwe will be a competitive BPO hub

    In an increasingly globalised world, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has taken developing countries by storm. By consistently underpricing developed markets, thousands of jobs and opportunities are being created at breakneck speeds everyday. This article seeks to provide a bird’s eye view of the sector with regards to Zimbabwe’s shot at becoming a competitive hub on…

  • Gigatel launches new VSAT hub in Zimbabwe

    Gigatel, the company we wrote about in September last year when it launched VoIP services, has launched a new V-SAT hub in Zimbabwe. The new hub is a Shiron product and operates on C-Band frequencies. It was supplied and engineered by Gilat Satcom, a global satellite communications provider. The announcement was made through a press…

  • Ever been to Dongle-wanaland?

    If you either hated history or fell asleep halfway through the lesson; Gondwanaland was a great big continental block that contained what we refer to as Africa, India, Australia, and other sub-continents. Its existence is based on theoretical assumptions related to the earth’s evolution.

  • ICT incumbents, the times they are a-changin’

    I’ve met more than enough Zimbabweans (geeks and ordinary humans alike) who feel that the local ICT sector is not up to scratch. When asked to specify what being “up to scratch” is, most immediately and rather animatedly set off an explosive cache of various beliefs, facts and figures. However correct some of the well…

  • Set up your own home Wi-Fi with these simple steps

    This guest post was authored by Tapiwa Mapani. He’s not a trained geek and says “I just have a restless mind that makes me experiment with this type of stuff and most of the time to great success.” He has a wireless network setup at his home office which uses a mobile broadband USB dongle…

  • NetOne cancels Zellco contract. What next for Zellco?

    Starting last week, NetOne has been making statements in the press notifying Zellco NetOne subscribers that the relationship with Zellco, its service provider, has been severed. As a NetOne service provider, Zellco signed up new post-paid customers and collected revenue on behalf of NetOne for a fee.

  • Zimbabwe’s telecoms industry revenue to grow to US1.34 billion by 2016

    According to a market research report released today by global research firm, Frost & Sullivan, Zimbabwe’s mobile communications revenue will reach US $ 1.3 billion by 2016, with 20.1% compound annual growth rate. The report comes after Econet, Zimbabwe’s largest telecoms firm, released its year end financials showing solid growth and annual revenue of half…

  • Telecel ends free broadband test, to start charging 10 cents a megabyte

    It’s official, the Telecel free mobile broadband test is over. Today, Telecel advised mobile broadband users through SMS that the test period has been finalized and starting Monday 1 May (2011), all internet usage will be charged at US 10 cents per megabyte. Here’s the text of the SMS:

  • Valley Technologies, a possible game changer for Zimbabwe’s telecoms industry

    Today, we spent the better part of the morning at the Spiritage network operation center in Harare. We were invited along with a dozen other writers from the various media houses in Zimbabwe to a “pre-launch media briefing” of the business group. First, let me say of all the Zim internet access providers (IAPs) we’ve…

  • 23rd Century Systems subsidiary developing VAS platform

    Uniswitch, a Twenty Third Century Systems Group (TTCS) subsidiary, is working on a VAS platform to be launched in the coming months. According to Uniswitch Managing Director, Reginald Gumbo, this is part of Uniswitch’s long terms strategic direction of developing mobile commerce solutions for the market.

  • Telecel introduces convenient way for subscribers to register disconnected lines

    As you may know, the POTRAZ deadline for mobile phone subscribers to register sim cards expired (for the third and final time) at the end of March. Some subscribers have already reported disconnections and some, despite being given a whole year to register, are not amused at all. Most are claiming they registered but still…

  • The rise of 3G – (ITU 2010 World ICT facts and figures)

    We just thought we would post here an ITU depiction of 3G connectivity world over from a report titled “The World in 2010, ICT facts and figures”. We were quite struck with how Zimbabwe compares to the majority of African countries.

  • Africom and Valley Technologies to launch mobile phone networks

    News tips we’re getting are all suggesting strongly that Internet Access Providers (IAPs), Africom and Valley Technologies will be launching mobile phone networks soon. “Soon” here could ofcourse mean anything from a couple of weeks (at best) to a few months. We’re guessing, from what we know so far, the most would be 2 months.

  • Techzim Exclusive Interview with ForgetMeNot Africa COO, Jeremy George

    We had an exclusive interview with ForgetMeNot Africa’s Chief Operating Officer, Jeremy George. We discussed the Message Optimiser (MO), the company’s flagship product. We also discussed its implementation on mobile networks in Africa and the SMS traffic the system processes. At the end of the interview, George give us his opinion on mobile solution trends…

  • Zimbabwe start-up releases first beta of virus protection program

    A local start-up, TechTribe, has released the first beta version of a virus protection program it’s calling Viral Suppressor. The software is available for free download on www.vs.co.zw, and TechTribe is encouraging visitors to download and try the software.

  • ForgetMeNot Africa processing hundreds of thousands of eTXTs per day from Zimbabwe

    According to ForgetMeNot Africa’s Chief Operating Officer, Jeremy George, the company is already processing hundreds of thousands of eTXTs a day from Zimbabwe just two weeks after launch on the Econet network. Approximately 35% of those are SMSs initiated from mobile phones to the Internet. Jeremy George revealed this to Techzim in an exclusive interview…

  • TelOne’s fibre connection on EASSy now live, total 2.48 Gbps lit

    The Harare-Mozambique TelOne backbone fibre is now live. The state owned fixed telecoms operator has announced that the cable now links the state owned fixed operator to the East African Submarine System (EASSy) undersea cable through Mozambique. TelOne has taken up initial capacity of 2.48 Gbps (16 x STM-1s) and according to the company the…

  • Seacom: Our cable has had some challenges since inception

    Seacom this week admitted that its submarine fibre cable that landed on the east Africa coast in July 2009, “has had challenges since inception”. The statement was made by Seacom’s head of business development, Aidan Baigriecable. The admission comes as Seacom considers buying backup undersea fibre capacity from other submarine fibre cable operators.

  • Mobile Value Added Services on a steady increase locally

    There’s a growing reappearance of value added services (VAS) on the local mobile networks. Entrepreneurs are seeing this and you can see the increasing number of adverts in the local press like the current itllusion mobiplay one which reads:

  • CABS, POSB to use Telecel mobile banking platform through Zimswitch Mobile

    Telecel Zimbabwe has just revealed to Techzim that it’s working with Zimswitch Mobile to include more banks on its mobile banking platform. Telecel launched the Skwama mobile banking services in January this year but only provided the service to subscribers banking with Zimbabwe’s Kingdom Bank.

  • Google launches Gmail SMS in more African countries

    Google has announced through its Google Africa blog that it has launched Gmail SMS in Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi. In Uganda Google is working with MTN, Uganda Telecom and Orange, in Tanzania with Vodacom and in Malawi with Airtel and TNM. Gmail SMS has been around for some time in Africa. The service is currently…

  • POTRAZ licenses Zimbabwe’s fourth mobile operator, TelOne

    The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has revealed through Zimbabwe’s state owned daily, the Herald, that it granted TelOne a GSM mobile phone license late last year. TelOne is Zimbabwe’s only fixed line operator and is owned by the government. TelOne becomes the country’s fourth mobile operator. The other three are Econet,…