A few weeks ago we wrote about how Econet’s Dial-a-Doc service is facing headwinds with the Medical and Dental Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe. It raises some issues. The MDPCZ’s condemning of health call centers as unethical forms of medical practice effectively shuts the door to other potential players like other MNOs, internet providers, startups or…
Despite its mass adoption across the country where it has outpaced formal banking services, mobile money has only been mentioned as one alternative and not as the leading solution that it is primed to be.
Being a fan of the iPhone but never having owned one (because I don’t want to pay more than $500 for a phone), the announcement of the new iPhone SE some weeks […]
Zimbabwe’s telecommunications regulator, POTRAZ, has announced that it will be banning all over the top service bundles for applications like WhatsApp, Facebook and Opera Mini.
In the meantime, Viva Mobile has introduced its subscription-based video on demand TV service known as Uhuru TV (stylised as uHuru TV) with a pre-launch campaign that is offering early signups a free 7-day trial.
While reserving capital from operational profit might seem even harder for Telecel than its peers its absence on the new base station front is likely a reflection of a shortage of capital for aggressive expansion, something that its new majority owner, the government, will hopefully be able to remedy.
The reality, though, is that these operators are responding to changes that they never anticipated and whose effects they can’t control. The request for the ban, or regulation is, as has been the case in countries like Morocco and most recently South Africa, a way to contain the damage. That hardly justifies it, but it…
Zimbabweans use WhatsApp more than any other broadband service or application. According to the latest report from the telecoms regulator, POTRAZ, the Instant Messaging platform’s bundles accounted for 34% of mobile broadband traffic in the fourth quarter of 2015. This brings up the net neutrality debate again.
Citing the rise of online content consumption patterns that have powered the rise in popularity of material from producers like P.O Box and Zambezi News, Makamba pointed out how Zimbabwean content is scattered across various platforms like WhatsApp, YouTube and Facebook, something that he believes points to the opportunity of a central distribution platform.
The national telecoms regulator, POTRAZ, has released its latest report showing a rise in Zimbabwe’s mobile penetration and internet use.
The key to meeting this demand for innovation in health is a collaboration between health professionals and the IT experts or software developers. However, my personal experiences in Zimbabwe have been quite disappointing. It has proved to be quite a nightmare finding a skilled and experienced software developer who can choose to spare enough time…
At the recently ended 2016 edition of Zimbabwe’s e-Tech Africa Expo, the Minister of ICT, Postal and Courier Services, Supa Mandiwanzira announced government’s commitment to the development of local platforms and apps through a multi-million dollar investment financed by local operators.
Despite the added benefits of warranties and after sale support as well as consumer protection offered by registered distributors, a huge quotient of the Zimbabwean market still finds solace in unregistered traders, a scenario which presents a huge challenge to distributors like Tecno who are operating above board.
However, TelOne won’t be eyeing the same market as NetOne. According to Mutasa, as a unified service provider, their concern will be to offer mobile services to TelOne fixed services subscribers. This means the option for an LTE mobile service that is tied to an existing TelOne account that a subscriber can access when they…
It’s not just the cheap voice and data bundles that Viva will be focusing on, though. Viva Mobile subscribers will also be able to access premium live, linear and catch-up TV on their mobile devices through a service called uhuruTV. The service is set at $9.99 a month with promises to offer access to more…
A local developer and tech security buff, Trevor Sibanda, decided to develop his own bot service, called Zimbot. He has fashioned it around content that is specific to a Zimbabwean audience. So far he has been trying out its demo version and gathering feedback from the pilot users to fine tune the bot service.
That program has now been launched and Muzinda Hub is accepting applications from corporate personnel, entrepreneurs and working professionals keen on broadening their skills by learning about application and web development as well as transforming these skills into viable businesses.
It’s easy to look at the allegations as just another case of state-owned enterprise corruption but as long as NetOne wants to make any legitimate effort to operate competitively in an increasingly tough environment, it has to make sure it exorcises the ghost of public sector management which places little or no emphasis on accountability…
This latest round brings the total capital raised by WorldRemit to $192,7 million. A year ago the remittances startup secured $100 million in a Series B funding round which came as a follow-up to another $40 million raised in 2014 from Silicon Valley Venture Capital firm, Accel Partners.