Telecash may have faced a seasonal drawback in the Telecel versus government tiff early this year but they look set to grow stronger with the right formula. Recording 1 million subscribers from launch last year in January, they can easily reach the same user ratios as Ecocash.
Smartphone penetration is very low in Zimbabwe trailing far behind other nations like South Africa at 30% and Kenya at 67%. But who should be responsible for equipping the nation with these devices?
The smartphone penetration rate in Zimbabwe is approximately 15% which actually means that about 85% of all mobile communication in Zimbabwe is largely through dumb phones (mbudzi) and feature phones. These are some humbling statistics in terms of what it actually means for developments in broadband.
Recently the Minister of Education, Lazarus Dokora, stated that the Ministry has allowed smartphones in Zimbabwean schools on the reasoning that these devices can be used for research. While these capabilities might be undisputed, there are other serious consequences that the State is not considering. The reality is, we are not ready for a national…
Econet has introduced a dual airtime account system to cater for VAS services subscriptions. It’s meant to help subscribers keep track of the money spent on VAS services as they have to transfer airtime into this account deliberately. This is an improvement from the old system that used to deduct airtime in the background, an…
Econet has reduced the salaries of its entire staff by 35%. This has been attributed to a lot of challenges in the local business environment, and the other complications in Zimbabwean telecoms. The operator will have to do a lot to improve its performance and beat all of this.
Econet has given subscribers with lines that haven’t been used in 6 months, up to one week to recharge these lines. Failure to do so will result in disconnection. There is a lot the operator will benefit from by doing this, largely because of an inactive subscriber total of 3 million. However, there are going…
At its recent I/O Conference, Google announced the Google Web Light browser, a still-under-test version of the standard browser that offers faster web experiences for users in markets where there are slow internet connections. It’s being aimed at emerging markets which rely on 2G and 3G connections, and its set for India and Brazil first.…
Africa seems to be awakening from the internet ignorance slumber that has seen some countries connecting to the world wide web with no restrictions. This situation has its pros as advocated for by Internet Freedom activists and its cons as is evident from the demage that can be attributed to social media as an example
NetOne has a fair subscriber base of just under 30% of the market, which has however failed to translate into a healthier OneWallet. Accounting for less than 1% of Mobile Money subscribers, it needs to overhaul the product or face extinction.
The Slim sim introduces mobile number and anti-monopoly disruption and makes it possible for MVN operators, Financial Services Providers, Banks and other players to offer all the usual services plus more sophisticated VAS in addition to the services provided by your current operator
The name Nicholas Mathonsi isn’t a household name, but in some weird way it should be, for millions of people. He’s the guy who passed a High Court order granting […]
It’s only been a few days since word got out that the telecoms regulator, POTRAZ, had given Telecel, the country’s third-largest mobile operator, 30 days to shut down operations. It […]
The minister went on to say that NetOne had relied too much on one source of income, the government, and that the current initiative would ensure the management gets innovative enough to compete and return a dividend to government.
At the 2014 Broadband Forum, the conclusion was that the next frontier in broadband is retailing broadband right to the doorstep. Various ISPs made noise about FTTH promising to deliver […]
Are local IT practitioners doing enough about Information Security? The answer to that question depends on several factors, but all of the responses you’ll get don’t change the fact that […]
Who would have thought that one day in Zimbabwe we would be buying SIM cards for 50 cents? It’s easy to look at that price and wonder what the […]
Econet is selling $24 smartphones. So what, big deal. It’s probably just another case of aggressive retail tactics in an extremely challenging market. The logic behind this seems pretty obvious. […]
When the WhatsApp calls feature was activated this year two things that everyone had been expecting for over a year happened. Firstly, subscribers to the insanely popular platform were excited […]
Last week a lot of discussions on tech came out of Victoria Falls when it hosted the Innovation Africa Digital Summit (IAD). That’s pretty common; the resort town is the […]
We’ve already established that LTE isn’t yet that much of a reality in Zimbabwe. We only have a smidgen of the service thanks to Econet’s efforts and when you do get […]
This past week, we got to sift through the latest figures on Zimbabwean telecoms from the industry regulator, POTRAZ. These sector performance numbers are provided regularly and even though we’ve […]
“Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.” That ought to be etched on every business manager’s wall, especially before setting targets and making projections. All industry captains have to keep […]
Today when I came upon a NewZimbabwe article with the title “The corporate rot Econet is hiding” I thought I had stumbled onto a typical “I hate Econet” piece. There’s enough […]
It has been reported that Econet lost its case in court. Back in the nineties that statement meant an assault on freedom of expression, the extension of monopolies in communication and […]
A report just published this evening by the government owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), says Telecel has been ordered by the government to stop operations outright. We’ve tried to get in touch with […]
The sale of 40% a stake in Telecel to Brainworks will now proceed after warring Empowerment Corporation shareholders agreed to revert to the 1997 shareholding that they had when the company was awarded […]
The Telecel shareholding situation, which we last wrote about here when it became clear that the sale to Brainworks was not going to go smooth (Mutasa opposed the selling, won, and James […]