Towards the end of last year Zimbabwe’s state owned mobile operator, NetOne, launched its mobile broadband service. Over the weekend this writer decided to test the service and see how it performs.
We just received a press release from Gikko, the till roll ads and bulk sms startup that we last wrote about in September last year. The release announces the launch of local mobile content services on the Telecel Zimbabwe network.
It appears Telecel has no intention of stopping it’s rapid release of new Value Added Services, just recently they launched their Emergency Credit[link to article] facility and now they have something for couples to enjoy over Valentine’s. By sending an sms to 33511(charged at 10c) you’ll receive a love quote. Let’s admit it, not all…
We had the opportunity to speak to ZOL CEO, David Behr on his company’s recent acquisition by the Liquid Telecommunications Group. In the interview he talks about why they sold to Liquid, what this means for ZOL going forward in terms of independence of the ISP and service delivery to customers. Below is a transcript…
There has been a lot of curiosity about Zimbabwe’s Facebook population lately. Unfortunately Facebook doesn’t provide Zimbabwe’s Facebook stats because of, well, you guessed it, we’re a bad people. Or at least the targeted US sanctions say some leaders here are.
A reader, Tatenda Dzumira, sent us photos recently of Telecel Zimbabwe agents busy on the streets of Bulawayo touting from a loud speaker the availability of “dollar for 2” Telecel SIM cards. The SIM cards are sold from the back of a pickup truck and new subscribers can buy and register for mobile services right…
In October 2010, Africom made a bold unprecedented move in the history of the internet in Zimbabwe. Fresh from the launch of its new red brand and mobile broadband services, the company announced the pricing of its data packages; the cost of a 1 gigabyte bundle was US $18. It was crazy. It was fantastic…
A year ago, US $50 per month unlimited broadband was only offered by one internet provider, the state owned PowerTel. Many would argue doesn’t really ‘need’ to make money. It wasn’t the best internet in town, largely because of congestion issues, but PowerTel afforded many small businesses and middle income earners an opportunity to have…
One of the interesting things presented at last week’s JumpStart event, was the rise in mobile penetration in Zimbabwe between 2006 and 2011. The actual significant rise started in 2009 but 2006 shows just how low it was just a little over 5 years ago, 848,000 subscribers.
We just got news that Zimbabwe Online (ZOL) has been acquired by the Liquid Telecommunications Group. ZOL is now officially part of the Liquid Telecom Group. From the information available to us so far, ZOL will remain an independent company in terms of branding and operations.
I had a chance to see the “hot” mobile phones in Wedza in all their shapes and sizes. The Chinese made models topped the list perhaps because of their key features – dual sim support, high audio output, multimedia support (ability to play a range of audio file formats, record audio/video clips and snap JPEG…
Good news like this press release travels fast. No sooner had it been published than Zimguardian picked it up and repeated the PR. It’s said if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. Eventually a big local daily newspaper, the NewsDay, picked the lie and amplified it yesterday. But in these connected…
Another exciting year in information technologies lies ahead with a lot of promise for the continued growth of the sector. Below, we provide our thoughts on what we think 2012 holds. It would be great to know what you the reader think in the comments.
Zimbabwe’s tele-density rose to 74.7% as 2011 came to a close. Mobile phone subscriber statistics we received from the Post and Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) recently show that all mobile phone operators registered an increase in subscribers since the last release of stats in September 2011.
At the beginning of 2011 we predicted that Zimbabwe would see internet and mobile commerce services launched in Zimbabwe. As the year came to close, it was certain we were right on target with the prediction: Econet launched EcoCash they extending the use to more than just remittances and airtime; Zimswitch confirmed to us in…
In 2010, Ecoweb (and Econet subsidiary) was first to come out with the message that they had launched a 4G internet service. The company had just launched its mobile WiMax platform April 2010; a first in Zimbabwe. Of course consumers had no idea what this 4G thing was. The real benefit a lot of people…
With less than two days left before the close of the year, we thought we’d post a listing of all the top stories we covered this year. This has been our busiest year since.
Back in October, NetOne announced to its postpaid (some call them contract) subscribers that its mobile broadband tests, which had been running before that date, had come to an end. NetOne invited the post paid subscribers to enable internet browsing on their lines and be charged US $40 for unlimited usage a month. Quite the…
Since the launch of its mobile broadband internet services, Telecel has maintained that the pricing, US 10 cents per megabyte of data, was for pilot testing purposes only. Part of that is of course the fact that they commenced the commercial bit of rolling out their internet without seeking the regulator’s approval and they had…