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Econet vs Trustco: High Court hands down interim order against Econet
We’ve just received news that the High Court of Zimbabwe handed down an interim order against Econet in response to Trustco’s application for an interdict last month. The interdict sought to enforce Econet’s compliance with the Ecolife contractual obligations and to prohibit the company from infringing on Trustco’s intellectual property apparently by deploying the same…
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SEACOM invests US14.7 million in terrestrial fibre in SA
Yesterday, the undersea fibre cable system operator, SEACOM, announced it has invested some US$14.7 million in terrestrial fibre infrastructure in South Africa. The investment is mainly in equipment and fibre links connecting SEACOM’s landing station in Kwazulu Natal and some Point of Presence in Gauteng. The fibre links have been purchased from Dark Fibre Africa,…
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Dzikwa Trust: Finland’s contribution towards grassroots ICT
Techzim recently visited the Dzikwa Community Centre in Dzivarasekwa, where an orphanage and ICT development initiative has been setup. At the time of our visit, the centre did not have an internet connection, however we believe something is being done about this. After the tour, we were able to get in touch with Anu Ala-Rantala…
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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…
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TelOne not aware of MTNL acquisition “arrangement”
Two days ago, an Indian publication, The Economic Times, reported that Indian state owned telecoms firm, MTNL, was eying a 51% stake in TelOne. We did a story on that here.
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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.
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Indian telecoms firm, MTNL, negotiating for a 51% stake in TelOne
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), an Indian state owned telecoms firm, is reportedly considering acquiring a stake in TelOne. An Indian publication, The Economic Times revealed today that MTNL is eying a 51% stake in Zimbabwe’s sole fixed line operator.
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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…
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Econet chairman: Cut us some slack, we’re doing the best we can
Econet had an AGM on Friday which brought out very interesting information, Newsday has a story on this. For starters NetOne and TelOne reportedly owe a collective $70million; the said debt has been outstanding for a while now such that Econet has approached government to assist with recovering it. TelOne is acknowledged as admitting its…
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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…
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Internet provider emerges to offer 4G services
Valley Technologies, one of Zimbabwe’s 15 licensed IAPs, has started an ad campaign to launch its 4G internet services. A local teaser ad titled “What would you expect from a […]
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How to: Using a CDMA modem to connect to the internet in Ubuntu
Two weeks ago, I posted an article on how to connect to the internet using mobile broadband (the dongles) in this Ubuntu How-to series of articles. The article solicited some great comments from readers with some comments providing alternative methods.
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Africom quietly interconnects with Econet
When Africom launched its mobile phone service last month, it conspicuously lacked one thing any mobile operator needs to offer voice – Interconnection to other operators. The company only had live interconnection to the country’s smallest mobile operator (by number of subscribers), Telecel. The interconnection deal that matters most, the Econet one, wasn’t done yet.
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Econet offloads Rainbow Tourism Group – hopefully to focus on core business
According to a press release we received on Thursday afternoon, Econet Wireless has sold its shareholding in Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG). A senior Econet Wireless Group Executive, Tracy Mpofu, confirmed the sale. Techzim believes this is a progressive move on the part of Econet as it should be focused on improving the quality of its…
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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…
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Brian Herlihy: SEACOM to provide IP services to Business Service Providers in Zim, Malawi
Techzim this week reached out to SEACOM chief executive, Brian Herlihy, on the recent announcement of the agreement with TDM for a direct link into landlocked countries, Zimbabwe and Malawi. In our communication with the SEACOM front man, he explained how SEACOM plans to provide more than just a basic international fibre network in these…
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Africa’s Telecoms Titans: Airtel Africa
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.
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An overview of the Chisumbanje Green Fuel ethanol project
Having woken up at 3am to make the trip to Chisumbanje and Middle Sabi, we arrived at about 10am courtesy of our host- Lilian Muungani (Green Fuel’s communications manager) who led the way in her bakkie. After snaking through numerous twists and turns (including ‘crossing’ the historic Birchenough Bridge) we eventually descended on an endless…