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Why Zimbabwe doesn’t have Google Global Cache yet
When we spoke to the Zimbabwe Internet Service Providers Association (ZISPA) chairman Troy Prinsloo some several weeks ago for the domain registration article, he mentioned that last year Google approached ZISPA with a proposal to have a Google Global Cache (GGC) in Zimbabwe. ZISPA’s response to Google, he said, was ‘no thank you’.
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ZimSwitch to launch mobile banking platform this month
This week, we received communication from ZimSwitch that the ZimSwitch Mobile platform will be rolling out to the first wave of ‘ZimSwitch Ready’ banks this month and that more banks will follow “hot on their trails”.
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NetOne to use Zimpost branch network for OneWallet mobile money
In January, NetOne announced the launch of the OneWallet mobile money service to stakeholders. This was followed two months later with the announcement that Gemalto, an international digital security company, was deploying a mobile money transfer solution for the OneWallet service.
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Domain registration in Zimbabwe: Interview with ZISPA chairman
We promised to post an interview we had with current ZISPA chairman, Troy Prinsloo, on these issues. We had it a couple of weeks ago. It’s a long interview and we had to cut out parts we felt didn’t contribute much to the subject. It still remained long so if you don’t have the time…
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Africa’s Telecoms Titans: France Telecom-Orange
Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, the world’s 5th largest mobile operator by subscribers. France Telecom is a converged communications provider with a large presence in the mobile space and diverse fixed line, content, infrastructure, venture capital and value added services. The operator’s roots stretch back to the 18th century. It has evolved…
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The difficulties of registering a local domain in Zimbabwe
The need to have local Zimbabwean content on the internet has been widely discussed. The main idea being that the internet will become more relevant to locals if it has content people have traditionally consumed on platforms like TV, radio, newspapers, books and so forth.
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NetOne secures USD 60m funding, to launch mobile broadband by year end
NewsDay, reports that state owned mobile network operator NetOne has secured US$ 60 million for mobile broadband services. According to the paper, the funds have been sourced from China Export-Import Bank, Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ), CBZ Bank and BancABC.
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We have 3.9G technology, says Spiritage Communications
Speaking at a Computer Society of Zimbabwe function yesterday, Spiritage Communications Managing Director Mr. Kangai Maukazuva disclosed the company has deployed a 3.9G network. Maukazuva was presenting the topic “Communication technologies for the future” to a huge group of information technology professionals. The presentation centered on the evolution in telecommunications to next generation networks (NGNs).
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Telecel offers free data for every voice credit purchase
Recently, Telecel introduced a voice for data promotion. For every $1 worth of airtime purchased, subscribers receive $1 worth of data for free. The company has not yet rolled out […]
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The Brodacom voice and data tariffs. As low as Africom’s
Going to the Spiritage offices physically is what we had to do to get the tariffs for below. The tariffs are basically the same as what was published by Valley Technologies back in April.
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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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Spiritage Introduces Brodacom; Mobile voice telephony and 4G Internet
Today, Spiritage Group introduced Brodacom, its new company that will offer new voice telephony and broadband internet services. A teaser advert appeared in the local papers yesterday and we incorrectly attributed the new services to Valley Technologies, a Spiritage owned internet access provider. And as we have learned today, the services are actually under the…
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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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Dandemutande speaks
After last week’s announcement of Utande’s connection to the SEACOM undersea cable along Zimbabwe’s border with Mozambique, we visited the company for more information. Prior to this, efforts to get even the slightest of a whisper from Utande were mostly unsuccessful, apparently due to acquisition negotiations with now majority shareholder, Masawara plc. We were thus…
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SEACOM: Mozambique agrees to Zim connection
Zimbabwe is poised to benefit from a deal announced yesterday between SEACOM and Telecomunicacoes de Mocambique (TDM), Mozambique’s telecoms parastatal. The company has been granted the go ahead to connect our landlocked country to the undersea cable. This is expected to have a positive impact on corporate and individual consumers in the not too distant…
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Ubuntu and choosing your Zim ISP
In my previous article I mentioned the fact that Ubuntu is not much fun without the Internet. It has been my experience that not all Internet Service Providers (ISP) are the same and that there are some caveats for a Zimbabwean Ubuntu user/administrator when it comes to either choosing an ISP or administering his system…
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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…
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ZOL sets the bar higher, introduces $60 ‘unlimited’ broadband
These are exciting times for people looking for more affordable bandwidth. Zimbabwe Online (ZOL), one of Zimbabwe’s largest ISPs, has introduced a low priced broadband product called ZOLite.
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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.
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How mobile broadband changed everything
Mobile broadband has had a huge positive impact on the connectivity landscape in Zimbabwe. There’s more choice now, more competition, and so many positive outcomes from that. It’s a watershed moment in the country’s connectivity history. Of course, right now the benefits are still clouded by the ridiculous mobile broadband pricing by some operators, but…