Posted inMobile Money

Econet breaks EcoCash as interconnection dispute with Telecel continues

The smooth convenience of using mobile money for transfers and payments is exceptional. The idea of being able to send money to anyone that has a mobile phone and them being able to pick it up immediately in any part of the country is something that a few years ago wasn't imaginable. Anyone with a mobile phone!
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Mobile Phone - SMS - Zimbabwe, Mobile Penetration, SMS US hacked
Posted inConnectivity

Zimbabwe mobile operators directed to disconnect unregistered SIMs

There's apparently "an upsurge in the number of offensive and abusive calls and text messages generated from unregistered sim cards" in Zimbabwe, a POTRAZ statement said today citing the reason it was issuing a directive to all mobile operators to disconnect unregistered subscribers with immediate effect. It came a bit as a surprise as all along we thought the issue of unregistered sim cards had been sorted.
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Posted inMobile Money

Pay Kombi Fares with EcoCash: Adoption

The introduction of EcoCash payments in kombis was met by large scepticism in the market. Some of us doubted its practicality and questioned how the conductor was going to verify all the text messages and identify who made the payments. Surely the conductor doesn’t know everybody’s name and number. So does he have to check everybody’s ID. The cumbersome process of making a payment through EcoCash is also another point to consider
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What Zimbabweans are searching for on Google
Posted inConnectivity

What Zimbabweans are searching for on Google

Ever wondered what most people are searching for on Google? Well, it's possible to find that information using a Google tool called Trends. Using Google Trends, you can find what they whole world is searching for on the largest search engine ever created. But you can also drill down to a specific country, Zimbabwe say, and a specific period.
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Local electronics hardware manufacturer, Mukonitronics, hit by Chinese fakes
Posted inMiscellaneous

Local electronics hardware manufacturer, Mukonitronics, hit by Chinese fakes

Mukonitronics, a local electronics manufacturer - one of the few in Africa who design and manufacture industrial and consumer power products - contacted us recently to let us know they are currently fighting off clones from China. The company, whose founder we interviewed on this blog some time back, is known locally for durable surge protectors called M-Tron surge protectors, and according to them, this is the product that’s being cloned in China at a fraction of the cost that makes the genuine product appear needlessly expensive.
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No, WhatsApp’s failure to connect has nothing to do with elections
Posted inConnectivity

No, WhatsApp’s failure to connect has nothing to do with elections

So, since last night complaints from Econet subscribers have have been hitting our tips mailbox, the issue being that they couldn't WhatsApp anymore and that they suspected Econet "blocked WhatsApp". The reason, according to the emails, was basically that politicians had instructed them to do so to limit any communication as #ZimDecides.
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Econet / Telecel interconnection blackout enters 5th day. POTRAZ silent
Posted inConnectivity

Econet / Telecel interconnection blackout enters 5th day. POTRAZ silent

It's now day 5 since Econet last week severed mobile interconnection with Zimbabwe's second largest mobile operator, Telecel. Before that, Econet, the largest with more than 8 million subscribers, had been accused by Telecel of throttling voice calls from the network in a bid, they said, to frustrate subscribers into migrating 'back' to Econet. Econet didn't respond to the throttling allegation they responded to a licensing one.
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Gringo the Troublemakerq
Posted inConnectivity Miscellaneous

Lessons from the Gringo film

On the evening of independence day, 18 April, the Zimbabwean Shona film Gringo the Troublemaker by NAMA award winner writer Enock Chihombori premiered. The 1 hour 50 minutes production was based on the ever popular 1990s series “Gringo”. The reviews were excellent and the movie received a lot of praise from many critics. Yet almost three and half months later the film is still yet to recoup its $48 000 initial cash outlay.
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Web and mobile technology tools for the 2013 Zimbabwe elections
Posted inMiscellaneous

Web and mobile technology tools for the 2013 Zimbabwe elections

We've written in the past few weeks on technology tools that have launched to make convenient processes around elections like checking the voter's roll, finding the nearest polling station, and following the results. As there are a couple more out there that we haven't covered we thought we could just list them all in one post.
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It gets ugly as Econet disconnects Telecel Zimbabwe. Our brief thoughts
Posted inConnectivity

It gets ugly as Econet disconnects Telecel Zimbabwe. Our brief thoughts

Earlier today Econet released a statement, its response to the Telecel statement yesterday that basically accused them of throttling traffic. In the statement, which we posted in full here, Econet essentially said they are no under any obligation to have interconnection with Telecel as Telecel are an unlicensed operator. This because Telecel is still to renew its license.
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Posted inConnectivity

Telecel reports Econet to POTRAZ for throttling Telecel voice calls

A report in the NewsDay today says Telecel has reported Econet to the Zim telecommunications regulator, POTRAZ, allegedly for unfair business practices relating to not neutrally allowing calls from Telecel subscribers through to the Econet network. Before the report, some Telecel anonymous sources had indicated to the press (including us) that Econet is throttling calls from their network.
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