Posted inBroadband Connectivity
Broadband Forum Preview: How local content fuels broadband consumption
The saying that content is king precedes the internet and can likely be traced as far back as the age of Papyrus. Engaging, enriching and current content is what drives the information age. Once a local flavor is brought to the table, consumption patterns grow at an exponential rate.
Posted inConnectivity Startups
More than 3,100 hours of movies coming to Wabona
Last week, when we posted an article about Wabona’s new flat monthly subscription based model for their internet movie startup, we speculated that there may be issues getting content (or rights to put it on the net) for the startup as there still seems not much content on the site.
Posted inConnectivity
Facebook opens up: Now you can target Zimbabwe on Facebook
If you have tried to target Zimbabweans with Facebook ads in the past, (because social is king of audience numbers right now, and Facebook is right there at the top) you probably found, much to your disappointment, that Facebook wouldn't let it.
Posted inConnectivity
WIOCC completes submarine cables repairs
WIOCC, operators of the largest submarine cable on Africa's west coast, announced today that repairs on fibre cables between Egypt and France (which broke several weeks ago) have been completed.
Posted inConnectivity
Africom slashes device prices by as much as 71% for Zimbabwe Golf Open
The annual Zimbabwe Golf Open is always a great time (and place) to buy Africom gadgets. See, Africom always has a booth at the tournament and they basically sell devices at giveaway.
Posted inMiscellaneous
Shopping safely abroad using debit cards
Most of us have friends and relatives who lost money and valuables either on their way to and back from South Africa. Despite our well stocked shops, there are still some economic reasons for embarking on this perilous journey to shop in towns like Musina and Johannesburg especially if you are looking to purchase some IT related equipment.
Posted inConnectivity
Zimbabwe’s technology journey: The early years
Independence day is upon us and with it we are cause to reflect on our history. Colonization itself is viewed with universal disapproval whilst the only undisputed advantageous outcome of colonisation was the technology brought into the country as a result.
Posted inBroadband
Review: The Econet 3G mobile Wi-Fi device
Close to two weeks ago, we received a test unit of the Econet Huawei mobile Wi-Fi device for review. Being a small operation ourselves, we decided to start using it as our primary office connection since then so that we speak about the reliability, stability, speed and other things from a point of actually having needed to rely on it.
Posted inConnectivity
Zimbabwe Broadband Forum Preview: The Eassy undersea cable and national capacity
The EASSy undersea cable runs across Africa’s Eastern coastline and is operated by the WIOCC Consortium that includes Zimbabwe’s Telone. It was commissioned in July 2010 and covers a total footprint of over 50 000km, connects to 30 African countries and provides 4.7tbps of bandwidth.
Posted inConnectivity
WhatsApp now more popular globally than Twitter. Challenging Facebook on usage
It goes without saying especially locally, that WhatsApp is more popular than other social (or instant messaging services). We can’t even compare Twitter usage to that of WhatsApp in Zimbabwe.
Posted inConnectivity
IPaidABribe.org.zw to host anti-corruption Random Hacks of Kindness event
Tawanda Kembo, the founder of local Ushahidi based bribery reporting site, IPaidABribe.org.zw has announced that they will hosting a Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) event this month to have geeks hacking against corruption.
Posted inConnectivity
Internet movie startup Wabona moves to subscription based model
Wabona, a South African based online move startup founded by two Zimbabwean last year has moved from a per movie payment model to a monthly subscription based one. In an email to their customers, co-founders Simba Mabasha and Simukayi Makuna announced the change over the weekend.
Posted inConnectivity
Experience HIFA on mobile this year: Android app now available
A post on Facebook by local web & mobile app development company, C2 Media, just announced that an Android app for Zimbabwe’s biggest arts festival, HIFA is now live. The app is free. For many lovers of the annual festival (those on Android at least) this solves a huge information pain.
Posted inMobile Money
New Econet Services company a response to plateaued telecoms business
In October last year, it emerged that the Econet Wireless Group had formed a new company to drive the EcoCash mobile money service. Econet Services. The new company wasn’t “launched” or “announced” formally in the market, as far as we could tell at least. The change was treated subtly by Econet in as far as the market was concern.
Posted inConnectivity
Zimbabwe Broadband Forum Preview: How Kencall pioneered Kenya’s BPO sector
The year was 2001 and the world was still recovering from the dotcom crash. Amidst such instability, a Kenyan executive working in America was crafting a plan so audacious that everyone he told dismissed him for a dreamer.
Posted inConnectivity
Zimbabwe: The Pirate’s Bay?
We have all known it for a while now that Zimbabweans are some of the worst pirates of software on the planet, that we have an IT skills shortage, that we flunk maths, that we are always lagging behind in technology when compared to the best nations, that we have a negligible online market. Last week the World Economic Forum availed the numbers as proof.
Posted inMiscellaneous
With ZESA so unreliable, why aren’t we keen to produce our own power
Something that has always struck me as strange is that no matter how unreliable the national power company’s supply is, there's just not that many people that consider solar power an alternative. By the urban middle class, solar is regarded either as a rich people’s luxury, or, on the other extreme, a rural village utility.
Posted inConnectivity
About moving web hosts #techzim
To improve availability and speed of the site, we migrated Techzim to new hosts a few weeks ago. Last time we did this was about 2 years ago when we moved the site from local Zim hosts.
Posted inStartups
Lifestyle holdings launches dial-a-delivery ‘virtual shop’. It’s not an online shop
Reading through the Sunday Mail newspaper today we were met with an advert that, for second we believed was the launch of TN's online shops. Finally, we thought.
Posted inConnectivity
Alpha Media hosts digital media workshop, to launch new daily newspaper
Today, Alpha Media Holdings hosted a digital media workshop where they invited marketing professionals, advertising agency and fellow publishers to learn and discuss issues around publishing and advertising online.
