eTXT logo
Posted inBroadband Connectivity

The eTXT core system wins awards

The ForgetMeNot Africa system powering Econet’s eTXT service won a Meffy’s award last week in the category for “Best Innovation in a Mobile First Market”. In the category, providers of mobile services and applications are awarded for successful service models in regions of growth where consumers use mobile devices as their first and primary means of internet access.
Posted inConnectivity

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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Posted inConnectivity

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 network. While it is good that Econet Capital has been playing an investor role in the local financial markets, it has not benefited Econet Wireless nor public investors but actually damaged its brand equity.
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Huawei Tablet PC launched in SA. Africa calling
Posted inConnectivity

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 internationally and intends to build on this while aggressively competing on pricing.
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Posted inMiscellaneous Podcasts

Green Fuel interview podcast

This post is part of the report back for Techzim's tour to Chisumbanje and Middle Sabi, where Green Fuel is setting up a large scale Ethanol production . We managed to sit down for an interview (over lunch) with Graeme Smith who is the company’s GM. Finding another time would have been disastrous due to his busy schedule and the needle eye timeframe of our tour.
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airtel-logo
Posted inConnectivity

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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ethanol-plant
Posted inMiscellaneous

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 carpet of Sugarcane. This was the perfect arrival, much like reaching an oasis in a desert as this part of Zimbabwe’s lowveld is semi-arid.
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gikko.net
Posted inConnectivity Startups

Startup focus: Gikko.net and your wallet

Winston Taylor, founder of the relatively new startup, Gikko.net came by the office last week Friday for a short discussion about his startup. We are always excited about local startups of all shapes and sizes and quickly delved into his. To begin with, Gikko.net is a month old trading division of Rollout Ads.
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clinton russel
Posted inConnectivity

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 glad to meet Colin Franco, the company’s chief technical officer, and Russell Clinton the Utande CEO, for a discussion and tour of the Utande data centre.
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How to: Ubuntu and the Intex wireless adapter
Posted inConnectivity How To

How to: Ubuntu and the Intex wireless adapter

A few months ago a friend lend me his laptop and I did what I always do; partitioned it and installed the latest Ubuntu operating system. It was a pretty old machine so the built in wireless card was no good. So I decided to do a little shopping and I was captivated by the Intex usb wireless adapter: it is cheap (about $14 in most shops) and portable (no larger than a flash disk). The downside, as I later discovered the hard way, is that this adapter requires a little tweaking to work with Ubuntu.
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Global roundup – this week’s top stories
Posted inConnectivity

Global roundup – this week’s top stories

The big news this week is obviously Google Plus, Google’s new social networking service. It generally seems to be liked so far. Using it for a just a few hours, our first impression is that the service is a serious competitor and performs way better than Facebook on many fronts, especially on sharing stuff with just the right group of friends.
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Dandemutande finally emerges
Posted inBroadband Connectivity

Dandemutande finally emerges

In a positive development to Zimbabwe’s ICT sector, one of the 15 licensed IAPs has finally emerged. Dandemutande, a part of Telerix Communications (50%owned by Masawara PLC) published an advertorial to all local media outlining its current accomplishments and intentions. According to the release the company (under its Utande division) has connected to the SEACOM cable on the coast of Mozambique at a cost of $9 million.
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Posted inBroadband

Telecel reimburses subscribers for mobile broadband charged without POTRAZ approval

At the beginning of May, we posted an article titled “Telecel started the paid broadband test without POTRAZ approval?”. The issue was that Telecel was charging customers for broadband before POTRAZ had given the green light. In fact they hadn’t even asked for approval. We contacted Telecel about this and they basically said it wasn’t an issue. Here’s what they told us:
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Pictures: The Green Fuel Chisumbanje site tour
Posted inConnectivity

Pictures: The Green Fuel Chisumbanje site tour

After setting off on a 500km journey this morning, we arrived in Chisumbanje and Middle Sabi to witness sheer miracles at work. Green Fuel Zimbabwe is hard at work building Africa’s biggest ethanol plant. We’re still touring the place and managed to get a good VSAT connection to upload the following pictures:
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VimpelCom logo
Posted inConnectivity

VimpelCom Group: Telecel’s new Russian Parent

We’ve just found out that VimpelCom; the Russian based telecom’s giant recently merged with Egypt’s Orascom. What this effectively means is that Telecel Zimbabwe is now part of the world’s sixth largest mobile services group (with over 186 million subscribers worldwide). Orascom has a 60% stake in Telecel Zimbabwe. The local operation falls into the Orasom-VimpelCom group’s African interests along with Leo (Namibia), Telecel (Burundi & Central African Republic), Djeezy (Algeria), and Mobinil (Egypt).
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Posted inBroadband How To

How to: Ubuntu and mobile broadband connectivity

I have said elsewhere in the series that the Ubuntu experience is not complete unless you have internet; good internet I mean. In addition, I provided a guide to choosing your ISP. In this article I will provide you with a guide to connecting to the internet using mobile broadband (the dongles) but before doing so I must expressly say three things:
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