In 2010, Kenyan payments, money transfer and micro-financing service M-Pesa became the most successful mobile phone based financial service in the developing world, just three years after the launch by network operators Vodafone and Safaricom. Since then, while other developing markets such as the APAC and LATAM regions have dominated headlines, the African continent’s success...
telecommunication operators in Nigeria and other African countries are experiencing an increasing demand for their services. They noted that there would be need to invest more in infrastructure to meet the rising demand but fear that external funding might be difficult to secure. The operators, who spoke at the International Telecoms Week 2020 Live: Connectivity...
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the opening of AWS Africa (Cape Town) Region, effectively extending its datacentre footprint of 73 Availability Zones within 23 geographic regions globally. The launch in South Africa has been on the cards for some time with the company having announced its intention to launch a Region for Africa back...
Extensia and RZproducts have answered Africa’s call for a range of high quality and high available datacentre solutions that can be easily and quickly deployed and installed across Africa. The RZproducts product range is unique and manufactured to the highest European standards with ‘plug and play’ self-contained solutions catering for small office requirements to stand-alone...
A recent press statement by Huge Networks and Connection Telecom has unearthed a secret telecoms war between VoIP providers and big telecoms companies. In the statement, Huge Networks technical director Anthony Engelbrecht said call blocking by South Africa’s biggest network operators is negatively impacting South Africans. Engelbrecht said call blocking means many local telecoms customers...
Governments all over the world have been considering cellphone surveillance to help track and contain the spread of the coronavirus. In Italy, Germany and Austria, Reuters reports, telecoms companies say they are turning over data containing location information to public health officials, though aggregated and anonymized to prevent individuals from being identified. Other media reports...
There’s little reason to think 5G frequencies are any more harmful than other types of electromagnetic radiation, like visible light. EVEN AS CARRIERS around the world race to build 5G networks, some government officials are reaching for the throttle, citing fears that the new generation of wireless technology could pose health risks. Earlier this year the...
Over the weekend, the United Kingdom was host to a series of attacks on phone towers with at least 20 phone tower masts vandalized, and at least 3 of those towers set alight in a storm of ignorance and fear fueled by the spreading of fake news and misinformation, namely the 5G-Coronavirus conspiracy claim. Roughly, the conspiracy theory...
The American company OneWeb, which specializes in providing Internet by satellite, has declared bankruptcy. In a press release published on March 27, 2020, the company said that it was forced to do so because it could not find sufficient funding to continue its investments. However, the agreement for new funding was almost signed. But the appearance of...
Not surprisingly, two-thirds of the stories in this week’s e-letter are Covid-19 related. As with the ebola, the latest health crisis shines a light on the need to connect Africa’s unconnected. Health workers need to know where Covid-19 is spreading to and the economically disadvantaged need to be able to stay in touch with their...
