Africa: Satellite Going Through Its Fibre Moment - How This Will Help Africa Reach Beyond Fibre Networks to More Remote Areas

There are so many different technologies bringing connectivity from the sky or space and all are promising to provide cheaper connectivity. With the implantation of fibre networks… Read more »

Kenya: Tifa Research Pitches Passive Research As the Next Stage of Understanding Audience Behavior

The increase in the use of smartphones is beginning to revolutionize African TV audience research. Kenya's TIFA Research has been pioneering passive research as a way of improving… Read more »

Africa: Kymeta Targets Africa's 'On the Move' and Remote Business Cases With Its Mobile Satellite Antenna

Kymeta has produced satellite-based based products that will create both voice and data connectivity "on the move" and in remote places. It's a niche product but one that will have… Read more »

Zambia: Zambia's Public DTT Signal Distributor in Trouble - Market Seems Too Small to Make the Government's Loan Payments

DTT was always going to be hard to finance in Africa's smaller broadcast market's. Zambia's public DTT signal distributor TopStar - a joint venture between Government broadcaster… Read more »

Africa: Do the Right Thing - Two Key African Governments Make Clear Commitments to Liberalizing Their Telecoms Sectors

News in this week confirms that the tentative steps taken by Angola and Ethiopia to liberalize their telecoms sectors are now being turned into internationally recognized… Read more »

Africa: Solar Power Coming of Age for Sub-Saharan Africa's Remote Base Stations - Completely Replacing Maintenance-Heavy Diesel Generators

Once solar power was a corporate "virtue-signaling" project but with changes in cost and reliability, it is now making a pitch to replace the diesel generators that currently… Read more »

Mauritania: Mauritania On the Cusp of the Digital Change - Local Cloud Founder Yehdhih Ould Mohamed Moctar

There are a number of larger African country markets that have started the digital change with higher rates of web and app use. But there are other smaller markets where this… Read more »

Senegal: EXCAF Wants to Complete DTT Process in Senegal By the End of 2019 and Starts DTT Transition in Gambia for 2020

Three countries in West Africa have chosen to go the local route for the DTT switchover: Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. All of them have suffered teething problems or contractual… Read more »

South Africa: Looking for Mobile Money V2.0 - South African Start-Up Ukheshe Wants to Become the Universal Way of Doing Payments for the Informal Sector

Getting beyond basic mobile money services to mobile money V2.0 is difficult. Those that have the money have smartphones and those who don't have basic phones. The product needs… Read more »

Nigeria: Data Free Messaging Platform Moya Messenger's CEO Set to Roll-Out in Nigeria and Signs Partnership With MTN to Sell Its Services

biNu has gone from being was a successful content platform with optimized data access for featurephone with significant numbers in several African countries to being a B2B platform… Read more »

Kenya: New Report Shows That Digital Migration and Online Have Disrupted the Kenyan Media Landscape - Find Out the Winners and Losers

There have major changes in the Kenyan media landscape and a just published report by Reelforge and TIFA Research provides many useful insights into what's changed. Russell… Read more »

Uganda: Govt Seeks Disturbing Regulatory Internet Intervention

The Ugandan regulator has proposed a new licensing framework that would allow it to take control of the country's Internet Exchange Point. Russell Southwood looks at this latest… Read more »

Africa: Google and Facebook Get Into African Submarine Cables

The first generation of African submarine cable building is over and with the announcement of Google and Facebook cables, the second generation of cable building begins. Russell… Read more »

Tanzania: Parliament Passes a Law That Will Compel International Film-Makers to Have Their Raw Footage Vetted By Government... Say What?

Tanzania's Parliament passed a draft law last Thursday saying that international film-makers will have to submit the raw footage from any location shoot in the country to the… Read more »

Niger: Orange Pulls Out of Niger Over Tax Dispute - One of Likely Buyers Is a Tax Avoider Named in the Panama Papers

There is a tendency by African Governments to see mobile operators as a convenient cash cow that can be milked through taxes. The latest example is in Niger where two mobile… Read more »

Africa: Dynamic Spectrum Likely to Play a Key Role in African Regulation V2.00

Market changes are in danger of creating a situation where African regulation hits the buffers. With just over half of African countries having anything like true competition, now… Read more »

Africa: African Public Broadcasters Facing a Financial Crunch - Different Circumstances and Common Threads but a Worrying Trend

18 June 2019 Read more »

West Africa: New Step Taken Towards Trans-Sahara Fibre Link

One of the links in first east-west fibre route has been financed by the African Development Bank. It has agreed with the Government of Chad to provide US$32 million to underwrite… Read more »

South Africa: New Local SMS App Planned

Technologies change quickly but behavior changes much more slowly. SMS is still the default messaging platform for millions of Africans. But little attempt has been made to update… Read more »

Botswana: Making High-Quality TV

Everybody knows about Africa's high-profile production markets like Nigeria and South Africa but how does a production company thrive in a small market like Botswana? Russell… Read more »

Mali: New Players Take a Run At Creating Digital Pool Connecting Guinea, Mali and Sierra in Pilot Fibre Project

Indian giant Tata is working with a local West African entity to create cross-border connectivity, initially in West Africa and then elsewhere on the continent. Russell Southwood… Read more »

Cameroon: Former Camtel D-G Emmane Under Investigation for Corruption Allegations, Forbidden to Leave Country

Widely published corruption allegations against the former D-G Camtel provide an interesting snapshot of what can go wrong in state-owned telcos. Russell Southwood looks at the… Read more »

Africa: The Long and Winding Road to the DTT Switchover in Africa

Almost four years have passed since the original ITU deadline for the switchover to digital broadcasting in Africa, designed to free up spectrum, improve broadcast quality and… Read more »

Africa: The Vanishing Point for African Online Use - Why Mobile Apps Will Have a Tough Time Succeeding Africa

There's a great deal of news about the increase in the number of smartphones but not so much about the use of mobile apps in Africa. People talk a lot about how many times their… Read more »

Africa: AfricaXP Goes All Out to Beat the Market's Pay TV Blues By Developing Its Own Free-to-Air Satellite TV Platform, Premium.free

Kwese's withdrawal from the Sub-Saharan African pay TV market late last year was one of a long string of failures in this sector. Content distributor and linear channel creator… Read more »