Africa: Start-Up Turn.io Upgrades Social Impact Messaging and Engagement to Smartphones

NGOs and other not-for-profits are beginning to migrate with their vulnerable, low-income users to social messaging apps like WhatsApp used on smartphones. Russell Southwood talks… Read more »

Africa: Discop 2019 Focuses On Free-to-Air Broadcasters Because They Are Still the Ones Delivering Mass Audiences Despite the Pay TV and VOD Hype

DISCOP's founder and CEO Patrick Zuchowicki says that this year's event will be focused on providing profile and business opportunities for Africa's Free-To-Air broadcasters,… Read more »

Africa: Balancing Act's News Update Reaches Its 1000th Issue - Looking Back Over Almost 20 Years and Looking Forward to What Happens Next

1 November 2019 Read more »

Africa: The Transition to E-SIMs Has Arrived in Africa - Digitalizing the Customer Experience and Getting Rid of Multiple Plastic SIMs

eSIMs are beginning to arrive in Africa and it may not be long before they start to displace traditional plastic SIMs. It will probably start on high-end phones and other non phone… Read more »

Africa: Vodacom Rolls Out Upstream's Free Data Platform Zero-D As Flex

Running out of mobile data is a cliff-edge moment: you either buy more if you can afford it or wait if you can't. Upstream's Zero-D is a kind of free data purgatory before you get… Read more »

Ethiopia: SES and AEB Launch New Satellite Platform in Ethiopia With 33 Channels, 12 of Which Are in HD - Looking for Hybrid Business Models

The launch of the Ethiosat platform is another strong signal that the Ethiopian broadcast market is heading towards full liberalization. Russell Southwood spoke to Clint Brown, VP… Read more »

East Africa: New Carrier Neutral Cable Will Be Complete By 2021

The recently announced PEACE cable adds another international link to Africa that is actually being built rather than being just at the planning stage. Russell Southwood looks at… Read more »

Djibouti: Telecoms Vendor Ericsson's Foreign Corrupt Practices Fine of Around U.S.$1 Billion Puts the Spotlight On Djibouti Telecom

Every few years a corruption case under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act blows the lid off Africa's often seamy way of doing business in the telecoms sector. Russell Southwood… Read more »

Namibia: Crisis At Namibia's Public Broadcaster Spreads As It Turns Off Two Other Private TV Channels

In June this year I wrote about the financial crisis affecting four of Africa's public broadcasters - SABC (South Africa), KBC (Kenya), UBC (Uganda) and ZBC (Zambia) (see link:… Read more »

Nigeria: Logistics Aggregator Kobo360 to Expand Out of Nigeria to Neighboring Countries

The digital transformation of the logistics business in Africa will be good business for telcos and ISPs. Multiple transactions through the new platforms will require cloud… Read more »

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 »