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 »

Gambia: Orange Makes a Back-Door Entry Into the Gambian Market and Causes Much Tongue Wagging

Orange has taken the unusual step of buying a Gambian company with an ISP license to its name in order to enter the market. The normal front door would be to buy an existing… Read more »

Ghana: The Challenges of Being a Small ISP in Ghana

Being a small ISP in Sub-Saharan Africa is tough in a world dominated by MNOs. This week Russell Southwood talks to the new Managing Director of AfricaOnline Ghana about how the… Read more »

Uganda: Ugandan Broadcast Regulator Says It Will Enforce 70% Local Content Quota By May 2019

Many African countries have local content quotas but they are more honored in the breach than in the observance. This week saw Ugandan broadcast regulator step up and announce that… Read more »

Angola: Angolan President Cancels Fourth Mobile Licence After Shareholding Controversy

Late this afternoon (18 April 2019) The Angolan President João Lourenço cancelled the awarding of the fourth mobile licence to a shell company with a General as its… Read more »

Central African Republic: Central African Fibre Links Beginning to Fall Into Place With the Soon-to-Be Realised

What was once Africa's slowest cross-border project is finally beginning to gather some pace. If recent announcements by politicians turn into reality, there could soon be a new… Read more »

Africa: Understanding the Impact of Social Media and Online Media Consumption

It's taken four years to gather data from a whole host of new sources to produce probably the most detailed description yet of online behaviour in Sub-Saharan Africa. The author… Read more »

Africa: Pinning Down Internet Use Behavior and Buying Habits in Sub-Saharan Africa - New Report Brings Together Wide Range of Data

It's taken four years to gather data from a whole host of new sources to produce probably the most detailed description yet of online behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa. The author… Read more »

Africa: Moving From Vas to Visual Notification Ads - Supa Pesa Takes On a Major Fmcg Brand to Compete With the Likes of Facebook and Google

Digital advertising on African mobile phones has the potential to become a huge business. Mobiles are the most owned devices after radios and well ahead of TVs. Visual Notification… Read more »

Ghana: Knet's Richard Hlomador On Completing the DTT Transition in Ghana and His Wider Ambitions to Roll-Out DTT and OTT Platforms Elsewhere in Africa

The road to Sub-Saharan Africa's DTT transition has never been straight but against all the odds Ghana is nearing completion. The transition has been completed by a Ghanaian… Read more »

Africa: African Mobile Operators Aren't Capitalising On 4G Connectivity and As a Result the Whole Ecosystem Is Suffering

Since 2012 46 countries across Africa have seen at least one 4G mobile network commercially launched. In the next 12 months that is expected to rise to 51 countries. Mobile… Read more »

Africa: Freeconferencecall.com Looks to Expand Its Footprint in Africa and Can Offer Broadcast Calls to 5,000 People

As telecoms moves to over-the-top data services it's interesting to see how legacy interconnect arrangements have been used to build a free conference calling service. Russell… Read more »

Africa: Makhulu Media Shoots Pioneering VR Film to Get Health Clinic Workers and Young People Wanting an HIV Test to 'Step Into Each Other's Shoes'

Virtual Reality (VR) is still a bit of a technology in search of a role. But South Africa film production company Makhulu Media have used it to craft a very specific solution to a… Read more »

Africa: New Report Identifies the Heroes and Villains of Africa's Mobile Data Pricing and Why Women Are Being Excluded

Sub-Saharan Africa desperately needs mobile data pricing that matches the pockets of the mass market that should be using it. The latest annual release from research company Cable… Read more »

Morocco: The Long Plod of Local Loop Unbundling or a Short, Sharp Dose of Private Sector Innovation?

With a few exceptions, Sub-Saharan Africa's broadband markets are stuck. No-one currently has the capital or the focus to create a low-cost, high capacity mass market broadband… Read more »

Morocco: The Long Plod of Local Loop Unbundling or a Short, Sharp Dose of Private Sector Innovation?

With a few exceptions, Sub-Saharan Africa's broadband markets are stuck. No-one currently has the capital or the focus to create a low-cost, high capacity mass market broadband… Read more »

Africa: New Study Focuses On How to Reach Youth - What Share of the Youth Market Have You Got?

A new study looks at what youth in Sub-Saharan Africa does, thinks and feels. Africa's traditional media is in danger of losing its youth audiences to social media. The… Read more »

Cote d'Ivoire: Raising Mobile Money Rates By Adding Taxes Is Killing the Golden Goose

Africa's cash-strapped governments have a nasty habit of taxing anything that moves, particularly when it involves big money. In January 2016 the Ivorian Government decided to… Read more »

Africa: Toomuchwifi CEO Speaks on Better Data Deals for 'Have-Nots'

Sub-Saharan Africa's data prices for users are all over the place and bear no relation to individual wealth in different countries. As a result, there are a number of companies… Read more »

Kenya: #MsPresident Reality TV Series Gets Down to the Final 40

Edutainment reality TV shows nearly always do remarkably well and the new Ms President series in Kenya appears to be no exception. Kenyans often seem obsessed by electoral politics… Read more »

Senegal: Sirius Telecom Kicks Off the MVNO Process By Promising a June Launch, Two Other MVNOs Will Follow

In a market dominated by Orange, Senegal's regulator has chosen to try and add more competition by adding three 4G ISPs (see issue 920: ) and now three new MVNO operators. Russell… Read more »

Africa: Boosting Fibre-To-The-Home Internet

As mobile operators pivot their business to a more data centric future, lowering their CAPEX through shared infrastructure becomes ever more important. One of the key players -… Read more »

Ethiopia: EBS Seizes the Number One Audience Position Over October-December 2018 According to New Research Data

The newly liberalized airwaves in Ethiopia are seeing a battle royal among 14 TV channels. Russell Southwood picks over the market research data from WAAS International. Read more »

Africa: biNu 2.0 - the Data Free Challenger to Whatsapp

A number of different start-ups have tried creating a data-free access service for African customers without success. biNu's Co-founder and CEO Gour Lentell is a veteran and… Read more »