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 »

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 »