Founded in February 2005 and after 8 years in operation today YouTube announced it has hit a billion unique active users monthly since its launch.

YouTube has been recording over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month  and 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute and one out of every two people on the internet visits YouTube with a viewership of roughly ten super Bowl audiences reach.

In comparison with the country’s population YouTube will be the third largest country in the world after China and India or simply 25 times the size of Kenya. If going with the most viewed videos PSY would have to perform in front of packed Nou camp stadium 11k times which is magical.

The streaming of the Olympics to YouTube users boosted the number of users with Kenya being among the most growing user base country and the famous universe free fall record breaking event. The team at YouTube appreciated all aspiring filmmakers, next great pop musicians and all its fans in the world that tune in, subscribe and share their favorite videos with the whole world. Today marks great step by YouTube which just hit a billion monthly users and micro blogging site twitter which celebrates 7 years since launch but the bad news is when will Arsenal celebrate its milestone too…?

YouTube is good news to ad agencies and Google ads business.

The communication Commission of Nigeria has announced that the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) programme which had been planned for June last year but failed will now be launched on 26th of March this year.

The NCC Director of Public Affairs Tony Ojobo, said that the launch would be flagged off by the end of this month as this would be in the same accord with the NCC’s goal of launching MNP in the first quarter of 2013.

He pointed out that MNP would enable subscribers to port from one service provider to another without losing their numbers. He explained the procedure saying that a user would go to the customer service centre of the network one wants to port to and take with them a photo ID,and fill in forms and all data will be recorded in the centre database.

According to Ojobo the move complements SIM registration exercise that was done last year. He added that the “verification of all the SIMs that have been registered would be done next month to ascertain any discrepancies arising from the registration exercise and the affected subscribers will then receive an SMS requesting them to go to a service centre to rectify the mistakes.”

Ojobo said the process of porting would take a maximum of 48 hours from the time its initiated to the to the point where the number is functional through the new service provider.

Facebook is reportedly running a small test of a new notification that reminds users to post something to their profiles if they haven’t been active in a while, fast company reported earlier on.

The report comes after venture capitalist Bijan tweeted out the alert he received on his phone. The response from the followers was not positive.

Facebook has been adding features slowly by slowly. Most of the features are from Hackathons that are normally undertaken by the engineers in the company. Of late after the changing of the newsfeed design and timeline, Facebook as added ability to send images through message in the mobile version.

Facebook growth is limited to retention of the billion users and acquiring more of them and mobile is powerful. The introduction of reminders will be effective in retaining active members and increasing their activity rate .

Tecno and Zalego are working together to reward the best entries in the Afmobi developer challenge this Saturday.

Zalego Ltd is a technology solutions firm specializing in mobile software development, value addition, consultancy and empowerment through training where as Tecno Telcom Ltd is a comprehensive mobile phone manufacturer specializing in R&D, manufacturing, sales and service and boasts itself as one of the major mobile phone suppliers in the world and a leading mobile phone manufacturer in China. The firm has plans to launch mid-end smartphones mid this year. To complement the strategy, Tecno is looking for local apps which will drive uptake of its phones.

Recently, the firm put up an app contest through the continent known as Afmobi Developer Challenge which is basically looking for Java apps for Tecno’s low end devices and Android apps for Tecno’s smartphones.The contest is especially interested in Swahili apps for Kenya, Amharic apps for Ethiopia and Hausa apps for Nigeria.

In the partnership, Zalego will give free application development training to interested developers.The ultimate goal of the contest is to expose the hidden talent within the Kenyan developer community.

At an event that will take place at Kenyatta University on 23th March this year,the two firms will offer cash and phone rewards to the top developers who will take home Ksh. 200,000 and an Android phone. The runners up will receive KSh. 150,000 and an Android handset while the third place gets KSh. 100,000 and an Android phone.Other top 10 entries will also win a Tecno Android smartphone each.

Tecno has plans to introduce new Android devices later this year including an Android-4-based device to retail at approximately KSh. 10,000. Other planned devices include a 5 inch low-resolution smartphone and a high end smartphone, similarly sized to the Samsung Galaxy S4, that will retail at between KSh. 20,000 to KSh. 25,000.

Zanzibar Telecom Ltd. (ZANTEL) has launched a promotion dubbed ’MIMINA’ a platform which will allow subscribers to enjoy free calls for some minutes across all networks, internet access and SMS for 24 hours for just 3,499/-.This translates into 200/- a day where subscribers will get 10 free Mins talk time, 10 SMS and 10 MB GPRS valid for one day.

The offer will provide subscribers 200 minutes of airtime to all networks, 200 SMS and 200MB internet bundle for 5 days. To register for the package subscribers will have to dial *149*15#.

According to Zantel Chief Commercial Officer, Mr Sajid Khan, the offer will allow customers access information and connect to others at affordable rates. He further said that the company intends to make communications accessible to all Tanzanians regardless of their economic status.

The offer which is available only to prepaid customers aims at bringing more subscribers on board as well as increase internet use through mobile phones.

The Standard Chartered Bank Tanzania has announced plans to expand and upgrade its automated teller machines (ATMs) network in strategic locations, including those in Arusha.

While addressing customers in Arusha,Ms Liz Lloyd, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer said, “a number of them will be upgraded to embrace latest technology that supports both cash and cheque deposits.”

According to Ms Llyod, plans are under way to start the first electronic banking unit which would allow its customers to enjoy enhanced internet banking services.In addition, the bank has upgraded its head office branch and set up a priority banking centre geared towards offering a comfortable and functional banking setting.

MS Llyod added that the bank will soon be re-opening these state-of-the-art banking premises She further pointed out that Standard Chartered was the first financial institution in Tanzania to introduce ATM machine.

The initiatives are a follow up to the recently introduced visa electronic debit card, the visa infinite card, and premium banking -a service concept focused on high net worth individuals which allows these customers to experience personalised and convenient banking. Other activities include web banking services for corporate, the supply chain financing product and the Diva account Specifically for women

The bank is currently positioning itself to open 100 new branches in the continent as well as expanding the employee base in Tanzania and elsewhere.

Orange Telecommunications Company has introduced the first ever 3G+ network in Central African Republic.

Patrick Benon,CEO of Orange Central Africa Republic,said, “Orange is now the first operator to operate a 3G + network in Central African Republic, and it reinforces our position as an innovative operator.”

According to the company , the launch marks fastest mobile internet connectivity the region has ever had. The 3G + is 10 times faster than EDGE. With a flow rate up to 21 Mega bits per second (Mbps), 3G+ is the most powerful and paves a way to a world of innovative services

The launch of the 3G + will allow subscribers to access their favorite matches , football championships on their mobile with mobile TV and in addition a user can even see their partner in a call with videophone.

Are you hungry? Need food delivered to your doorstep? Yum.co.ke,  a local Kenyan startup founded by Jake Goldberg and Mike Hudson from personal experience.They were disappointed with the few delivery options when ordering food from their favorite restaurants  and saw an opportunity to help Kenyan restaurants to reach a bigger customer base hence yum was born.

You simply place an order by going the site yum.co.ke and choose location. A list of restaurants available in the location will be displayed; the user browses through the menus, finds a dish they would like, adds to the cart and makes a purchase directly online with available options for payment MPesa, credit cards and payment on delivery. Yum delivers your order in under 45minutes.

They communicate with the restaurant after the purchase immediately and ensure the food is delivered to the customer as soon as possible. The startup has an all round delivery service which is very active and delivers currently  to a few neighborhoods in the city.

The startup is growing at a promising rate with over 1000likes on Facebook and already has a huge number of returning customers who use the service daily. They are constantly adding new restaurants into their portfolio with new menus like Brew Bistro Terrace Lounge, Kenchic,-Urban Spoon and Rendezvous food menu.

Yum has  a wide range of meals covering large price as low as Ksh 200 Swahili vegetable stews to yummy ksh.1950 king prawns and delivers on Sundays too.

So far the company has been boot trapped with expansion plans to all over Kenya but first with exhausting the capital city Nairobi. Yum what’s your favorite meal delivered right to your doorstep, get started yum.co.ke

However, Yum is not alone in the market as a food delivery service, Rocket Internet’s Hellofood launched late last year opens beautiful competition in the market. Several local startups and even restaurants have joined the food delivery band too.

Samsung

Electronics Company Africa today launched a Solar Powered Health Centre model at its 2013 Samsung Africa Forum in Cape Town, South Africa. The move marks a step towards a large-scale medical initiative on the continent.

According to Samsung ,the mobile centres are built for use in remote rural areas, and aim at eliminating the economic and geographic barriers that prevent people across Africa from obtaining quality medical treatment.

The centres will move progressively from one area to the next providing a range of eye, ear, blood and dental medical services to the public.

A report by World Bank shows that, more than 60% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa live in rural areas. These people often lack the time and resources to reach clinics for proactive medical care, and particularly if they are ill and unable to make long journeys. In South Africa, only approximately 20% of the population is served by private medical schemes, with the public health sector struggling to cater to the remaining 80% of the population

Ntulule Tshenye,The Business-to-Government and Corporate Citizenship Lead for Samsung Africa says, “We have been providing medical services to rural areas in Africa for a few years now through our annual Employee Volunteer Programmes.This experience has shown us how desperately medical treatment is needed across the continent, and inspired us to develop a sustainable and innovative solution to reach the people who need it most. While our CSR strategy in Africa is largely focused on education, our efforts to enrich lives will not be felt if people’s basic needs, such as access to healthcare, are not met.”

Samsung therefore seeks to reach one million people through its Solar Powered Health Centres by 2015.

The core activities of the initiative will include screening people to establish conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, tooth decay and cataracts.

In addition, the centres will educate communities on health issues and encouraging people to do tests as preventative measure. Samsung’s partners will provide medical products to support this project, including the Department of Health and pharmaceutical companies. The company will also work with medical universities, and organisations that are involved in health care like World Vision, and Doctors without Borders.

Mobile operators in zimbabwe will be charged USD180 million as compared to the current charges at US $100 million to $180 million for a new operating licence.

Current licences are due for expire in June this year, and therefore the Ministry of Transport and Communication is in a process to issue new 15 year converged licences that would allow them extend their services.

The new framework would require that the operators share infrastructure to cut on operating costs and tariffs.

According to the Finance minister Tendai Biti, the licencing system will move away from the current system that awards two licences; one for GSM-mobile and data services.

Plans are underway for the ICT Ministry of Egypt to award a tender for a specialised ICT training programme to students in Egypt. Sixteen training companies have been considered to support 8 specialised training tracks for around 720 students.
Atef Helmy, the Minister of Communications and Information

Technology, has already discussed with the training companies on the proposed programme. The meetings was basically focused on the framework of implementing the Egyptian Information Society Initiative, intending to prepare fresh graduates in Egypt by refining their technological skills to enable them to keep up with developments in ICT.

The training will center on Microsoft databases, Oracle databases, UNIX and Linux programs, communication networks infrastructure and security systems, Java mobile applications, web application development, e-commerce software and graphic application development.

Rovio Entertainment,the Finish game developer and entertainment company behind the Angry Birds mobile games has been positioning itself as an entertainment company on the level of Disney—complete with an animation studio, theme park, book business and plush toys. And on March 16 and 17 the company will launch the Angry Birds Toon video series

Michele Tobin, Rovio’s head of brand partnerships and advertising for the Americas, said “We view ourselves as the media company for the connected device era. Considering that Angry Birds apps have been downloaded 1.7 billion times and reach 263 million monthly active users, Rovio has the stats to back up such a claim.”

In keeping with that Disney 3.0 position, Rovio will be distributing Angry Birds Toons through a new channel being added to the Angry Birds smartphone and tablet apps, as well as multiple video and TV distribution outlets. In the U.S, the new show—which goes into Angry Birds’ characters backstories on the fictional Piggy Island—will be available via Comcast’s Xfinity on-demand service and Samsung Smart TVs, and will eventually be available through Roku and other connected devices.

However, Rovio’s YouTube Channel, which has received over a billion video views, will not be an initial distribution vehicle, but Tobin made it clear that the video platform could be in the cards for the future.

Rovio seeks to adopt a more traditional scheduling system. A single 2 minute 45 second episode will air each weekend, first hitting TV on Saturday and then rolling out to the mobile and tablet Angry Birds apps on Sunday

The series will be distributed traditionally through TV network partners outside the U.S. (such as Cartoon Network in India)

According to Tobin, The company has a very large, highly engaged audience, and they will continue to give the fans what they want and also bring them new and exciting content, citing a 97 percent brand awareness stat for the brand in China.

Tobin says,”Given the series’ potential reach (the apps have been downloaded by 263 million users) Activision, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures and BlackBerry are the series’ four launch brands,and other advertisers will be will be incorporated before all 52 episodes air.”

In bid to fulfill its undertaking to provide the Cameroonian market with simple and affordable solutions to meet their communication needs, MTN Cameroon has introduced a new tariff plan, MTN N-JOY, specially tailored for young subscribers who intend to build a community and call each other at preferential tariffs.

With MTN N-JOY, MTN is the very first mobile operator to offer the choice of 10 favorite numbers per subscriber in Cameroon.

The tariff is an opportunity given to young subscribers to always stay together, share their dreams and ambitions and live their passions. To celebrate the launch of this new tariff plan, MTN organized a musical jamboree with the internationally acclaimed Togolese group, Toofan.

The Multinational Communication Company MTN has pledged to spend USD1.583 billion in growing its infrastructure in Nigeria this year, promising that more base transmission stations (BTS) will be built to change customer experience on the network.

According to Akinwale Goodluck, corporate services executive, MTN Nigeria, the R28 billion earmarked for capital expenditure (capex) for the Group’s 22 countries of operations this year, a slightly less than 50% (R13 billion) of that amount will come to Nigeria.
Following the MTN Group financial report, after a challenging year, Nigeria reported a decline in EBITDA of 6,2%.The Telco’s results for the year ended 31 December 2012 shows that, total revenue grew by 7,1% to R41,4 billion (about N716 billion) from R38,6 billion (about N668.1 billion) in the previous year.

Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization or EBITDA is an approximate measure of a company’s operating cash flow based on data from the company’s income statement and is always calculated by looking at earnings before the deduction of interest expenses, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.

Goodluck blamed the fall in financial contribution from Nigeria to the MTN Group to about 30% decrease in tariffs in the country, occasioned by the display of exuberance by the operators.According to him, the many freebies that were extended to the subscribers on the network led to the decline of value from the industry.

The regulator of the industry, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) played a big role to stop promotion and lotteries on the network, adding that MTN, as a business organisation, takes the interests of its customers seriously. Goodluck said that “As a business, we have taken steps to ensure that the interest of our subscribers are protected by not sacrificing quality service on the altar of customer acquisition.”

The Group’s allocation to its Nigerian operation for 2013 is the highest in all its over 20 countries of operations.

Goodluck, who recalled that USD1.3 billion was used as Capex for MTN Nigeria in 2012, pointed out that Nigeria is still privileged in the current year by taking the lion share of the Group’s total capital expenditure.

He reported that, the current USD1.5 billion is directed at network expansion such as the building more base stations and fibre transmissions across the country.

He commented that the fresh investment will enable the over 45 million subscribers on its network to enjoy improved access voice and data services with better coverage.

GoodLuck expressed that, MTN Nigeria did not only fully capitalise its USD1.3 billion Capex for 2012 but also used the USD300 million carry-over Capex for 2011 to embark on its soon-to-be-completed network modernisation and swapping exercise which began early last year.

He reported that the telecom firm, which currently has about 9, 000 sites across the country, will build and upgrade addition 5, 000 base stations on its 2G network and about 4, 000 sites on 3G network.

“Looking at MTN Nigeria, we continue to grow our voice network and also grow our data business at 100% rate annually. The data business is going to be a lot more significant than voice.

“We’re seeing an increase in demand for data services and that informs the investment that we are putting in on 3G data networks. Voice is king. Data is a very ambitious prince but still a boy,” he said.

MTN Group results for the year ended 31 December 2012 showed solid progress in growing subscribers, revenue and Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA).

Highlights of the results depict that Group subscribers increased by 15.1% to R189.3 million∙ Revenue increased 10.9% to R135,112 million and data revenues increased 58.5% to R14,574 million∙

EBITDA increased 7.0% to R58,564 million.EBITDA margin was stable at 42.9% and Capex of R30 101 million positions the Group for continued growth.

In a bid to improve government efficiencies Rwandan Government has launched an automated workflow management system to improve government efficiencies.

Rwanda’s Minister of Youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, has officially launched a new Document Tracking and Workflow Management System (DTWMS) named E-Mboni, intended at promoting government organizational efficiency.

The project is co-funded by the Government of Rwanda and the World Bank and was launched at the local government level in Kigali City council, an institution that has championed implementation of the system.

E-Mboni seeks to improve overall efficiency, accountability and transparency in government through the use of electronic documents and records lifecycle management.

Nsengimana said: “This system is meant to improve inter and intra governmental efficiencies ultimately geared to serving Rwandans in an efficient and effective manner. The advantage of this system is that it is flexible and mobile; one can work wherever he or she is in order to serve clients without delay.”

According to RDB Head of Department for ICT, Patrick Nyirishema, “The System is solution oriented – it is meant to drastically reduce the use of paper based processing and also automate, accelerate and simplify administrative processes.”He portrayed the project as an enabler for administrative reform in government operations and will boost Rwanda’s economic transformation.

The Document Tracking and Workflow Management System (e-Mboni) has a centralized structure that can be used in any Ministry or Public Service Organization to track the progress of documents throughout their life cycle. The system allows secure and consistent storage of documents as well as increased information retrieval efficiency through powerful and fast search option.

The Mayor of Kigali City, Fidele Ndayisaba, praised the system, saying that “E-Mboni has come at a time when we actually need it. We are already using it to speed up processes within. Services like offering Construction Permits, Modern and Smart City (MIS) are now being offered more efficiently due to this system. We are using less time and less paper which saves on cost and is environmentally friendly. Files are more secure and are directed to the right person and in good time. There will be better service delivery with this system.”

E-Mboni is developed for all ministries and district offices and ready to be used. Already five ministries are using the system ,for instance Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Youth and ICT, Ministry of Infrastructure, and Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Internal Affairs; three district offices; and one government organization .

Document Tracking and Workflow Management System (DTWMS) will be used in daily work for all incoming and outgoing documents; this will reduce the use of papers in different institutions.

Nigerian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have rejected a move by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to sell the remaining spectrum in the 2.3 gigahertz (GHz) band, claiming that such a move will further intensify the misery of operators licensed and currently operating within the band.These operators are Mobitel, Spectranet and Direct on Personal Computer (DoPC).

According to Atel Ajha, chief operating officer (COO) of Spectranet, who spoke on behalf the operators at a forum organised by the NCC on the ‘Best Option for Licensing the Remaining Slots in the 2.3Ghz Band’, argued that instead of selling the remaining slots to fresh operators, they should be given the opprotunity to buy it.
He said that the standard practice all over the world is that operators in the band range get 30 MHz, suggesting that guardband of between 2.3Ghz and 2.4Ghz should also be provided to take care of interference and spurious emission.

He added that their request is based on the need to extend service delivery to other states of the federation with superior technology and new customers’ experience.
implying that planning must provide for future technology requirement,” he warned that the proposal of the NCC to open bid for the 30 MHz would unleash an era of “unfair competition” on the industry.
Ajha lamented that there are no significant wireless operators in the country when in fact, globally, they are the ones that provide the primary network operations.

He said ,international bandwidth rate in the country is one of the highest in the world, adding that when the country is compared globally, its national long distance and metro network is too exorbitant so is the rental cost too.
He fears that if another operator is licensed and that operator has infrastructure like international carrier licence as well as metro and national long distance fibre ownership it may lead to cross-subsidy on ISPs, creating an “unfair competition” in the industry.

The Executive Vice Chairman and chief CEO of the NCC, Eugene Juwah, said convening the forum in line with the NCC’s participatory regulatory approach. “The objective of this forum, in line with the Commission’s policy of participatory regulation amongst other things is to provide an avenue for stakeholders and users of the 2.3 GHz band to discuss, technically criticise, exchange ideas and proffer options that will help the Commission in arriving at a decision on the further licensing of the remaining 40 MHz bandwidth in the band for the benefit of all Nigerians.

He added that the forum is remarkable as due to the presence of highly respected presenters with decades of practical experience at their disposal to deliberate on options and challenges as it relates to further licensing of the band.

Cisco seeks to light up Africa with computing connectivity. While speaking at the Cisco Expo 2013 that took place at Sun City, South Africa, Cisco senior VP Howard Charney portrayed a picture of a future where everything is fully connected – people to people, people to machines and machine to machine, and global collaboration enables revolutionary new solutions.

Cisco points out that the data in circulation will grow exponentially, with up to 50 billion connected devices by 2020. “But it is not the data itself that will change the world, it’s the correlations, mining that data for value, and sharing of this data that will make the difference,” he said.

Charney reported that Cisco’s Internet of Everything is a significant initiative in which the company is positioning itself to catalyse this future. “Only 0.05% of the world’s available data is being mined for value currently. The next big step is connecting all the devices and mining all of the resulting data for value.

“The Internet of Everything is about the connection of everything to the global infrastructure, and critically – turning information into action. Things become apparent once they are connected. He also highlighted the potential to change people’s lives when all available data can be collated and shared.

The Internet of Everything really will be worth a little above USD14 trillion over the next ten years,” said Charney
According to Cisco South Africa MD Alpheus Mangale,Cisco has a vision to change the way people live, work and learn – particularly in Africa. “Africa may look like a dark continent in terms of connections at the moment, but it is a continent rich with potential and added that Cisco believes that together with their partners, they can light up Africa.”

Kenya Trade Network Agency (KenTrade) a State Corporation mandated to implement, operationalise and manage the Kenya Electronic Single Window System is working on a procedure to automate cross-border trade procedures at ports of entry by October 2013. The Electronic Single Window System will provide a platform for exchange of trade-related documentation and help reduce the clearance time from eight days on average to a maximum of three days.

According to Alex Kabuga, C.E.O KenTrade, he expressed the fact that the system could save the economy as last year 2 billion was lost due to inefficiencies in cargo clearance. “The single window platform will transform the way business is done in the country by simplifying and streamlining processes and integrating the systems of the multiple numbers of stakeholders that traders have to deal with.

KenTrade says it will cost Sh1.9 billion to roll out the single window project that is expected to increase Kenya’s trade competitiveness and cut the cost of doing business in East Africa’s largest economy. Previous efforts to embrace technology in the clearing system have not been quite successful as the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and KPA rolled out the Simba and KWATOS applications respectively which work independent of each other and cannot be integrated. “Attempts by KRA and the port’s authority to integrate Simba and KWATOS have not succeeded mainly due to system limitations and down time,” said KenTrade

“The first phase of the single window will go live in October 2013 while the second phase will be ready in April 2014.” A single window is defined as a portal where all customs documents are lodged and payments submitted online, cutting the red tape associated with clearing goods at sea ports and border points. The system will reduce cargo dwell time at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from the current average of five days to a maximum of a day and streamline clearance at land border posts to take two hours.

Kenya will become the second country in the region after Rwanda to migrate to digital cargo clearance platform. Rwanda, which holds pole position as EAC’s favourite business destination, implemented its Sh278 million online clearing system in August last year and businesses are expected to save around Sh758 million annually on customs costs.

The first phase will automate all the cargo documentation processes by integrating the systems of all the key stakeholders involved in cargo clearance such as KRA, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) and Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (Kephis).

The Government of Zimbabwe is working on legislation that will allow the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority(POTRAZ) to issue converging licenses to telecommunications operators to diversify operations and also force them to share infrastructure under new licenses to be issued mid-year.

An official from the Transport, Communication and Infrastructural Development ministry said the remodeling of the Postal and Telecommunications Act would be completed by June this year to allow POTRAZ to issue the new licenses.

Current licenses from Econet and Telecel will expire in June this year therefore the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe will issue converging licenses to allow them to diversify their services.

The amended act would include the compulsory sharing of infrastructure between operators to reduce operating costs and also tariffs.

According to James Madya, a deputy director in the ministry, Licenses are about to expire and because of technological changes that are happening in the industry we cannot continue to issue operators with the old license which only allowed an operator to work within the stipulations of that license. The new license would allow operators to diversify their products.

He said that when Econet and Telecel renew their licenses, they would get the new converging licenses and offer diverse products that are not covered in their current licenses.

He added that in order to make POTRAZ a good regulator, we need to come up with policies that would enable them to level the playing field,” said Madya.

Davis and Shirtliff, the leading energy equipment supplier inthe East African Region is offering a electricity backup system that provides a completely seamless transition between grid supply, battery backup and generator operation: as a complete protection against endemic power interruptions.
Electricity being the fourth biggest business constraint after tax rates, access to finance, and informal sector practices, according to the World Bank, with up to 12 per cent of Kenyan businesses blaming frequent electricity interruptions for low productivity.
According to a report by sabahionline ,they observed that on average, businesses experience 7 blackouts every month, some lasting up to 12 hours. They quote an incident last year, a number of companies ten kilometres outside Nairobi incurred some Sh20 million in losses due to power outages, which lasted for three consecutive days, forcing them to use stand-by generators that are prohibitively expensive to run.
Orata International Ltd., an animal-feed manufacturing company based in Nairobi’s industrial area, said it lost more than Sh3million($36,000) in just March and April last year due to blackouts.
“Even where there’s a generator, for some businesses, the data loss due to computers going off during certain tasks can take a team back by months,” said Mr. David Gatende, Deputy CEO at Davis and Shirtliff Group.
Davis and Shirtliff power back up supply system therefore promises to provide a lasting solution that will end such damages.
The sytem is flexible and gives priority to either generator or inverter system, depending on clients’ needs,” said Mr. Gatende.
The system ensures that when power goes off there is no interruption to ongoing work and computers remain on, as the inverter takes over supply for up to 7 hours, after which the generator comes on, powering the premises as it also recharges the inverter.
On fone Media is one such company operating sensitive businesses that require a continuous flow of power and is now using the power system with impressive results. The company specializes in SMS solutions and computer system design, licensed by CCK, and serves banks, radio stations and government institutions across East Africa.
Mr Francis Mulunda from On Fone Media company said“Our systems are supposed to run 24hrs a day. Whenever there is a blackout, it is not only our business that is affected, but those of our clients, making it imperative to have a reliable back up system,”
Due to insuffient power supply, many companies use generators as their sole power back up, most generators however are significantly louder producing sounds of around 85 decibels unlike the Cooper Eco-pack generators that run at an average 70 decibels, producing sound equivalent to an average conversation.
Davis and Shirtlif therefore offer a wide range of generators for various needs, the Cooper generator for instance is incorporated for clients who prioritize silence in their backup system, and they are also very fuel efficient ” saysMr. Gatende.

The company is the sole distributor of Cooper Ecopack generators in Kenya. Cooper Ecopack generators are available in 3 sizes: 15, 20 and 30 kVA. The sets also feature electronic operational diagnosis where they are connected to a computer to analyse defects and optimise operation thus improving reliability and minimising operation costs. Support can be provided in the form part of a yearly service contract which offers a maximum response time of 24 hours.
The multinational is a major player in the market for power products, offering inverter/battery backup solutions from 350 W to 11,000W and generators from portable 0.5 kVA units to large stationary generators with outputs up to 375 kVA.