A new app dubbed Shuffle allows an phone owner multiple unique phone numbers and email addresses, which a user can forward their calls or emails to. Shuffle is raising $35,000 through Indiegogo to make this a successs.
Developed by Canada’s Shuffle Ventures, Inc, Shuffle is launching in the US and Canada with plans to expand to other countries soon thereafter. It aims to allow a user to have disposable contact number which can be assigned a label that displays on the user’s phone when called, which helps the user recognize what the incoming call is about. All voice calls, voicemail messages, and text messages are grouped by each Shuffle number and can be managed through the app, bringing order to the many communications people deal with.
A Shuffle number can be used by just anyone to avoid them handing out their personal number to a new contact, can be used to make transactions on platforms such as classified Ads or dating services, job serach portals for privacy and any short term projects.
Shuffle numbers are reserved for 30 days and can be set up to auto-renew or expire depending on your specific needs. If someone is bugging you on a Shuffle number while you still need to keep it active, simply block them and the number will appear to be non-existing.
Shuffle offers free voice calls and text messages between Shuffle users utilizing Wi-Fi or the phone’s data plan. For communication with non-Shuffle contacts, the company offers VoIP text messages and voice call minutes at an affordable rate.
Shuffle is the first app to offer disposable email aliases as an extra layer of privacy in addition to disposable phone numbers. Personal email addresses remain private while using Shuffle’s email forwarding tool. Multiple email aliases can be created and managed through the app. When someone sends an email to the Shuffle alias, it is forwarded to the user’s actual email account.
With the funds raised through Indiegogo, Shuffle plans to finalize integration and testing of their iOS app and release it in the App Store. The company is offering top supporters, those who pledge $169 or more, an invite to join the exclusive inner circle of Shuffle beta testers.
The firm will launch an Android version in early 2015.
In November last year, we reported about the planned sale of Forbes Media LLC for just $400 million. Today the Forbes family sold a majority stake in the company in a move the family says will help it further increase market share of the existing Forbes Media product lines in media, digital, technology, as well as brand extensions.
The undisclosed agreement was sealed by an unknown Hong Kong-based investor group known as Integrated Whale Media Investments. IWMI is led by Integrated Asset Management (Asia) Limited which was founded by Tak Cheung Yam, is a Hong Kong-based investment company and Wayne Hsieh, Co-Founder of ASUSTeK Computer Inc..
Upon closing, Elevation Partners will fully exit its investment in Forbes Media. Forbes Media will use the funds as expansion and operational capital to reach more people. At the moment the firm reaches approximately 75 million people worldwide via print, digital, TV, conferences, research, social and mobile each month.
Forbes Media LLC will retain its operating name and will remain a privately-held, independent company headquartered in the U.S. Steve Forbes will maintain his role as Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, and current President and CEO Mike Perlis will continue to lead the company’s management team. Forbes Media’s Asian business will continue to be directed out of Singapore under Forbes Media CEO/Asia Will Adamopoulos. The company plans to launch ForbesLife.com in September 2014.
Ringier Africa has announced its sites Rupu in Kenya, Tisu in Ghana, Pulse, Allsportsin Ghana and Expat-Dakar, Senegal’s largest classified marketplace which the firm acquired a majority stake in this year have recorded a successful first half-year.
Ringier, which started business in Africa three years ago says it recorded fourfold sales in the first half of 2014, compared to the entire previous year due to professional scaling of existing products as well as winning renowned global corporations as media and advertising partners.
In a statement, Julian Artopé, Director of Ringier Africa said, “Especially the adjustment of our content and classified products in West Africa and the expansion of our number one position in e-commerce business in Kenya have contributed to this success.”
Ringier also praises Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal as among the growth markets most attractive for large American and European companies, according to the corresponding “Frontier Sentiment Index” drawn up exclusively for the Wall Street Journal. Nigeria, the former problem child of West Africa being the darling and attracting the interest of foreign investors with its fastest-growing economy on the continent.
Robin Lingg, CEO Ringier Africa & Asia: “The organization in Nigeria is contributing strongly to Ringier Africa’s success thanks to effective utilization of the enormous market potential; the largest market on the continent is already a great investment for us today.”
Though subject to regulatory approvals Ringier has sold 49 percent of the shares in each of Ringier Digital AG’s subsidiaries Scout24 Schweiz AG and Omnimedia AG. Scout24 Schweiz AG comprises online marketplaces for motor vehicles (autoscout24.ch, motoscout24.ch) and real estate (immoscout24.ch) as well as the anibis.ch general classifieds marketplace.
AutoScout24 is the number one among Switzerland’s online portals for new and used cars, while ImmoScout24 is the country’s leading online real-estate platform and anibis.ch is the largest general classifieds marketplace. Through its various platforms, the Scout24 Group operates the most comprehensive Swiss network of online marketplaces. In aggregate, these platforms attract some 21 million visits each month. Omnimedia AG is one of Switzerland’s leading digital marketing companies. In addition to offering its national and regional clients target-group-specific online advertising concepts, Omnimedia has exclusive marketing rights for Ringier’s Swiss Scout24 platforms.
KKR has invested in BMG Rights Management, Fotolia, ProSiebenSat.1, GoDaddy, InternetBrands and Mitchell International.
Dell is now accepting Bitcoins after Michael Dell announced in a tweet followed by a formal announcement by the firm that it’s accepting bitcoins.
“Now you can buy digital with digital – starting today, we’re accepting bitcoin on Dell.com. We’re piloting bitcoin, the world’s most widely used digital currency, as a purchase option on Dell.com for consumer and small business shoppers in the U.S. We’re excited to bring you the choice and flexibility this payment option offers and have partnered with Coinbase, a trusted and secure third party payment processor, to make this possible.”
The firm also said its offering a special Alienware promotion wherein customers can save 10 percent off a new Alienware system purchase (up to $150 limit) if they buy with bitcoins.
The firm says when someone is ready to make a purchase, they simply add the items to your cart and choose Bitcoin as the payment method.
“We’ve fostered a close partnership with the Dell team and that’s been instrumental in getting the Coinbase integration up and running in such a short timeframe. We look forward to continuing to support the team as they explore other ways to offer even more functionality when it comes to bitcoin payments,” said Fred Ehrsam, Co-Founder of Coinbase.
Dell has teamed upwith Coinbase to handle the processing of Dell.com transactions on the bitcoin network. Coinbase is an international digital wallet that allows anyone to securely buy, use, and accept bitcoin currency.
Dell is not the first compnay to accept Bitcoins as firms such as Overstock and Expedia are already using Coinbase to accept bitcoin. Dell will take Bitcoin mainsteam with its $57 billion in sales in 2013 followed by the Dish Network with $13.9 billion in 2013 sales and Expedia with $4.8 billion in 2013 sales and lastly Overstock with $1.3 billion in 2013 sales according to the WSJ.
Yesterday, the paper announced that South Africa’s PayFast, a payment processor had said it will be accepting Bitcoin as a payment option for its 30,000 merchant customers becoming the first such firm in SA to do so and the first in the world.
PayFast said it would be working with South Africa’s BitX, a local bitcoin exchange.
This post by John Sinden was originally published by the American University here and has been republished here with the author’s permission.
Q. Throughout your career, you’ve had an immense impact on the relationship between diplomacy and technology. Can you please share with us a moment from your career in which you’ve seen technology influence change in a developing country that was formerly resistant to change?
A. The most striking example I have seen is the impact of mobile payments in Africa. Kenya does not necessarily leap to mind when someone says “financial innovation,” but it may well be the most advanced of the 196 countries on planet Earth when it comes to the development and deployment of mobile payments. It’s remarkable—cab drivers get aggravated if you try to pay them in cash. The entire financial culture has gone mobile, and more than 10 million Kenyans live their financial lives entirely through their mobile phones.
Q. Mobile technology is transcending poverty lines and enabling nearly 86 percent of the world’s population to better access both the Internet and each other. Do you envision a situation in which this newly gained access to information will help to alleviate the more basic developmental issues?
A. It already is. Going back to the example of Kenya, an early study showed that those who adopted mobile banking saw their household incomes go up between 5 and 30 percent relative to their peers who did not adopt mobile banking. We are seeing how mobile apps are helping patients in environments with few to no doctors getting the kind of information they need to stay compliant with their medications. I don’t think that mobile technology is a silver bullet for poverty alleviation, but what it does is bring access to information and a piece of personal infrastructure to people who too often are isolated. Reducing this isolation has a material impact.
Q. What are the biggest security risks for global citizens as they continue to gain access to these new technologies?
A. A government’s ability to survey its citizens poses a real threat in countries where political dissent is not tolerated and where human rights are not respected. Being connected means having access to the kind of information and functionality it takes to compete and succeed in our technology rich, knowledge-based economy. Unfortunately, this connectedness can also make people more vulnerable to the prying eyes of authoritarian governments.
Q. Some governments use censorship as a form of control over their citizens. How do you see advancements in technology helping and/or hindering this kind of repression? Can technology combat government censorship?
A. It is getting more and more difficult to censor the Internet because of the powerful Internet freedom tools being developed by engineer activists around the world. When I was at the State Department, we probably spent $100 million to support the development of these tools and to train people how to use them effectively and safely. The kind of control freak mentality that censors have is ill suited to today’s world. The 21st century is a terrible time to be a control freak. I sit on the advisory board of a company called AnchorFree, which has a product called Hotspot Shield. It’s actually the 37th largest Internet service in the world—it just surpassed Yelp and Tumblr. After the leader of Turkey shut down access to Twitter, there were millions of downloads to Hotspot Shield, and the ability of Erdogan (the Turkish leader) to keep people from accessing Twitter was reduced to near nothing. We are going to see more and more of this as authoritarians try to censor the Internet.
Q. As more businesses develop socially responsible models of investment, do you see government’s role in international development declining and private businesses taking the lead? If so, what implications does this have for international development practitioners in 10 years? 25 years?
A. I think that development is being increasingly driven by the private sector—not so much by businesses developing socially responsible models of development (it is actually a tiny percentage who have these models in reality), but by government budgets being strained to the max. The United States has a large deficit and debt, which means it is difficult to grow the development budget. The private sector needs to fill in the gap.
Q. The International Relations Online program through American University’s School of International Service combines innovation and international relations by offering a top-10 ranked program in international affairs to students who live and work around the globe. How do you see our program changing the international affairs education landscape?
A. I love that people drawn from all over the world’s 196 countries can now be a part of American University’s School of International Service through its online offerings. I think this will not just extend the educational benefits of what AU has to offer to more students, but I also think the quality of the education will grow as the student body becomes more diverse and drawn from an increasingly broad geographic range. It bodes well for American University—and its students!
Alec Ross recently served for four year as Senior Advisor for Innovation to the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a role created for him by Secretary Clinton to maximize the potential of technology and innovation in service of America’s diplomatic goals and stewarding the Secretary of State 21st Century Statecraft agenda. In this role, Alec acted as the diplomatic lead on a range of issues including cybersecurity, Internet Freedom, disaster response and the use of network technologies in conflict zones.
Alec started his career as a sixth grade teacher through Teach for America in inner- city Baltimore where he lives with his wife and their three young children.
About John Sinden
John is the digital marketing coordinator for American University SIS International Relations Online . He earned a MA in International Relations in 2012 and his research interests include freedom of expression in Asia, cyber security, and the link between diplomacy and technology. Follow him on Google+ .Read More
MTN has entered into a partnership with KCB, RSwitch and I&M that will see customers transfer money between their Mobile Money and KCB accounts and withdraw money from their Mobile Money wallets using I&M ATMs and other RSwitch connected ATMs, without the use of a bank card.
Norman Munyampundu, general manager of MTN Business said: “MTN is constantly finding new ways of delighting customers through our digital strategy. These services are truly unique as they cater to both the banked and the unbanked population of the entire country.”
“Being able to access your Mobile Money through ATMs or bank integration services opens up a new way of banking, effectively turning your mobile phone into an e-wallet with the convenience of being able to withdraw or transact money 24/7,” Munyampundu added.
According to the Rwanda Focus, the new service will also make it possible for customers to pay for goods, services and bills efficiently without having to be there and it is also a secure way of making payments.
Monica Keza, the head of Banking and Channel said that KCB’s strategy is to provide innovative ways of banking to its customers which is convenient and efficient to both the banked and unbanked.
“KCB’s partnership with MTN Mobile Money is a game-changing endeavour which aims to improve lives, create jobs, spawn new enterprises, expand financial inclusion and promote a cashless economy in Rwanda. This service will enable customer to access their banking services through the Mobile money platform at their own convenience,” she said.
RSwitch head of projects Catherine Ngali said they are happy to partner with MTN and the banks in providing card-less cash withdrawal services through the RSwitch Smartcash ATM network to MTN customers.
Ngali indicated that the new service is another step towards ‘fully functioning’ mobile wallets, adding that the company will continue to provide the latest solutions to enhance customers’ day-to-day financial experiences.
On his part, Innocent Muhizi, the I&M Bank head of IT and Transactional Banking Services, said that his bank is happy to partnering with MTN in the efforts of reaching more Rwandans that have hitherto had limited access to these transaction services either by proximity or by the inevitable limitation of agency operational hours, noting that the new services will create the much needed bridge to formal financial services while offering unmatched convenience for mobile money users.
“At I&M Bank, we are committed to continue championing innovation to increase ability to have access to money. We are here to transform banking,” Bahizi stressed.
Kenya’s BeiQuote, a price search engine aims to let its users find prices for consumer commodities with just a single click on their mobile phones or computers.
Now with over 20,000 items indexed and available in their database BeiQoute team tell TechMoran they build the system on Python and Django and the site is responsive thus it supports both mobile and desktop viewports, but mobile has the most reach and had to be factored in in the first release.
The guys, James Kanyi, Eric Wambugu, Peter Ouma, Paul Kabuchi and Wanyeki Maina say their BeiQuote’s business model is simple.
“Merchants can pay for their items to be ranked highly, also recommendations can be made if a search doesn’t yield any results.
Adsense is also another viable alternative.” They add that all shoppers in Kenya need to confirm the approximate price of a product to make their budgets before they go out to shop, but there has been no where for that. BeiQoute therefore solves that.
They alsi say that owing to the difficulty of obtaining the data and indexing such large amounts of data, many who have tried this have been discouraged.
The Universal service Advisory council (USAC) has been inaugurated by Cabinet Secretary, Information, Communications and Technology, Dr. Fred Matiang’I and will be charged with overseeing and providing strategic policy guidance in the implementation of the Universal Service Fund (USF).
The board was constituted in accordance with the Kenya Information and Communications Act,1998 which was amended in 2009 and 2013,providing for the establishment of the Universal Service Fund (USF) and mandates the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) to administer and manage the Fund.
“Members of the Advisory Council underwent a rigorous appointment process and I believe we have the best people with the right expertise for the job” said Dr. Matiang’i during the event.
The inaugurated USAC members who were appointed on 9th May, 2014 for a period of three years include; Catherine Ngahu (Chairperson), Josephine ChepkuruiTowett, James Long’oleWangiros, RodahAwinjaMasaviru, J. Kennedy OdiwuorOkong’o, Nixon MagekaGecheo, Wellington PakiaGodo, Samuel Gitonga Mutungi, and Michael Maina Itote.
Dr. Matiang’i said, despite the rapid growth of ICT services in the country, the disparity in availability and access to telecommunications services between rural and urban areas continues to widen. “While the private sector has an important role to play in meeting universal access, there is need for government to promote investments in un-served and underserved areas through various initiatives including Universal Service Fund,” he added.
The Fund will play a key role in subsidizing the cost of ICT infrastructure roll out and expansion in these un-served and underserved areas. The Fund is primarily financed throughmandatory contributions by licensed operators, the Communications Authority and any other complementary sources. The Authority in the financial year 2013/2014 injected Ksh1 Billion into the Fund as seed money and has collected a total of Ksh45million out of the expected Kshs 800 Million from communication service providers.
Director General, Mr. Francis Wangusi, said the Authority has over the years partnered with various institutions to carry out pilot projects in several rural parts of the country to facilitate access to ICT services. In particular, the partnership with the Nairobi Provincial Medical Office that witnessed computerization of selected health centers, and with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development to digitize the Kenya Secondary Education curriculum. In addition, he said the Authority has worked with institutions that serve Persons with Disabilities to establish ICT centers in eight (8) schools across the country as well as the establishment of community telecenters in Chwele (Bungoma), Mutomo, Eldama Ravine and Kitundu (Makueni).
The CA Chairman, Mr. Ngene Gituku, informed the USAC members that the Authority carried out several studies on access gaps in particular the National ICT Survey and theICT Access Gap study in a bid to better understand the ICT environment in the country.
The Chairman further stated that aUSF Frameworkthat was developed by the Authority’s Management provides a mechanism for managing and administering the Fund as well as outlining the criteria for project selection. The Chairman asked the Management team to fast track the development of theUniversal Service FundRegulations to conform to the enacted Kenya Information and Communications (Amendment) Act, 2013.
On her part, Ms. Catherine Ngahu, USAC Chairperson, noted that the Council is committed to effectively and efficiently overseeing the implementation of projects that will increase penetration of ICT services to over 90% of the country.
Can you prove that what you are doing is helping to build a sustainable future? That’s a question that Unilever is asking all the youth.
This is why the company is asking, Unilever in partnership with Ashoka and the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability is inviting all youth of 30 years of age and below to come up with a practical and innovative solutions to some of the world’s biggest sustainability challenges. Once they do that they are encouraged to take part in the second Sustainable Living Entrepreneurs Awards.
Seven stellar entrepreneurs will be awarded a total of more than €200,000 ($272,000) in financial support, in addition to mentoring, to help scale their services or applications. The competition seeks to provided resources and recognition to solutions based on one or more of the following nine categories:
Water, sanitation and hygiene
Nutrition
Water scarcity
Greenhouse gases
Waste
Sustainable agriculture
Smallholder farmers
Opportunities for women
Micro-Enterprise
Tackling critical issues
Finalists will take part in a four-week online development program and a two-day accelerator workshop in Cambridge, U.K. before pitching to a panel of leading business and sustainability entrepreneurs in London.
Entries will be assessed on their level of innovation, measurable impact, financial sustainability and the overall leadership qualities of the entrepreneurship. The most influential entrepreneur will receive the HRH The Prince of Wales Young Sustainability Entrepreneur Prize.
Seven finalists will be announced in October, and the accelerator workshop and final judging will take place in January 2015
The competition deadline is August 1. To enter, submit your solutions online through the Ashoka Changemakers Platform.
Phishing is a fairly simple way of tricking Internet users into handing over their personal and financial information. The attackers create new phishing links every minute and now phishing sites typically operate for just a few hours.
Kaspersky Lab has released data about the new phishing wildcards that have been added to the company’s anti-phishing database every month. According to the report, there were 96,609 new phishing wild cards every month in 2013 but this count has risen sharply in 2014. This year the average number is up to 113,500 per month, an increase of 17.5 percent. Not only is Kaspersky Lab seeing more false links, but also these links are quickly taken down in an attempt to avoid detection
“This strategy is intended to make it impossible for their site to earn a bad reputation and take its place in the anti-phishing databases established by security companies. This in turn changes the rules of the game for developing anti-phishing products: now we must carefully monitor the relevance of the phishing wildcards stored in the database. We are working with ‘perishable’ malware so a quick reaction to every update is critical.” explains Nadezhda Demidova, Content Analyst at Kaspersky Lab
Detecting this everchanging phishing sites thus requires anti-phishing solutions to carefully monitor and update phishing wildcards stored in the database. For instance, Kaspersky Lab’s anti-phishing solution combines a database of phishing wildcards on the endpoint with a constantly updated database in the cloud and heuristic analysis. By doing so, if a URL is not listed in any database, the heuristic module will look for evidence of anything suspicious in both the URL and the HTML content of the website.
Kaspersky Lab has provided additional precautionary measures to help steer clear from phishing sites.
Do not click links on suspicious sites or those you receive from untrusted sources via email
Enter all addresses into the browser address bar manually
Check the address bar immediately after downloading the page to ensure the domain name corresponds to the one you expect
Check whether the site uses a secure connection
If you have the slightest doubt about the authenticity of the site, do not enter your personal details in any circumstances
To ensure the legitimacy of a page, contact the company via its official website
Avoid entering your sensitive data while using a public Wi-Fi network
Movitel, SA, a joint venture between Vietnamese telecommunications group Viettel and Mozambique’s SPI company – has won the “Best Mobile Innovation Award” in the Mobile Innovations Awards 2014, becoming the first and the only operator in Africa to win 3 prestigious international awards in 3 consecutive years. They have won the Judges’Award: “Best Mobile Innovation Award” as well.
This is the most notable prize among the 18 others of the Mobile Innovations Awards 2014. The Mobile Innovations Awards rewards the companies bringing mobile technology innovation into a business context across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Especially, the Judges’ Awards are not open for individual entries but considered by the Judges based on all the shortlisted entries in the awards to look for the most outstanding entry for the “Best Mobile Innovation Award”.
Movitel has outpaced many other strong telecom and electronic commerce companies such as PayPal, IMImobile, Vodafone, TSYS, Ericsson to convince the Judges thanks to the unique mobile operating solution of popularizing telecom services in Mozambique. The solution initiates from the concept that telecommunications is a commodity that everyone, regardless of their locations and income conditions, needs.
The company has built a great network infrastructure of 2,800 towers – accounting for 50 percent nationwide, 25,000km fiber optical cable – accounting for 70 percent nationwide and a widespread supplying chain to every village with 153 shops, 12,600 agents and points of sales and nearly 4,000 direct sales staff to cover services to 85 percent of rural population and more than 70 percent of all population. Besides, the low and flexibly tailored tariff plans for different customers also makes it is easier for the people to access telecom services. Movitel has brought services to rural and remote areas; provided free internet to 2,500 schools; and created nearly 20,000 jobs in rural areas; considerably contributing to uplifting the telecommunication status of the country and creating the field for e-commerce in Mozambique.
This is the third consecutive year in a row that Movitel has been selected for the coveted award for its achievements and innovation in mobile technology. Formerly, Movitel won the Rural Telecom Award of the AfricaCom Awards in 2012 and the Competitive Strategy Leadership award by The American Research and Consulting firm Frost and Sullivan in 2013.
Kenyans will now be able to buy insurance online without the need for intermediaries through an online portal called www.Bima247.com.
www.Bima247.com is powered by bima247, software developed by Cubic Media Systems and Logistics, a Kenyan based software Development Company and Transafricana Risk and Insurance Agency. The team behind this venture is two highly experienced Kenyan insurance experts, Yvonne Wangeci Gitobu and Dr. Chris Odindo while the insurance cover is provided by Jubilee Insurance Kenya, which is the largest composite insurer in Kenya.
Dr. Odindo, a director of Bima247.com said: “In recent years Kenyans have became comfortable using technology in their everyday lives for a variety of things including accessing government services such as filling tax returns, banking, shopping and money transfer services such as Mpesa. The insurance industry has lagged behind in embracing technology and putting their services online.”
He said the Kenyan insurance industry which is reliant on labor-intensive, paper-based processes for policy and claims management processes would now have a system that will improve productivity and efficiencies through reduction in the number of handoffs between proposers, insureds, agents, adjustors, and the company; through automation of straightforward decisions – whether on underwriting, claims or premium payments – using an expert proprietary software.
“Bima247 is a first of its kind in Kenya. It is a white label ‘plug-and-play’ system that will significantly benefit key stakeholders in the sector such as the insured, agents, brokers and the insurance company. Insurance organisations can see how bima247 works by visiting the online portal www.Bima247.com”, said Stanley Ngumo, the company’s development director.
For insurance companies and brokerages, the core system not only allows them to take advantage of a new distribution and delivery channel but also bring down costs significantly through its highly optimized automated service delivery pathways.
It is easy for insurance companies and brokerages to integrate Bima247.com with their existing systems due to the fact that the proposal forms and questions used are the same standard industry paper based ones. The only difference is that they are digitalized and in a way that allows the system to make an intelligent assessment of the risk.
Dr. Odindo added: “Consumers will only have to log onto Bima247.com, enter their details once and never have to worry about completing another proposal form or as long as they are with us. Once that’s done, they get a quote either on screen or through their emails. They then pay online through any type of the available payment methods in Kenya, and if their proposal is accepted, they will get their insurance documentations through the post, or collect them in person from our underwriters. When that’s done, we will email or text them timely reminders when renewal is due. We believe that Kenyans are busy and ‘your insurance in your inbox’ can only be a good thing for the time-constrained person”.
Commenting on the innovation, Washington Ndegea of the BIMA Intermediaries Association (BIA) said: “We believe that the use of bima247 will have a significant impact on how insurance business is conducted in Kenya and also change how people consume insurance.”
Dimension Data has invested in two Oracle SuperCluster half rack systems with various Oracle enterprise software components like Oracle Database and Oracle GoldenGate to run in its data centers as the key IaaS and CaaS platform for its Oracle client base.
Donovan Lawrence, Executive for Dimension Data Application Services, explains: “Our engineered services for Oracle ensures clients receive access to the fastest, most scalable and best engineered systems from Oracle. This gives flexibility to add or remove compute and storage resources on demand. With the Dimension Data engineered services for Oracle, we can set-up and run test, pre-production and production environments in the cloud whenever needed, for as long as needed, at a reduced cost while having access to the skills and expertise to assess, configure and manage the environment.”
“Dimension Data worked closely with us to build an Oracle based Dimension Data owned Cloud Solution for the South African market,” says Stefan Diedericks, Alliance and Channel Director for Oracle South Africa. “Dimension Data demonstrated leadership and vision in on-boarding such a solution, which can enable increased adoption of Oracle based Private & Public Cloud Solutions by customers in South Africa.”
Multi-tenant capable, Oracle SuperCluster allows for full-redundancy and high-availability and provides superior performance for clients while reducing licensing costs. The integrated solution provides a single support interface, common standards and short backup and recovery times.
Oracle SuperCluster is an integrated server, storage, networking and software system that provides maximum end-to-end database and application performance and minimal initial and ongoing support and maintenance effort and complexity at the lowest total cost of ownership.
Thenewly established tech incubator in Kigali Think, announced today through its website- think.rw, the call for applications to technology entrepreneurs in Rwanda and Africa.
Successful applicants will undergo a six-month program designed to support exceptional undertakers and startups to develop new and innovative digital solutions.
Tigo and Millicom incubator, called “think”, located in a purpose-built facility in Gasabo district, City of Kigali will be the base from which up to five applicants/teams with higher potential will be selected by a competitive selection process; application details are available on think website.
The first think cohort will be based in Kigali, Rwanda. Tigo will provide these entrepreneurs with seed financing, structured training and coaching programmes, access to Tigo technical resources for product testing and trials and support in accessing outside investors and customers.
Tigo Rwanda General Manager, Tongai Maramba said: “We are excited to welcome the first batch of talented entrepreneurs at think. We are calling on tech entrepreneurs across the continent with solid ideas for digital innovation for Africa. Tigo is looking forward to invest in their skills and ingenuity.”
Rwanda’s Minister for Youth and ICT, Jean-Philbert Nsengimana commented: “Rwanda is becoming a hub for technology innovations, and think is a great addition to our vibrant ecosystem. We cannot wait to see the next Africa startups bourgeoning from Rwanda.”
Royal Philips has unveiled the spectacular illumination of Ghana’s iconic Black Star Monument with its latest LED lighting technology, boosting the beautification of the city of Accra and cutting energy consumption by 80 percent as compared to the existing conventional lighting. Philips is showcasing its LED lighting solutions in Ghana as part of its fifth consecutive pan-African Cairo to Cape Town Roadshow. The new lighting solutions from Philips will highlight and enhance the architectural quality and aesthetic beauty of one of the most iconic structures in the city.
Philips placed its LED technology at the most important landmarks in Ghana – the Black Star Monument. Located in Accra in the historic Independence Square, the Black Star Monument commemorates the independence of Ghana and is considered an architectural masterpiece and iconic symbol of the city.
“The spectacular lighting of the Black Star Monument in Accra demonstrates the incredible advances that are being made in the efficiency and beauty in lighting”, says Abdallah Hussein, CEO, Philips West Africa. “Philips is very proud to have placed its know-how and technology at the service of this iconic monument and contributing towards the preservation of Ghanaian heritage. For us the challenge was to devise effective lighting while respecting the authenticity of this monument.”
Accra is the seventh stop on Philips’ annual flagship Cairo to Cape Town roadshow (from 14 April to 3 September 2014) which focuses on key challenges facing Africa today – the need for energy-efficient lighting and the revitalization of African healthcare infrastructure. Philips has committed to lighting up and illuminating iconic monuments in every city visited during the roadshow with the latest LED technology. As the number one LED lighting company in the world, Philips will now provide a stunning lighting makeover of historic, well-recognized monuments in African cities.
The Roadshow will make its way across seven countries and ten cities in Africa. The next stop will be Johannesburg, South Africa on 27th August 2014.
Africa Internet Holdings has made its presence felt in Africa’s world of internet and one of the products of this influential company is Jovago.com.
Jovago.com is an online hotel booking service headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria with operations in Kenya, Senegal and 12 other countries. It has become one of the leading booking portal thanks to its employees who developed more than 10 000 hotel listings across Africa.
Having originated from Germany, the portal was first launched in Africa in August 2013 as Africa’s solution to online hotel booking platform, well this is according to the Managing Director of Jovago.com Nigeria. The MD talked to TechMoran and this is what he had to say.
Tell us a little about Jovago-the brand and a little about you as the MD.
Jovago, because it is new and online wants to make hotel booking as easy as possible now lets customers enjoy the fastest booking experience through a transparent and easy to use service.
My name is Marek Zmyslowski and I am the Managing Director of Jovago.com Nigeria. I‘m 28 years old, I launched the first Jovago.com branch in Africa in August 2013. I was born in Poland and also grew up there. After my studies, I went into the world of finance but soon discovered my love for entrepreneurship and thereafter moved into setting up online ventures.
What was the inspiration behind Jovago, how it began as well as how it works and what did it take for you to get where you are now?
Looking at Sub Saharan Africa, it is easy to see that travel is one of the fastest growing industries. This is why Africa Internet Holdings set up Jovago.com to help provide an easy hotel booking solution to the teeming population of Africans who love to travel.
Booking a hotel on Jovago.com is very easy, customers just need to search for a hotel or district, select their travel dates and proceed to make bookings. At the onset, when Jovago.com was set up, we were focused on building hotel inventory, now we have over 10,000 hotels across Africa, 200,000 worldwide and still growing. Recently we have begun to do a lot of marketing and with our exceptional customer service we have recorded an impressive number of hotel bookings daily.
What were you doing before Jovago?
Before becoming the Managing Director of Jovago.com, I co-founded and exited two online ventures in Poland. Mementis.pl was an online network of funeral services and MotoRaporter.com was an online vehicle verification service.
Did you know you were going to be an Entrepreneur all along or did it happen by chance?
I began my professional career in Finance. I also spent three (3) years in sales. In the early 2000s, start-ups in Poland began flourishing and that got my attention. At that point, I realized I wanted to build companies. I decided to focus on the Internet because of its immense power to change the world. So I went ahead and set up two online ventures in Poland: Mementis.pl and MotoRaporter.com. After my ventures with the 2 online businesses, I knew that entrepreuneurship was the niche for me. So I was very excited when the AIH team approached me while I was still in Poland to come and set up Jovago.com in Nigeria.
How successful are you against competition?
Jovago.com has in the space of less than a year grown to have over 200,000 hotel listings around the world. We also have a database of over 3,000 travel agents who make hotel bookings using Jovago.com. Every successful business has competiton and I would say that this is a healthy way to grow a business as the competition keeps you on your toes constantly. The way we face competition at Jovago.com is to focus on the work at hand and staying the number 1 hotel booking website in Africa.
In how many countries can we find your services or company and which countries are you?
Jovago.com is presently in 15 African countries with our headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria.
How is the response in your markets, and who is your most important client?
When we first started Jovago.com, we invested a lot of work into signing up hotels and growing relationships with hotel management. We have a local team that physically goes to all the hotels, meets with the hotel managers and signs them up to our website and takes pictures of the hotel. The outcome of this is that our customers know and trust that all the hotel listings on our site are valid and we are able to confirm every booking before sending the customer to the hotel, to ensure that there are no hitches. All our clients are very important to us; both the hotels and the customers.
Which are some of the major partnerships you have done and how has it influenced your business?
Last month was a very busy one for Jovago.com. We were able to sign partnerships with TripAdvisor and the Nigerian Toursim Development Corporation. We also just signed up Ice Prince as our brand ambassador. This is a first for an online travel agent in Nigeria and it has already started reflecting on our traffic stats and bookings.
Comparing the markets that you have worked with and the different African countries you have explored, how would you rate Africa’s adaptability of Jovago?
It’s going to be simply amazing; what we have now is a tip of the iceberg. There are however a couple of factors that needs to be urgent actions for this potential to become a reality. The two main ones are improving infrastructure (electricity and internet access) and growing a middle class with a higher purchasing power.
Africa is the main focus for us and so far the market has proven very exciting and ready for the amazing disruption which we are bringing to the travel ecosystem.
Where could you place Africa compared to the world in terms of ICT development?
In comparison to the rest of the world, Africa still has some way to go with regards to ICT development. But with a huge potential, a massive growth and constant Africa’s mobile penetrations rate of 40 percent, we see the ICT development in Africa accelerating pretty quickly.
What do you love most about your business and your life as an Entrepreneur?
I would say it is the ability to build a business from scratch and watch it grow to influence the lives of so many people. An example is Jovago.com which has grown in less than a year to become Africa’s No.1 Hotel Booking Platform – making it easier for people to find quality hotels around the world.
What keeps you and your team motivated?
Our vision of being the go-to place for everyone looking for hotels across Africa.
What can your team not live without?
People, spare time (laugh) and the internet!
Is there a specific skill one needs to join you, if yes what is it
One needs to prove to be disciplined, structured in thinking and hungry for success.
What does Jovago have in store for the future except expansion?
We have a lot of plans in the works which will be shared in due time.
Who was the most influential person or mentor in your life?
I had two of them actually. Filip, my first boss and Marcin, my first angel investor, both are very different, wise, great role models.
What advice would you give to any person who wants to follow your example
“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that’s why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
A new agreement between DEMO Africa and AMPION Venture Bus will see the best start up team that emerges from the Venture bus pitch at the opening session of DEMO Africa 2014 in a move that will set this years launchpad apart from the rest.
According to DEMO Africa’s event director Mbugua Njihia, “We are all working hard to raise the awareness among stakeholder on the importance of innovations across Africa. Joining hands gives us an even louder voice thus making better our chances to be heard.”
The AMPION Venture Bus will operate in the week preceding the DEMO Africa event ending its journey in Lagos on the 24th September 2014. The Ampioneers will then join the other participants at DEMO Africa, one of the most successful tech events in Africa, with an estimated US $10 million of investment and business value being raised in previous iterations of the conference.
As has been witnessed in the previous events, the September event is expected to attract top notch African investors. Participants’ registration is already open here.
The secretariat has put together a special package for investor delegates which comprises: 15% discount on a DEMO Africa ticket, 15% discount on a VC4A Pro Account, Access to the companies’ financials, Ticket to the Investor Cocktail on DEMO Africa’s opening evening, Ticket to a special Investor Boomcamp as well as access to a special Investor Lounge and Deal Room at DEMO Africa. More information on this package can be found here.
DEMO Africa 2014 is scheduled to take place between 22nd and 26th of September at the Oriental Hotel in Lagos, Nigeria. This year’s event is being organized in collaboration with the LIONS@FRICA partners (Microsoft, Nokia, US State Department, DEMO, USAID, African Development Bank, VC4Africa among others) and Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies.
Excited about the partnership, Fabian Guhl, Managing Director of the Berlin and Harare based AMPION said, “We share a lot of the same vision and goals. I am very pleased that our Ampioneers will have the opportunity to access such a high calibre audience, particularly so soon after their awesome trip from Abidjan”
The AMPION Venture Bus journey to DEMO Africa will begin on 19 September 2014 in Abidjan. Over the next five days Ampioneers will be travelling to Takoradi, Ghana; Lomé, Togo; Accra, Ghana; and Cotonou, Benin before arriving in Lagos on 24 September 2014. The Venture Bus will stop at innovation centres in each of these cities, interacting with local investors and entrepreneurs.
AMPION encourages designers, developers, mentors and investors from West Africa and all over the world to apply to one of the seats here.The seats are highly subsidized and start at US $50.
Audax Solutions, a Nigeria based Information Technology training company, will be hosting a one month Summer Coding Programme in Lagos from 28 July and 29 August 2014.
Children of between the 5-18 years are invited to enroll for this summer program. Audax Solutions who are one of the recipients of 2014 Google RISE Awards, is of the believe that teaching programming skills to children is crucial to develop their problem solving,creative and communication skills.
It is expected that the children will come out of the program having learnt how to build websites and develop mobile applications
The Women’s Technological Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is currently accepting applications for its annual girls technology camp.
The camp is a 2-week technology education and mentoring programme aimed at helping girls develop an early interest in computers and other information technology. and in the long run increasing the numbers of Nigerian women using technology productively for learning, professional and leadership activities.
During the 2 week programme the participating girls will;
Be introduced to programming concepts using Scratch and the Raspberry Pi
Design and programme mobile apps using MIT’s App Inventor
Learn about the business strategies of software development
Assemble computer systems
Understand and write HTML code
Produce and edit a film using Adobe Premier
Create blogs and digital multimedia content
Learn photography and editing principles
Format: Residential Camp (The girls will stay at the camp venue for the duration of the programme)
Global payments firm Visa has launched CheckOut, a quick and easy payment service that enables consumers throughout the United States, Canada and Australia to pay for goods online, on any device, in just a few clicks.
With the US region launch, merchants and clients in Africa should be happy even if the firm has not announced any such move into the continent. However, Africa will not be forgotten for long.
According to Charlie Scharf, chief executive officer, Visa Inc. “As people around the world spend more time and money online, particularly using mobile devices, they are demanding a fast, secure and frictionless way to shop using the payment cards they already know and trust. Through insights provided by our cardholders, financial institutions and merchant partners, we designed an online payment experience that continues to deliver on this promise, bringing us closer to the simplicity and speed of the ‘swipe’ in the online world.”
Data from comScore reports that in the first quarter of 2014, 47 percent of total eCommerce spending in the United States was done with a Visa product due to security, ease of use and loyalty benefits. Visa Checkout promises just that.
Prompted as an easy and secure way to pay online, shoppers can use any Visa debit or credit card or even other branded cards to make purchases from a PC, mobile device or within a mobile app. Once enrolled, shoppers simply provide their username and password to complete the payment process — without ever having to leave the merchant’s website. Visa Checkout replaces the V.me by Visa service, first introduced in 2012.
“People aren’t looking for another wallet – they just want a simpler way to pay online, particularly on mobile devices, and that’s exactly what we designed Visa Checkout to do,” says Sam Shrauger, senior vice president, digital solutions, Visa Inc. “And for merchants and financial institutions, we’ve made Visa Checkout easy to implement and added advanced security features to help reduce the risk of fraud – all with the strength of the Visa brand behind it.”
Visa will drive broad awareness for Visa Checkout through a multi-million dollar advertising campaign, launching today in digital and social channels, and on television later this year. The campaign will feature participating merchants and a broad range of consumer offers and promotions. Top US payments card issuers, community banks, and credit unions are all participating in Visa Checkout.
A new mobile SDK is also available, allowing developers to quickly build and implement a native in-app checkout experience for iOS and Android-based devices.
According to Quarter two 2014 Gartner PC shipment results for EMEA region, consumer notebook and tablet brand, Asus shipped 2.2 million compared to 1.7 million units in the same period last year, as it continues to galvanize its lead in the hybrid market position.
The Taiwanese multinational grew from 8.4 percent PC market share in the second quarter of 2013 to 10 percent in the second quarter of this year. This translates to a 1.6 percent increase.
In a statement regarding the Gartner results, Mr. Chris Wen, the Country Product Manager for Asus Kenya Said. “The increased PC market growth realized by Asus is in part as a result of consumers readily going for tablets and hybrid notebooks-in developing markets like Kenya. The results also indicate growing confidence by our consumers in Asus fulfilling their needs when it comes to PC options.”
According to Gartner, hybrid ultramobiles, such as two-in-one devices, are attracting consumers more and more, adding that end users tend to go for the lower priced gadgets over the high end ones.
Early last month, the Taiwanese multinational added to its hybrid portfolio with the introduction of the Transformer Book Flip and the Transformer Book T300 at the Computex event in Taiwan-both of which run on the Windows 8 operating system (OS).
The company has revealed that it is hoping to ride on the successful quarter two performance by locally introducing some of its other gadgets aside from having an awareness campaign within the third quarter of this year.
“To leverage on the improved performance, Asus is looking at launching the Padfone in second half of this year. We anticipate that with this introduction the gap between a mainstream and transitional gadgets will be filled. Other than this we will be looking at conducting an activation within this third quarter- to strengthen our position as a hybrid device pioneer.” Said Mr. Wen
He further added that Asus expects to remain the fastest growing IT brand in Kenya in the second half year and widen its product offering to other markets within the East Africa region.
Kenya’s Jambojet has been ranked the best low cost carrier in Kenya at the World Airline Awards, awards are regarded as a benchmark on passenger satisfaction levels for airlines throughout the world.
The survey’s transparency and global coverage distinguish the awards as a most prestigious and respected quality recognition for the industry.
Barely three months since it started operations, Jambojet continued its ascendancy being feted as the fourth best low-cost airline in Africa after such big names as Mango, Fastjet and Kulula. This award recognizes the front-line budget airline service that Jambojet has pioneered and is providing in Kenya by making it possible for more people to fly.
The latest entrant in Kenya’s aviation sector, Jambojet flies between Nairobi and the key Kenyan cities of Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret, operating a fleet of three Boeing 737-300.
“We are happy to have been accorded this prestigious and respected rank in Africa. This is a valuable endorsement of our business model as we continue to realize our vision of offering travelers the services of a true low cost low fare airline”, said Willem Hondius, Jambojet CEO.
“Although low-cost airlines in East Africa have had a hard time surviving in the past, Jambojet will strive to be the exception as we seek to actualize our vision of making flying possible for everyone”, affirmed Mr. Hondius.
In the past month, Jambojet has increased the frequency on its route to Eldoret to enable passengers to travel twice daily via a timely and affordable means.
Founded early 2013, in Cairo, Egypt’s TrafficBytes, is an M2M cellular-based roads traffic management system that allows mobile operators and telecom vendors to leverage their cellular infrastructure and provide real-time accurate roads traffic information.
The startup aims to transform existing big data at mobile operators related to cellular events like signal profiling into useful information related to positions and speeds. TrafficBytes leverages existing cellular towers and uses them to monitor roads traffic, given that all global mobile operators are competing to provide better coverage, even in developing countries.
The founder, Mohamed Hussein, armed with an M.Sc in computer systems and his friends Mai Hassan, M.Sc in Telecommunication, Eng.. Heba Gaber, M.Sc in SW Eng and Asmaa Magdi, B.Sc in SW Eng wanted to do something about Cairo’s Traffic. After deep thinking, they saw the opportunity of using mobile phones to monitor traffic. Given the fact that mobile penetration in the African continent has reached 80%, and it is still the fastest growing region within the world. This means 8 out of 10 Africans have a mobile phone. Hence, the birth of TrafficBytes.
“Traffic congestion is a real worldwide problem, every country is searching for suitable methods to monitor every vehicle, everywhere and every when,” Hussein told TechMoran. “While ITS or Intelligent Transportation Systems components are too expensive for developing countries, searching for an autonomous cheap method to monitor vehicular traffic is a must. This will not only allow commuters and end-users to find shortest path, but will also allow governments to model the entire roads traffics and evaluate performance of the transportation infrastructure.”
“Our solution leverages the power of every phone on the road and transforms each device into a probe or sensor to measure the vehicular traffic- this is the power of big data without affecting the operator infrastructure or force users to install custom apps on their phone. Our solution transforms existing big data from mobile operator side into useful live vehicular traffic information,” Hussein adds.
The Machine to Machine model (M2M) can be used by businesses to consumers via SMS, USSD, or premium mobile apps. Consumers shall receive alerts/notification about a user’s favorite road or current speed, incidents, possible congestion among others. Users are charged a small fee on subscription.
However, TrafficBytes says the most valuable model allows businesses and enterprises to provide value-added services to their existing clients. Example for such clients are car manufacturers, mobile vendors, GPS vendors, map/navigation service providers, Radio RDS-FM providers, Traffic Brokers, etc, usually the model is based on license or subscription. Lastly, they will have B2G which allows governments to build their custom solutions or reporting systems via a license.
The first in the Middle East and North Africa, TrafficBytes is targeting Africa, the Middle East and developed countries to help them curb traffic congestion using mobile phones. They have received $20,000 as first round of investment and currently receiving second round of investments of about $30,000 from TA Telecom, CEO Amr Shady. TrafficBytes was awarded in the Intel Business Challenge in Middle East last year.
The team’s major challenge has been dealing with mobile operators and corporations’ who despise the capabilities of startups. However, their investor has been of help and has helped initiate two business leads and loads of other invaluable resources.
Apart from TrafficBytes, the team is also working on a system which analyzes big data of mobile operators, which provides a deep analysis to customers’ insights and demographics on the spatial and temporal domains. For example, what are the most commuters’ site attractions? defining of home/work locations, measure immigration levels, etc. This allows operators to provide a better customer experience and enhance their marketing campaigns.
At the moment, the team is happy to engage with one or more potential clients in Africa, and start global marketing campaigns from DEMO Africa launch pad where they have been selected as finalists.
“We’re really excited being part of this competition, we were searching for any lead in Africa, and here we go to the center of the black continent to pitch our venture in front of hundreds of VC and VIPs,” concludes Hussein.
When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced a shift last week in a 3,100 word email, he was serious. Today, in an email he announced over 18,000 job cuts spread in 12 months, and you might be affected.
“The first step to building the right organization for our ambitions is to realign our workforce. With this in mind, we will begin to reduce the size of our overall workforce by up to 18,000 jobs in the next year,” Nadella wrote. “Of that total, our work toward synergies and strategic alignment on Nokia Devices and Services is expected to account for about 12,500 jobs, comprising both professional and factory workers.”
The firm will in the next six months notify employees over the first 13,000 positions to be elimated in phase one. Workers will walk home with severance, job transition help and they might even applu for new positions set to be created in the company.
Microsoft will be a lean organization with one manager leading a huge pack of its workforce. The firm will also reduce its vendor staff. The Nokia Devices and Services teams will be integrated into Microsoft and the firm will shift select Nokia X product designs to become Lumia products running Windows with a focus on having Windows Universal Apps.
In an email, Stephen Elop said the Microsoft Devices Group’s fundamental focus is phones, the Surface, PPI, Xbox hardware among others but the devices arm has to work under Microsoft’s budget.
“We will be particularly focused on making the market for Windows Phone. In the near term, we plan to drive Windows Phone volume by targeting the more affordable smartphone segments, which are the fastest growing segments of the market, with Lumia. In addition to the portfolio already planned, we plan to deliver additional lower-cost Lumia devices by shifting select future Nokia X designs and products to Windows Phone devices. We expect to make this shift immediately while continuing to sell and support existing Nokia X products,” Elop wrote in his email to employees.
The aims to consolidate the former Smart Devices and Mobile Phones business units into one phone business unit responsible for all its phone efforts. The phone business unit will be led by Jo Harlow and will be responsible for Lumia products, the transition of select future Nokia X products to Lumia and for the ongoing operation of the first phone business.
Microsoft will concentrate its phone engineering efforts in Salo, Finland (for future, high-end Lumia products) and Tampere, Finland (for more affordable devices) while Oulu will be ramped down and engineering in Beijing and San Diego will reduce ut only run affordable devices in Beijing and supporting specific US requirements in San Diego. Espoo and Lund are planned to continue to be focused on application software development. Phone production will be mainly in Hanoi, with some production to continue in Beijing and Dongguan while other Microsoft manufacturing and repair operations will be shifted to Manaus and Reynosa respectively, and start a phased exit from Komaron, Hungary.
At the end of the bleeding, Elop’s team would have reduced by 12,500.
Microsoft Corporation is set to trounce Yahoo in the digital advertising market whose worth stands at $140.2 billion a study by research firm eMarketer has revealed.
According to the estimates done by the company, Microsoft’s global ad revenue share for 2014 this 2.54 percent which is more than Yahoo’s 2.52 percent share while Google is leading the pack with a 31.54 percent share.
Social media giant Facebook trails the others with 7.79 percent but together with Twitter they have recorded the largest gains in market share with Facebook improving from 5.82 and Twitter fro, 0.5percent to 0.79 percent.
Google, Facebook, Twitter, AOL and Yahoo, along with other social media and internet companies, depend heavily on advertising for revenue and profit.
Wananchi Group through itshome entertainment and communication services brand Zuku will be seeking to revitalize its voice telephony service provision capacity for all its Zuku Triple-play (broadband, multi-channel digital television and voice telephony) customers to enhance its service delivery capacity.
The move is also expected to position the company as an innovative player in the competitive communications market.
The project, which will involve the integration of a delivery platform technically known as a Soft Switch system, will soon see, Wananchi Group, providing fully-fledged voice telephony services.
As part of the triple-play offering, Zuku delivers high quality voice services with free unlimited local on-net (Zuku to Zuku subscriber) phone calls.
Speaking when he confirmed the ongoing soft switch integration at a cost of more than Kshs 86 million, Wananchi Group CEO Mr. Richard Alden, disclosed that upgrade works to support full voice telephony provision for Zuku triple-play subscribers’ will be completed by end of this month.
Once complete, Zuku triple-play subscribers will enjoy competitively priced voice telephony solutions delivered via fibre optic cables alongside Digital TV and Broadband data services.
The new system is capable of supporting its existing and projected subscriber growth and is also capable of providing innovative tailor made products such as airtime bundles, weekend and holiday tariffs, Friends and Family packages to meet the unique telephony needs of our corporate and residential customers.
“We are investing heavily to ensure that our Zuku triple-play customers continue to enjoy a true triple-play solution covering voice telephony, Digital TV and Broadband connection,” Alden said. “At the conclusion of the ongoing system upgrade, our customers will be in a position to enjoy clear fixed telephony services at some of the most affordable local and international rates,” he added.
In East Africa, Wananchi Group is the only triple-play operator and runs on an innovative mix of fibre optic cable and WiMax networks backed by a countrywide satellite infrastructure.
CEC Liquid Telecom Zambia, JV between Zambia’s energy transmission firm Copperbelt Energy Corporation PLC and the Liquid Telecom Group have today announced plans to invest more than US$15m to make fibre-based broadband available to the doorsteps of Zambian homes and businesses and appointed Andrew Kapula as Managing Director of CEC Liquid Telecom in Zambia.
“It’s great to be leading the team in Zambia and we will be working extremely hard to increase our market share, penetrate new markets and continue to provide businesses and homes with the fastest and most reliable broadband service in the country, coupled with outstanding customer service. Liquid Telecom is building Africa’s digital future and I share the company’s belief that everyone should have access to fast broadband,” said Mr. Kapula.
Mr Kapula will oversee CEC Liquid Telecom Zambia’s expansion into new vertical markets and the diversification of its product portfolio including regional and international IP backhaul, transit and leased lines for mobile operators and multi-sited business institutions.
CEC Liquid Telecom Zambia also aims to expand its fibre and wireless backbone infrastructure (GPON and 4G LTE). The firm has built a fibre network with more than 1200km and offers wholesale capacity in all of Zambia’s ten provinces.
With over 17 years in telecoms and IT roles, Mr Kapula has served on the board of CEC Liquid Telecom since 2011 and has worked at CEC for more than 17 years. He was also instrumental within the team that designed and built CEC’s fibre network, which runs alongside its power network.
As immigrants studying in Canada, two Rwandan students realized that it was very expensive, slow and ineficient to send money using existing remittance services. They say it required long procedures such as looking for a branch, lineups, filling up forms, was insecure and at times took so long to reach the beneficiaries.
Their friends had similar problems.
Starting September 2014, MERGIMS says it aims to disrupt remittances to East Africa through their website and a mobile application.
MERGIMS (combination of merging markets was started in the summer 2012 but was incorporated in April 2013 by Muhire Louis-Antoine, 32 years, a Canadian University graduate in communications. As the Founder & CIO and in charge of investor relations Muhire has been in Internet business since he was 20 years old. The Rwanda-born entrepreneur left Rwanda after the genocide and has been living in Canada since then.
Him and his friend and co-founder and COO, Gilbert Niyo Mugabo, 31 years, who has been to US and Canadian universities graduated in Logistics, supply chain specialist with extensive experience in business administration.
With 2000 plus followers on social media the platform aims to make it possible for people living in East Africa to have their services paid for by their counterparts in the Diaspora.
“We are bringing this possibility in the hands of the Eastern African diaspora around the world, via a web application (website and mobile application). However, for strategics reasons, at our starting we will be offering our services only in payment of tuition fees, utility bills (water and electricity) and airtime topup.” Muhire told TechMoran.
Mergins is currently listing merchants to its site and mobile app to allow diaspora members purchase gods or services online. The firm also has a secret formula to bring the cost much lower than the 10% minimum charged by Western Union and its lookalikes. The firm’s processes will take 5 minutes instead of 2 hours required in average.
Though they are not the first to do this as Muhire is confident the diaspora needs such services.
“Our costumer base is the Diaspora not local population, even if they can use our system. Also our short term expansion in very specific areas, and of course we have other secret formula that we can not display here :)) thank you for understanding this.”
Mergins recently got nearly $50k to help them stand on toes before they monetize. The firm is looking to raise around $500K.
Accepted into DEMO Africa, MERGIMS says its entering a chapter of raising serious money and believe Demo Africa will give them the great exposure to the right people who can step in and help disrupting the remittance system monopoly.
Before Mergins Muhire started Rekordproductions.com in 2000 for promoting urban artists but shut it down four years later while his co-foundr ran a Laundry Service which he shut when he went to study in Canada.
Opening its doors in South Africa’s Cape Town this month, Sw7 is revolutionizing the way startups are build by not taking equity and by not forcing them to quit their day jobs.
According to Keith Jones its founder, “One minute a new player will have a ton of press coverage and a load of backing behind it, the next it’ll have quietly disappeared and its founders will be suspiciously unavailable for interviews.Sw7 will try to change all that.”
Sw7 will not ask any of its participants to hand over equity in their companies, instead, participants pay a nominal fee to participate in one of three programmes with the most intense being a nine-week, part-time evening programme.
“During the course, founders will be equipped to build out the plans and strategy for the business through a series of mentoring workshops from up to three mentors, group workshops with their cohort and individual exercises amounting to around fifteen hours of work a week,” he added.
The programme is not limited to early stage ventures, as it also includes companies which have a turn over of up to R50 million.
Sw7 is also working in partnership with Microsoft BizAfrika and Jobsfund as well as a number of international and South African mentors. Among the local contingent of people who’ll be handing out advice to the startups are PrivateProperty founder Justinus Adriaanse and Quirk MD Justin Spratt.
“We don’t have the volume or quality of businesses coming through the market to support the traditional equity based international acceleration programmes,” said Jones. “On top of this, we have a world class B2B IT sector, which means that many of the businesses are able to bootstrap and fund the build of their products through services without the equity dilution”.
Neutral peering exchange NAPAfrica has said today it has reached a record-breaking peak of 15Gbps, making it the largest Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in Africa.
According to Michele McCann, business development manager for NAPAfrica, “It was launched in March 2012, and by December 2013 traffic was peaking at 5Gbps. In a little over two years, NAPAfrica has outperformed other leading IXPs by achieving double-digit growth. This rapid adoption by the market proves that peering exchanges are a much needed facility in the African Internet ecosystem.”
NAPAfrica is housed within each of Teraco’s vendor neutral data centre facilities in sub-Saharan Africa with the aim to make Internet more affordable and also advance the development of the Internet ecosystem.
“Peering is not new,” reminds McCann. The practice of ISPs, backbone providers and content providers exchanging traffic directly – either for money or for free – has been in existence for many years. “This interconnection and exchange encourages the local routing of domestic or regional traffic and in doing so, reduces costs and improves performance. In reaching 15Gbps, NAPAfrica has just proven yet again that the IXP model works and makes a positive contribution to the Internet economy of Africa.”
The role of the IXP in Africa will continue to grow in importance as the Internet increasingly globalises and interconnection between networks, content providers and users become even more critical: “Consumer demand for services with increased bandwidth requirements will continue to surge with lower tolerance levels for latency,” says McCann.
IXPs increase Internet usage, development of mobile technologies, improving national connectivity and growing access to international connectivity. NAPAfrica has 140 members across its three Internet Exchange Points. Africa has been lagging, mostly because of a lack of understanding of the IXP role and what benefits it can provide. Kenya’s IXP also aims to help drive internet consumption in the country.
A new app dubbed Shuffle allows an phone owner multiple unique phone numbers and email addresses, which a user can forward their calls or emails to. Shuffle is raising $35,000 through Indiegogo to make this a successs.
