Mobile and Telecoms
New Content Rules Target Firms & Creators in Kenya
Image sourced from Pixabay Broadcasters, content creators, and online streaming service platforms in Kenya will start classifying content under new regulations meant to keep up with increased production. According to Business Daily, commercial TVs and radios will review 70 percent of the content aired for age appropriateness to show if it’s good for watching from a certain age, with the Kenya Film and Classification Board (KFCB) reviewing the other 30 percent. This will target pre-recorded shows like movies, advertisements, and telenovelas. Netflix, Showmax, and Amazon will also review 70 percent of their movies and add KFCB’s age-appropriate symbols. “Classification of one-day content can take one week and we are not able to keep up. So the involvement of the industry is to ensure complia...
Telkom & ICASA Settle Lawsuit Out of Court
Sourced from PC Mag South African semi-private telco group Telkom and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) today reached an out-of-court settlement bringing an end to the high court litigation over the licensing of the high-demand spectrum. According to the settlement agreement, ICASA will commence with the licensing of the spectrum that remains unassigned in the auction by no later than 30 June 2022 with the licensing process set to be concluded within ICASA’s current financial year. According to a press release, ICASA has undertaken that it will have regard for the outcomes of the recently completed auction, in its licensing of the unassigned 800 MHz. According to Telkom Group CEO, Serame Taukobong, the settlement addresses Telkom’s principal complaints: the r...
MTN Nigeria Says it Supports New Government SIM Registration Rules
MTN, the multinational mobile telecommunications company, reassured its Nigerian investors on Wednesday that the country’s SIM registration rules will not have a huge impact on its finances. This comes after the Federal Government ordered all telecommunication operators to bar all SIMs that are not registered with National Identification Number (NIN). The government made this call in 2020 after the country saw an increase in abduction incidents. According to Tech Central, MTN shares tumbled 7.8% in Johannesburg on Tuesday as investors took fright at the decision by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to order mobile operators in Nigeria to bar outgoing calls from phone numbers not linked to the NIN system. MTN said that its Nigerian subsidiary has made good progress in registering...
Huawei Pays Out $9.65-Billion to Staff
Image sourced from Notebook Check. Chinese multinational tech conglomerate Huawei has paid out dividends totaling $9.65-billion to its current and retired staff in its employee shareholder scheme, the Shanghai Clearing House said. Some 131,507 current and former workers are involved in the shareholder scheme, according to the company’s 2021 annual report released last week, Reuters reported. The filing that was published on Saturday doesn’t break down the dividends, according to reports. Huawei’s full-year revenue dropped 29% to 636.8 billion yuan ($100-billion) last year due to the sanctions imposed by the US on the company. The company’s net profit jumped by 76% which was mainly because of the sale of its budget-brand smartphone unit Honor. The US imposed trade restrictions on Huawei thr...
Telcos Bar 75-Million Unlinked SIMs in Nigeria
Image sourced from Tech Central. On Monday, telecommunication companies in Nigeria heeded the Federal Government’s command to bar every unlinked Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card without National Identification Number (NIN) on their various networks, in a bid to control insecurity, extortions, and abductions. According to The Guardian, the Federal Government through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy had ordered the operators to bar all ongoing calls to unlinked SIM cards in the country. In December 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered that all phone lines be linked to an identification number to help control incidents of abduction in the country. Officials from some telecom operators have confirmed receiving letters from the Nigerian Communications Commission...
MTN Invests $56.4-Million in Rural Limpopo & Mpumalanga, South Africa
MTN SA has announced a ramping up of investments to modernise existing and deploy new network infrastructure across Limpopo and Mpumalanga, South Africa. The company says ultra-rural villages such as Mtititi and Ga Marishane will benefit the most from the investment. The $56.4-million investment will go toward MTN’s “Modernisation of Network South Africa project” (MONZA) as well as expanded rural reach, 5G expansion and restoration of vandalised network infrastructure, the telco says. “Our aim is to significantly enhance access and open the door to new digital opportunities for many more people across the province. Our investment is specifically targeted at increasing network coverage, improving throughputs, and connecting the previously unconnected,” says Kagiso Moncho, GM: Northern Regio...
Safaricom Launches Shari’ah-Compliant Mobile Loans
Sourced from Tech Weez. Safaricom has partnered with Gulf African Bank to launch a Shari’ah-compliant mobile financial service, Helal Pesa, in Kenya. According to Tech Weez, the product is the first Shari’ah-compliant mobile and digital solution in the East African country. Customers accessing financing through the service will receive the amount requested in full with a repayment period of 30 days at a 5% commodity Murabaha margin, according to Tech Weez. Abdalla Abdulkhalik, MD – Gulf African Bank, said Kenya is now a highly innovative, interconnected, and fast-paced community that requires solutions on the go. “All our digital offerings including Halal Pesa, seek to directly address this aspect. Our current strategy is focused on digitization for financial inclusion. Our aim is to ...
Kenya Gets Sixth Submarine Internet Cable Worth $400-Million
Image sourced from bbc.com On Tuesday, Kenya launched its sixth submarine internet cable worth $400-million to offer high speed, lower latency, and broader bandwidth. According to Business Daily, the cable will connect Africa to France and Pakistan through the Europe-Asia route, providing direct connectivity to Asia, which is expected to reduce communication delays between Africa and Asia. The launch is also a partnership between Peace Cable and Telkom Kenya. The global Mobile Data Index reveals that Kenya has the most expensive mobile data in East Africa. However, the 15,000-kilometre cable is expected to create more flexible digital connection options, including high speeds of 200 Gbps per single wavelength with a total capacity of 192 Terabits per second, as well as stable and secure da...
Kenyans Spend More Time Listening To Radio Than Watching TV, Report Shows
Image sourced from Pixabay The Media Council of Kenya released a ‘State of the Media’ report on Thursday which shows that Kenyans spend more time listening to the radio than watching TV. According to the report, Kenyans watch TV for only two hours, which is, according to Gadgets Africa, is below the global average of 3 hours. Kenya’s Media Consumption: Did you know that 21 million Kenyans listen to the radio while the average time per day spent watching TV in Kenya is 2 hours against the global average time at 3 hours, 24 minutes? More statistics here: https://t.co/BhY675MYPj pic.twitter.com/CUcQ2nQNDB — Media Council of Kenya (@MediaCouncilK) January 31, 2022 On top of that, the Kenyans who watch TV only watch it for news and 30% of the people in the country rely on international co...
Liquid Lands Capacity of Subsea Cable Equiano in Nigeria & South Africa
Image sourced from Medium. Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a business of Cassava Technologies, a pan-African technology group, has announced it has acquired a fibre pair on the Equiano subsea cable, allowing Liquid to transport traffic up to 12 Terabits, bringing a much-needed increase in international connectivity in Western and Southern Africa. With older sub-sea cables almost at the end of their lifespan, Liquid through the Equiano cable system will address the growing need for Internet capacity supporting cloud services in both coastal and landlocked countries on the continent. The new Equiano subsea cable will link Africa to Europe via the West Coast of Africa when it is ready for service later in 2022, providing Terabit/s of capacity to meet the growing and varied business needs of ...
Airtel Africa Wants to Get Rid of its Towers to Cut Costs
Sourced from Comms MEA Pan-African telecommunications firm Airtel Africa has reportedly stopped investing in new tower infrastructure in Kenya, and other markets across the continent, as it prepares to sell most of its already-existing infrastructure assets. This is in efforts to reduce ownership of infrastructure as Airtel Africa looks towards leasing instead, according to Business Daily Africa. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is funding Airtel Africa, stated in an investment disclosure that Airtel is looking to focus on a cost-saving “asset-light business model” and has “divested most of its telecommunications tower portfolio” with the telecom operator now apparently in the final stages of divesting the majority of its remaining tower portfolio to other tower companies...
Why You Don’t Need VPN Encryption?
There is an army of shills on the internet pumping out unending content which claims that by simply clicking one button, you will be completely untraceable online. All of your online privacy concerns will be instantly addressed, as if by magic. VPNs aren’t the one-click solution to internet security. In fact, if you don’t choose a reputable provider a VPN will do more harm than good. Of course, there are reasons to use a VPN: Accessing blocked sites, hiding your IP address from the sites you’re visiting, and hiding your browsing activities from your internet service provider. All of that is fine. Where the claims start to get a little deceptive, is when providers talk about security. Recently, there’s even been lawsuits, and providers in the UK were taken to court for overselling, and for ...
