A new solution developed by IBM, Novartis & Vodafone and in collaboration with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, is set to use SMS technology as a lifesaving tool by improving the availability of anti-malarial drugs in remote areas in Tanzania...

Zain is streamlining its operations in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. A strategic five-year plan vested in NSN is intended to modernise a network which must be ready to serve a customer base now at 9 million...

Two appointments have been made by the Grameen Foundation. Norman Buckham will be the new regional CEO for Africa; David Edelstein becomes Director of the Grameen Technology Centre and Vice-President of Technology Programmes...

The government of Angola has commissioned a complete ID management system, the contract for which has been awarded to DGM-Sistemas...

An African customer wishing to remain private has ordered an Amos 5 satellite from Spacecom Satellite Communications Ltd. This satellite is due for launch in mid-2011; for the time being an Amos 5i will fulfill the customer’s communications needs...

Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica, uses his experience of the emerging markets to explain how marketing techniques are geared towards both avoiding offence and building up customer relations...

Research released by Frost & Sullivan and Colibria shows that mobile social networking is set to increase ten-fold in South America and Africa to a combined total of 527 million users in a market worth almost US$2.4 billion...

Stephane Boyera, Programme Manager to the World Wide Web Foundation, accompanied Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Web Foundation Director Rosemary Leith on their visit to Kenya and Uganda. The journey followed on from their presentation to the 2009 Internet Governance Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Stephane Boyera’s account is summarised here...

MTN Cameroon has announced the launch of MTN Virtual, which is aimed at orienting the economics of telephony towards those consumers in Cameroon who are at the base of the consumer hierarchy...

Telecel Globe’s subsidiaries have now been rebranded under the name leo. In Namibia, the operator, previously known as Cell One, has chosen Nokia Siemens Networks to enable new services in a country offering major growth potential...

Ericsson and Zain have joined forces to combat poverty in the Amansie-West district of Ghana’s Ashanti region. Working with the Millennium Villages project, the telecom giants have deployed mobile communications services to six villages...

Jinny Software, a supplier of messaging and media platforms to mobile network operators, is trialling its VoiceSMS service with several Mobile Network Operators in countries across Africa, including Kenya, Tanzania and Burkino Faso...

Somalian subscribers have finally gained the benefits of one code and one rate for the whole of their country. Somafone will expand its seamless mobile network with Tecore hosted managed services...

Botswana Telecommunications Company has chosen Ceragon’s solutions to upgrade its nationwide wireless backbone, as well as the backhaul network of its cellular subsidiary BeMobile. This deployment will enable BTC to support rapid subscriber growth and meet its service expansion plans...

According to a new report from Onda Analytics, Zamtel’s privatisation could result in its market share increasing by 15% under its new owner within six years...

Two Ghanaian journalists, Emily Nyarko and Lawrence Quartey, have been looking at the strengths and challenges that the ICT sector faces in their country. What follows is a shortened version of their recent report on the impact of liberalisation...

Arthur Noonan, Sales Manager (EMEA) at Omnix Software, presents us with a clear insight into the  varied and sometimes outright physical safety and security threats facing mobile operators around the world...

Alvarion has won Safaricom’s contract for the initial phase of a US$12 million+ new infrastructure project to connect Kenya with high-speed broadband using 802.16e WiMAX and Kenya’s new maritime fibre-optic cable...

Five West African markets were chosen for Research and Markets to base its analysis of regional broadband. The familiar problems of poor infrastructure and over-regulation make their presence felt but the analysts are optimistic...

Five West African markets were chosen for Research and Markets to base its analysis of regional broadband. The familiar problems of poor infrastructure and over-regulation make their presence felt but the analysts are optimistic...

Malawi’s economic future lies in exporting technology; this was a message stressed by Dr Mathews Mtumbuka, Deputy General Manager, Malswitch, when speaking to a conference of accountants in Malawi. His speech is summarised here...

Econet Telecom Lesotho has launched ForgetMeNot Africa’s Message Optimiser service across Lesotho, bringing mobile email services to rural and urban areas across the country and more than doubling the population’s access to email...

Aastra Telecom South Africa, a leading company in the enterprise communication market, has finalised its Sub Sahara African partner programme for launch as part of an expansion plan into the sub-Saharan region...

The World Bank Group has endorsed a $215 million, ten-year Central African Backbone Program which aims to bring rapid affordable internet to the region...

From its base in Abuja, Nigeria, CellTrust of Africa has been set up by its US-based parent CellTrust to provide secure mobile applications to one of the world’s fastest-growing mobile markets...

East African company Jamii Telecommunications is enabling global carriers to deliver services to and from East Africa with Veraz Networks’ softswitch solution. JTL now no longer has to rely on other local providers...

The deadline for bids for Nigerian telecoms incumbent, NITEL, has been pushed back from today to the end of October. Onda Analytics believes the complexity of the opportunity, resulting from the difficult situation NITEL has found itself in, is to blame for this delay...

At a time of unparalleled link-ups between East Africa and the rest of the world, SES is to offer its Astra2Connect satellite-based broadband platform for Internet connections to East and Central Africa...

Tariffs 72% cheaper, broadband adoption rising by 28% per annum compound, and only one African coastal state without cable access. These ambitious and inspiring predictions are made by Pyramid Research in its latest report Africa connects: undersea cables to drive an African broadband boom.

Congolese callers who are out of credit can still get through to their friends under a new service appropriately called Pay4Me. Operator MTN and customer management service Sicap have combined to market the product which runs on the same basis as a collect call basis...