All Tech News

For the second time in a week, Safaricom’s M-Pesa is in the news with one of its products, as the Kenyan mobile money service launches an interest-free loan service for buying goods.

In a reminder of the changing business models of many operators in Africa, it has been reported that the M-Pesa virtual Visa card, introduced in June, is now undercutting Kenya’s commercial banks in the foreign exchange market.

Telkom tower subsidiary Mitratel is considering raising its fibre optic rollout target for this year past 6,000km on the back of increased demand for fibre optic broadband in Indonesia.

Satellite connectivity provider OneWeb entered the Brazilian market after being awarded a 15-year landing rights license by regulator Anatel, as part of long-term plans to expand in South America.

Pan-African e-commerce platform Jumia has announced a partnership with Chinese smartphone manufacturer Realme. The joint aim is to roll out new devices at a time when Africa’s smartphone market is enjoying high growth; this in turn will benefit e-commerce.

Africell, a leading African mobile operator group, has implemented the Answers chatbot solution from cloud communication company Infobip.

Brazilian capital Brasilia is to lead the way in the country’s 5G rollout with the launch of  a 3.5GHz 5G network on Wednesday 6 July.

Globe Telecom partnered up with financial institutions including Unionbank to bolster its cybersecurity and revealed it blocked nine million scam messages in the first half of this year alone.

While government and industry in another major economy, India, are still debating how and when to enable private 5G networks, in Brazil steel producer Gerdau and Embratel, a major player in both voice and data communication, have already announced an agreement to roll out a dedicated 5G and LTE private network.

The Equiano subsea internet cable has been brought ashore in Namibia just under 18 months after the February 2021 announcement that Paratus Group, together with Telecom Namibia, had been selected to build the cable landing station (CLS) for Equiano.

Kacific has partnered with Indonesian operator Teleglobal to provide a large-scale deployment of mobile backhaul services to the archipelago’s major telecommunications operators.

Airtel Africa has launched SmartCash Payment Service Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary, to provide secure and reliable financial services across Nigeria.

China Mobile-backed Pakistani operator Zong has partnered with ZTE to implement a dual-band (1800MHz and 2100MHz) FDD Massive MIMO upgrade on its 4G network.

Chilean operator Entel claims to have extended its 5G coverage to all regions in the country, with the deployment currently 83% complete.

Brazil may be about to join the rush to standardise smartphone chargers. The National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), the Brazilian telecom regulator, has proposed making USB-C chargers mandatory for all smartphones sold in the country.

Satellite operator Inmarsat, satellite communication solutions companies Global Beam Telecom and Cobham, and global two-way radio manufacturing company Hytera have announced the launch of a new seamless push-to-talk (PTT) communications solution aimed at the Middle East market.

Philippines operator PLDT will switch on the United States-Transpacific Jupiter cable system next month, boosting its extensive fibre network.

MTN Nigeria, the country’s leading operator and the leading MTN operator by subscriber numbers, has taken 18 Nigerian banks to court over the alleged unauthorised transfer of ₦22.3 billion ($53.7 million) from an account owned by its recently-licensed mobile money Payment Service Bank (PSB) MoMo.

Fintech platform Nomanini has announced the launch of a new supply chain finance app called StockNow that connects fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) and financial service providers in order to serve Africa’s informal retailers at scale.

This week has seen the launch of a government-supported innovation to attract investors to Cameroon – in the form of SME-centric apps.

Two telecommunications satellites – one Indian and one Malaysian – have been successfully placed into geostationary orbit by the Ariane 5 launcher, operated by satellite launch company Arianespace.

Approved Apple repair centres in Russia are reportedly struggling to find legit parts to carry out repairs for devices after the nation was sanctioned by a raft of nations after beginning the invasion of Ukraine.

Is Kenya aiming to encourage an end to roaming charges in Africa? If reports from the local press are true, the country’s ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru may be hoping to pursue this course.

Elisa Estonia has confirmed the launch for fixed wireless access 5G services over its recently obtained 3.5GHz spectrum.

Etisalat UAE, the telecoms pillar of e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group), has announced the successful deployment and testing of mobile network slicing through 5G in collaboration with Huawei.

Local press reports in Nigeria are full of dire warnings about online retail superbrand Amazon’s plans for growth and how it could affect home-grown online retail. According to recently unearthed documents the company is apparently set to roll out in Nigeria in April 2023.

Philippines-based operator PLDT stated it blocked over 23 million spam texts over the span of three days, which were attempts to access consumer personal data, reported Bloomberg.

Zimbabwe is the latest African country planning to set to launch its first satellite into orbit. Next month, or possibly in August, ZimSat-1, a nanosatellite, will be launched from the Japanese KIBO Module – Japan's science module for the International Space Station (ISS).

Payments business Cellulant Zambia has announced a digital payment partnership with five leading Zambian water utility companies; Nkana Water, Kafubu Water, Mulonga Water, Chambeshi Water and Western Water.

Hungary’s Magyar Telekom has stated that its 3G network “will no longer be available anywhere from 1 July”, with phased shutdowns already in effect.