Top Stories – Page 2

Tag Archive for: Top Stories

Agriculture, Mobile, Mobile Money, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

FNB integrates mobile banking with Facebook

A view of the mobile account screen shot on the FNB app (image source: file photo)

FNB today announced that its customers can now buy FNB Vouchers using Cellphone Banking and send to friends on Facebook. FNB Vouchers on Facebook is another first by a bank in South Africa.

A view of the mobile account screen shot on the FNB app (image source: file photo)

FNB Vouchers are targeted at Facebook users in South Africa. This innovative product enables FNB customers registered for Cellphone Banking to send gifts to their Facebook friends — the recipient of the FNB Voucher can redeem it as Prepaid Airtime or convert it to cash by using the bank’s eWallet service.

CEO of FNB Cellphone Banking Solutions, Ravesh Ramlakan says, “Constant Innovation is what drives us at FNB. It is through innovation that we are able to design and deliver solutions that add convenience to the lives of our customers. FNB Vouchers is such a solution.”

Safety is an important element of this new feature. During the buying process, the customer creates a unique PIN for each voucher. This unique PIN is then used by the customer to post the voucher onto a friend’s Facebook wall. Only Facebook friends with a South African Cellphone number can redeem these vouchers. FNB Cellphone Banking customers can buy these vouchers from R25 – R300, with limit of R1500 per day.

“The face of banking as we know it is continuously changing and as a bank we have seen the benefits of keeping abreast with the move towards the virtual world. With increasing numbers of people joining and using social networks daily, this move was natural for us in terms of extending our reach and customer base,” concludes Ramlakan.

Staff writer

February 28, 2012/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Kenyan undersea cable goes live in April

The Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION2), Kenya’s fourth submarine cable, will become fully operational in April this year, the local telecommunications ministry revealed on Thursday.

Map outlying the LION2 undersea cable

The LION2 cable is a 3000 km line extending from Nyali, via the island of Mayotte, located in the northern Mozambique Channel from Mauritius and is set to significantly boost the nation’s bandwidth. Kenya already enjoys connectivity through The East African Marine System (TEAMS), the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and SEACOM.

Orange Kenya, involved with laying cables via its parent company, France Telecom, confirmed the schedule, adding that the cable arrived in Mombasa in December last year and is awaiting connection. Work continues to finish the cable’s connection at the Mombasa landing station, the company said.

Angela Ng’ang’a-Mumo, Orange Kenya’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, told reporters that progress on LION 2 “is on target”. Orange said the construction of the 1.28 Tbps cable “is expected to cost approximately KES 6.2 billion.”

According to reports, the cable is part of a bigger project by France Telecom and 12 members of the Lower Indian Ocean Network to build a submarine cable linking Madagascar to the rest of the world via Reunion Island and Mauritius.

Samuel Poghisio, Kenyan Information Minister, said he was confident that “once it is switched on, LION2 will intensify competition in the industry and help further lower Internet connectivity charges”.

Joseph Mayton

February 24, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Mobile Money, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Nigerian ICT looks to mobile money

Nigeria’s $25 billion mobile money market is set to top the agenda at the 66^thTelecom Consumer Parliament (TCP) meeting on Friday. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and telecom operators hope the conference will address challenges facing the industry.

Eugene Juwah is gearing up for Friday's event. (image: file)

The monthly event, held in Lagos, brings together government and operators to discuss issues in Nigerian telecoms industry.

Eugene Juwah, the NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, said the topic of the next event will be “Mobile Payment: The Consumer Perspective”.

Total mobile money transactions in emerging markets is expected to grow at an annual compound rate (CAGR) of 54%. From $25 billion in 2010, to $215 billion in 2015.

“There is also a forecast that mobile money subscribers will grow from 133 million users in 2010 at a CAGR of 40% to reach 709 million users in 2015,” his office said.

February 16, 2012/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Orange Tunisia introduces uncapped internet

The youngest telecom operator in Tunisia, Orange Tunisia, rolled out uncapped mobile internet access for all their ‘Internet Everywhere’ customers.

Orange Tunisia increasing their market share. (image credit: Alamy)

Currently users receive a monthly 7.5GB cap on their 3G network.

Now once the limit is reached, internet speed will slow down to 128kb/s, sufficient for internet browsing.

Customers will be alerted once their bandwidth limit is reached the company said in a statement.

Orange Tunisia was launched in 2010 by the local Mabrouk group and France Telecom.

Ahmed al-Hilali

February 15, 2012/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Zimbabwe’s Telecel set to invest US$70 million

Zimbabwe’s Telecel has announced a US$70 million investment in network expansion. John Swain, Telecel Zimbabwe Managing Director, also said its recent rebranding aligned them with Telecel affiliates such as Orascom Telecom Holdings.

Telecel Managing Director John Swain (image: TechZim)

“We are planning, with the assistance of our strategic partners, to invest more than US$70 million in the geographic expansion of our network and improving our core network systems. We are also investing in human capital and in management and technical training to ensure efficiency and improved service delivery,” Swain said.

“We have just introduced an emergency credit service, in response to requests from our customers. This allows active customers, who have been active on our network for at least three months, to access emergency credit,” he added.

Telecel Zimbabwe recently became the first mobile operator in Zimbabwe to offer its subscribers a credit facility.

Charlie Fripp – Online editor

February 14, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Mobile Money, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Western Cape taxis to use smart cards

The Peninsula Taxi Association (PTA) in the Western Cape will become the first taxi organisation using electronic payments in South Africa.

The Peninsula Taxi Association (PTA) will become the first taxi organisation to use a smart cards system for payment (image: Gateway)

The end of January saw the launch of the Tap-I-Fare card payment system. Five thousand cards were distributed to passengers. These cards are compatible with the MyCiTi bus service and Johannesburg’s Reya Vaya bus service too.

With a fleet of 250 vehicles, the PTA is testing the system on a number of taxis for now. “As a pilot project at the moment, the card system was being implemented in 42 vehicles which ran the city to Victoria & Alfred Waterfront route but would be rolled out to other routes in future. The 42 vehicles had wireless hand-held devices upon which the cards were swiped,” the New Age wrote.

“As the most progressive taxi association in the country, it was always the vision of the PTA to look ahead and pre-empt the ever changing needs of the commuter. This meant that changes had to be made to keep up with the times, and this card payment system was but one option that was explored,” said Ghaalid Behardien, association spokesperson .

The first 1000 passengers to buy a new card will get it at 50% discount, while card holders’ fares from Cape Town central to the V&A Waterfront are reduced by 50c.

Charlie Fripp – Online editor

February 8, 2012/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Nigerian regulator setting sight on fixed lines

Nigeria’s telecommunications regulator said on Monday it hopes to increase the number of subscribers to its fixed-line licenses to boost broadband internet services in the country.

hopes to increase the number of subscribers to its fixed-line licenses in the next year (image: stock.xchng)

Speaking to Bloomberg, Eugene Juwah, Nigerian Communications Commission CEO, said fixed-lines are key to boosting the country’s internet capacity.

“The licenses will be issued to revive the fixed-line telecommunication services that have been comatose and will benefit our broadband initiative,” Juwah said.

The agency wants to provide a “enabling environment” for private investors to expand the country’s broadband infrastructure, he said.

With Africa’s largest population of more than 160 million, Nigeria’s telephone users dramatically increased over the past decade. According to data published by the NCC, users grew from under a million in 2000 to over 90 million at the end of 2011.

Zooming out, fixed-line telephone users make up less than one percent of the total number, leaving room for growth in broadband communication as demand increases for data services, the NCC chief said.

David Eto

February 7, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Mobile Money, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Uganda’s Airtel launches mobile money

Uganda’s Airtel officially launched its mobile money scheme on Tuesday with Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi making the first transaction to a local journalist. The new platform should enable Ugandans to access their real money and convert it to e-money in order to pay bills and accounts, top up mobile credit and receive money across the country’s telecom networks.

Uganda’s Airtel officially launched its mobile money scheme on Tuesday (image: Blogspot)

Mbabazi said that telecom operators in the country are now giving users more options and adding value to their operations, which the PM said would have a “positive social impact and economic growth” for the country, singling out rural areas as having the greatest potential.

Airtel’s launch means the country now has four operators serving mobile money, after MTN, Uganda Telecom and Warid Telecom already had launched their services.

Airtel Uganda Managing Director, V.G Somasekhar told guests that the company invested sh300-million ($130 608) to upgrade its network services at 300 sites countrywide.

He said this enabled at least 1.5-million more customers to be accessed, bringing its total customer base to 4-million.

Andrew Matapare

February 2, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Mobile Money, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Kenya’s Cellulant and Barclays partner for digital services

Kenyan mobile services provider Cellulant has inked a deal with UK’s Barclays Bank in order to provide digital services across the African continent.

The two companies will partner on a new platform aimed at connecting banks (image: stock.xchng)

According to the deal, the two companies will partner on a new platform aimed at connecting banks with third-parties, including mobile network operators to boost the efficacy of mobile money services across the continent.

“Cellulant’s platform will be deployed in stages in Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Mauritius, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Seychelles, Botswana and Kenya,” the companies said.

Cellulant’s chief business officer, Paul Ndichu, said in a press release that “we have built a mobile commerce network connected to different platforms across different value chains in Africa such as [mobile] wallets, banks, merchant bill payment gateways and content delivery channels to deliver a transformational experience on mobile.”

According to John Gachora, Barclays Africa’s corporate banking MD, the digital drive is part of Barclay’s One Africa strategy to increase channel access for both retail customers and corporate clients.

“For corporate clients, this offers an efficient and cost-effective channel to bill and receive payments from their customers,” he added.

Janan Yussif

February 2, 2012/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mozambique gets a slice of SEACOM

The Mozambican Ministry of Science and Technology has signed a 20 year agreement to access international broadband fibre connectivity on the SEACOM network to Europe and onwards to the rest of the world.

SEACOM Chief Executive Officer Mark Simpson (image: mybroadband)

Beneficiaries of the newly acquired capacity include the Mozambique Research and Education Network (MoRENet) and the Government Electronic Network (GovNet), which are government-led projects established to improve online public service access and capability.

The bandwidth will help MoRENet to deliver reliable and cost-effective, high-speed internet traffic to member institutions whilst creating the platform to share education and research content with other Nationwide Research Education Networks (NRENs) around the world.

Similarly, GovNet will be able to better support its mandate to improve eGovernment performance. GovNet currently interconnects government institutions at both central and provincial levels, with an aim to connect all state and government institutions through a single private data communications network.

SEACOM CEO, Mark Simpson, said: “SEACOM is the ideal partner to provide the international connectivity that will complement Mozambique’s extensive broadband data communications networks initiatives. Over the past three years, we have witnessed how the availability of true broadband at lower prices can accelerate educational initiatives and economic development across the region and we look forward to working with the Mozambican government to help Build a truly African Internet.”

Both MoRENet and GovNet form an important part of the Mozambican government’s ICT Policy Implementation Strategy. The policy covers all major areas of Mozambique’s economy and society; tasked with creating an enabling environment for societal upliftment, improved performance of both public and private sectors and most importantly the ultimate eradication of poverty in the country.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr. Evaristo Baquete, said: “The Mozambican government views affordable and high quality data networks as a vital tool to achieve the country’s various developmental goals. SEACOM brought cheaper and faster international connectivity to this country and we believe that they are the partner of choice to continue to bring about positive changes to the country and its people.”

SEACOM believes in a world where the African internet experience is characterised by abundant local content, minimal latency, fast download and streaming speeds, and interconnected African markets. Today, over a dozen countries across the African continent have access to SEACOM’s low cost products and services via its extended network.

Staff writer

January 31, 2012/by actualize

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