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    Is the Sun Setting on Zain?

    {Thursday, June 25th, 2009}

    Permalink: http://appfrica.net/blog/archives/2036

    The rumor mill has it that the mysterious ‘French company’ trying to buy Zain is actually Orange Telecom. That would make perfect sense as I can’t think of many other French companies with a few billion dollars lying around to make major mobile operator acquisitions…
    The Zain brand has only been in the Kenyan market for [...]


    Tags: , , , | Posted in Mobile | Comments



    Reviewing the G2 and Google Android

    {Friday, June 5th, 2009}

    Permalink: http://appfrica.net/blog/archives/1962

    Last week at the Google I/O Developers’ Conference, I was lucky enough to snag the hottest phone money can’t buy (at least, not for a little while). Google may not have an iPhone killer yet, but if this little piece of awesomeness is any indication, they sure are trying.
    Powering up the phone takes about 30 [...]


    Tags: , , , | Posted in Mobile | Comments Off



    Airtel Courting MTN in Merger Talks

    {Monday, May 25th, 2009}

    Permalink: http://appfrica.net/blog/archives/1896

    It appears that, despite breaking off negotiations last year, Bharti Airtel is interested in partnering with MTN again. Forbes reports…
    NEW DELHI - Exactly a year after he called off a merger between his flagship Bharti Airtel, India’s leading mobile phone operator, and MTN, billionaire Sunil Mittal is having a second stab at adding the South [...]


    Tags: , | Posted in Industry News, Mobile | Comments



    Permalink: http://appfrica.net/blog/archives/1828

    Last week I rebutted an article from the New York Times about the developing world being a collective boost to Web 2.0 application user numbers, but a bane in the sense that they have a hard time monetizing that international traffic. As I wrote that post, I had one of the projects we were working [...]


    Tags: , , , | Posted in Mobile, Startups | Comments



    Permalink: http://appfrica.net/blog/archives/1559

    When Twitter announced that it would be scaling back it’s SMS services for people outside of North America and Europe, it was a huge blow. Given that Twitter is only made up of about 8 million users (6 million if you don’t count the dead profiles and spammers), to Twitter it must have seemed rather [...]


    Tags: , | Posted in Industry News, Mobile | Comments



    How to Save a Sinking Skype

    {Friday, February 13th, 2009}

    Permalink: http://appfrica.net/blog/archives/1547

    Despite updates to the service and impressive growth, there’s still a lot of speculation that eBay may soon sell or spin-off Skype. I like, Skype, VOIP for international businesses is like heaven on Earth. It allows me to have a phone number in major business hubs (North America, UK, etc) which serves to reduce the [...]


    Tags: , , , , | Posted in Mobile | Comments



    Permalink: http://appfrica.net/blog/archives/1391

    Indian telco Tata Communications has bought an additional 30 per cent stake in South African network operator, Neotel, to become the majority stakeholder in the company …

    The managing director and CEO of Tata Communications, Srinath Narasimhan, said in a statement that Tata had bought the 30 per cent stake previously held by the South African [...]


    Tags: , , , | Posted in Mobile | Comments



    Permalink: http://appfrica.net/blog/archives/1303

    UNICEF Ethiopia has developed a platform that uses mobile phone text messages (SMS) to monitor the distribution of high protein food to under nourished children in over 1,800 feeding centers in Ethiopia. The SMS reporting system is used to coordinate distribution, supplies and find out the number of fed children and the need for more [...]


    Tags: , , , | Posted in Mobile | Comments



    Intel Offers WiMAX and Training to Kenya

    {Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008}

    Permalink: http://appfrica.net/blog/archives/1290

    Intel, the inventor of microprocessors and the world’s largest semiconductor company has signed a contract with Kenya Data Networks (KDN) and Alcatel Lucent to offer Kenya the first mobile WiMax trail using Wimax 802.16e technology. The technology will provide wireless broadband service at affordable prices, sending data up to 75mbps without cables. According to [...]


    Tags: , | Posted in Mobile | Comments



    Mobile Activism, Mobile Disruption

    {Monday, December 22nd, 2008}

    Permalink: http://appfrica.net/blog/archives/1288

    Christian Kreutz explores the growing trend of mobile devices as a disruptor in developing countries…

    The simplest and most powerful form of mobile activism in the future will probably still be ordinary communication. However, in all fields of activism such as advocacy, awareness, research and protest, the mobile phone can be a strategic tool for communication, [...]


    Tags: , | Posted in Mobile | Comments