Safaricom's CEO Collymore dies
01 July 2019
Collymore was 61
The chief executive officer (CEO) of Kenyan telecom company Safaricom, Bob Collymore, has died at the age of 61.
A British businessman born in Guyana, Collymore had been suffering from an acute form of leukemia and passed away while at home on the morning of July 1st.
He was well known in Kenya and east Africa for championing M-Pesa to Kenyans, the mobile money transfer platform that began as texting money between users, but has now evolved to cover billions of financial transactions in the country.
Find out more Nigeria starts pulling down towers
26 June 2019
A typical tower
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has started to tear down over 7,000 telecom masts belonging to Globacom which exceed restrictions on maximum height.
It went ahead after the company failed to remove the masts despite multiple warnings. The NCAA noted that it had issued an ultimatum in May followed by multiple reminders, but the 30-day deadline had passed.
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Vodacom Lesotho and Facebook form new partnership
06 March 2019
The operator hopes the partnership will help more people become “first time users of the internet” in a part of the world with limited connectivity
Vodacom Lesotho has joined forces with Facebook to launch a free connectivity service that both companies claim will enable “hundreds of thousands of Basotho” to follow news and stay connected.
Facebook Flex will allow Vodacom Lesotho customers to switch seamlessly between free and data modes, making it possible for them to chat, post, comment, like or share content for free with family and friends.
The mobile network operator said it hoped the alliance would help more people access Facebook and become “first-time users of the internet” in a part of the world with limited connectivity.
Find out more Regional connections and usage will continue to boom
21 May 2018
Mobile penetration in East Africa as at 4Q17. (1) Eritrea; (2) Djibouti; (3) Ethiopia; (4) South Sudan; (5) Uganda; (6) Kenya; (7) Rwanda; (8) Burundi; (9) Tanzania. SOURCE: OVUM FORECASTER
East Africa will have 186m mobile broadband connections by 2022, according to Ovum.
In a report published in mid-May, the analyst said mobile data will be the key growth driver for the East African telecoms market in the next five years to 2022.
The forecast for mobile broadband (MBB) in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda is 112m subscriptions at end-2022, while the forecast for MBB in all nine East Africa countries is 186m subscriptions at end-2022.
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