Category Archives: Broadband

SEACOM restores cable connectivity for customers via alternative routes

March 26th, 2013

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Undersea Cable system operator, SEACOM, announced this morning that they have restored most of their customers to alternative cable routes while they work to fix the cable break between Egypt and Marseilles. According to the announcement, downstream internet providers connecting via the SEACOM cable should now be getting normal connectivity.

The wish list

March 22nd, 2013

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As I spent time in the darkness waiting for ZESA to restore power to my neighborhood; something that I have been doing for the past two weeks, I found myself with too much time on my hands.I started making a list of things that I would sell my first born to get in this country. A list that I have here repeated verbatim.

My terrible experience at the hands of PowerTel

February 6th, 2013

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It is my hope that through this open letter we may begin to see a change in PowerTel’s approach to customer service and business as a whole. I bought a PowerTel line on the 28th of January 2013, this after I had summoned enough courage to retry their service after having a horrible experience with them in 2010.

Saving mobile phone data

February 6th, 2013

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In the previous installment several suggestions were made on how to reduce bandwidth consumption on a capped connection. Whilst this article focused solely on PCs the rise in the use of smartphones has led to headaches as people try to manage data bundles on their smartphones and tablets. This is not helped by the fact that most mobile operator’s charges are a tad bit expensive when compared to their fixed Internet Service Providers.

Living with data caps in Zimbabwe

February 5th, 2013

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If we lived in a perfect world, all of us would have an unlimited internet connection on which you could do anything from video conferencing, watching movies and playing internet games. Of course such a connection does exist – you could obtain one from a provider locally but you’d have to give them your first born son in exchange

Life begins at 1mbps!

February 1st, 2013

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It is truth universally acknowledged that if you live on less than $1 a day you must be poor. In this new digital age I would like to add two more soundbites: Life begins at 1mbps and prosperity at a 100mbps. If information is power and if you live on less than 1mbps then you are undoubtedly poor.

Legitimate uses of BitTorrent

January 29th, 2013

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Since its inception in 2001 BitTorrent has come a long way. From being a fringe protocol to being the defacto peer-to-peer standard. The total number of active monthly BitTorrent users has been estimated to be more than a quarter of a billion.

Apps giveaway: What’s uncool about this ZOL advert?

January 25th, 2013

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Every now and again, people encounter strange stuff and are kind enough to send us a tip or ask us to investigate further. A kind reader did exactly that with the ZOL advert above that’s been running in the newspapers for at least 2 days now. There’s something quite uncool about this ad. Hint: it’s the kind of thing that will keep potential customers away.

A Zimbabwean geek’s letter to Santa

January 3rd, 2013

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Me and Santa have been good pals since the PTC days when life was much simpler. For all my troubles the only choices I had to make were between Surface Mail, Air Mail, Telegraph. Calling my infamous and terrible aunts was a small matter of giving their numbers six weeks in advance to, you guessed it, the PTC operator.

Utande expands offering with introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots

December 21st, 2012

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Wi-Fi hotspots are the next best thing for internet users who don’t want to commit themselves to “on the go” mobile broadband plans like those dongles that work sometimes and not sometimes. They also serve as that crucial backup internet when your usual office or home connection (or Dongle-wanaland itself) shakes you off the network for hours and your ISP seems in a hurry to not fix it. In short, they serve a great purpose in our local connectivity ecosystem.

Econet sort of reduces mobile broadband tariffs

December 18th, 2012

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So, what do you do if you’re a mobile operator and your customers have been clamouring all year about your mobile broadband tariffs being too high? Well, if you’re Econet you go ahead and reduce the price but you only make that reduction apply between 12 midnight and 5 AM. You also go ahead and limit it to customers buying data bundles.