Tag Posts: 3G

In 2010, Ecoweb (and Econet subsidiary) was first to come out with the message that they had launched a 4G internet service. The company had just launched its mobile WiMax platform April 2010; a first in Zimbabwe. Of course consumers had no idea what this 4G thing was. The real benefit a lot of people saw wasn’t the speed that the new generation was supposed to offer, it was the mobility.

Speaking at a Computer Society of Zimbabwe function yesterday, Spiritage Communications Managing Director Mr. Kangai Maukazuva disclosed the company has deployed a 3.9G network. Maukazuva was presenting the topic “Communication technologies for the future” to a huge group of information technology professionals. The presentation centered on the evolution in telecommunications to next generation networks (NGNs).

A free market economy is a sound development catalyst as jobs, opportunities and wealth are created. Unfortunately; as has been the case with anything unbalanced, capitalism can be downright devastating if left to its own devices. One cannot help but to think of scandals like Enron, Worldcom, Renaissance Zimbabwe and numerous others. Insatiable greed is a reality. Conversely too much government control in any economy can result in stagnation due to a lack of incentive and purpose. A fine balance of the two is a trusted success formula.

I’ve met more than enough Zimbabweans (geeks and ordinary humans alike) who feel that the local ICT sector is not up to scratch. When asked to specify what being “up to scratch” is, most immediately and rather animatedly set off an explosive cache of various beliefs, facts and figures. However correct some of the well informed opinion holders may be, there are a few cold facts that have rendered their sentiments to the confines of wishful thinking. They are as follows:

Today, we spent the better part of the morning at the Spiritage network operation center in Harare. We were invited along with a dozen other writers from the various media houses in Zimbabwe to a “pre-launch media briefing” of the business group.

First, let me say of all the Zim internet access providers (IAPs) we’ve talked to in recent months, today was the first time we felt we were at a company that’s set to take on the big incumbents head-on and possibly redefine Zimbabwe’s telecoms industry going forward.

IP Telephony has been around since as early as 1973 and has over the past decade been enhanced to attain telephone (PSTN) voice quality. Today VoIP services are offered internationally by traditional telecom operators (e.g. BT in the UK) and dedicated IP phone networks like Skype.

To say we didn’t wait with abated breath for one year would be a lie. We waited. We naively thought Econet would use its muscle and deep pockets to roll out the most affordable mobile broadband service.

It is common knowledge now that Zimbabweans are going to be getting better quality mobile Internet within the next 2 weeks. Whether it’s going to be affordable or not is of course another matter altogether and a discussion for when the official tariff schedules come out.

When Africom launched mobile internet services about a month ago, it was with a one month free bandwidth promotion for all customers. The promotion was due to expire on 10 October, when Africom said it would unveil the tariff schedule for the new services. 10 October came and passed and it’s emerging Africom is not ready yet.

Early this month, Econet promised to launch a comprehensive mobile Internet service at the end of the month. Talking to Econet staff lately, Techzim got the impression that Econet is about to launch something so impressive it’ll blow our minds off. And as one guy put it, “it’s going to be a game changer”.

We’ve just learnt that PowerTel, the state owned Internet Access Provider, has opened up its 3G service PowerConnect, to more subscribers. Powertel launched the mobile Internet service in 2007 but stopped signing up more subscribers after its network system reached … Continue reading →

No sooner had I hit ‘publish’ on an article about the suspension of Ecoweb Mobile WiMax sales, than a new SMS notification buzzed on my phone. It’s a broadcast message from Econet (You get to do this when you own a huge mobile network) and it confirms what we’ve been writing these past few weeks. It says:

Many people wanting to buy the Ecoweb Mobile WiMax service this week were met with an unpleasant surprise: Ecoweb customer service agents are telling prospective customers that the service is no longer available for new customers.

We just learnt from a contact that Econet will be launching new broadband services shortly. The new services will be branded ‘Econet Broadband’. The services will be a combination of the 4G mobile WiMax from Ecoweb (a subsidiary) and the 3G services introduced by Econet last year

After a couple of questions here on the blog about when Telecel will introduce 3G, we decided to reach out to Telecel last week to get an update straight from the horse’s mouth.