Tag Posts: 4G

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.

If you’re in Zimbabwe and checked the newspapers yesterday, you probably saw the Brodacom advert above. The advert claims that before Brodacom came along, setting up fixed broadband in Zimbabwe used to cost US $3,500 and that thanks to Brodacom, that figure has been brought down to US $99.50, the price of Brodacom’s Wi-Fi device for small businesses and individuals.

Alepo, A US based company providing enabling infrastructure for telecommunications service providers, announced today that it has entered into a partnership with Dimension Data to roll out 4G services across Zimbabwe for Utande, a local ISP.

Yesterday, Spiritage finally came out with huge adverts in the press claiming they have a modern 4G network. The “game’s just changed” shouts the advert!

Has it?

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.

Last week, Spiritage (well, their Brodacom subsidiary) posed the question: What would you expect from a true4G network? This is a bold question to ask. Indeed it’s a bold statement in itself; it authoritatively declares that Brodacom is here to offer genuine 4G. It’s bold in that, even in developed economies, large telcos claiming to offer 4G services are being asked to back their 4G claims with some real facts or cease the advertising. Just next door in South Africa, Cell C was forced to pull its 4Gs advertising after MTN and Vodacom lodged complaints with the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa accusing Cell C of misleading the consumers.

Valley Technologies, one of Zimbabwe’s 15 licensed IAPs, has started an ad campaign to launch its 4G internet services. A local teaser ad titled “What would you expect from a TRUE 4G NETWORK” appeared in today’s papers. The ad’s call … Continue reading →

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.

Many of you saw the Masawara press release on Tuesday, and like us, most of you went into looking for who Telerix is. This is because Telerix is not on the list of official POTRAZ licensed Internet Access Providers. We thought it’d be a typical walk in the park verifying this information with the concerned parties. We were wrong.

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.

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

A little more than two weeks ago we got hold of an Ecoweb 4g Mobile WiMax kit. We’ve been using it since. Long enough to give a fair review. We cut the review up into separate sections so you can jump to the section you want

Since we posted that Ecoweb started selling 4G mobile WiMax last week, we’ve been trying to get some solid information on the network coverage of the new technology. We requested a coverage map but the response we got what was something to the effect of “tell us a location and we’ll tell you if it’s covered or not”. A polite way of saying “No”.

Last week, we revealed that Ecoweb was going to launch mobile WiMax this week. They just did. But that’s not the news. The news is this: It’s a staggering US$ 290 to get connected. The USB WiMax dongle, US$ 175, and the monthly bandwidth subscription, US$ 115.

We say that because when we discovered that Ecoweb was planning to charge $170 for the USB WiMax dongle and some $100 monthly subscription last week, we complained that this was way too expensive. And to our surprise, at launch the service is US$ 20 more expensive.