Last week, Econet introduced a mobile Wi-Fi (MiFi if you want) device aimed directly at “small group” broadband users. That will be your home and small business users. In many ways therefore this product competes directly with the fixed broadband providers, especially as this comes after a broadband tariff slash 3 weeks ago by the operator. Well, competes except this is also a portable dongle of sorts.

As Zimbabwe’s internet industry gets increasingly competitive, a new VSAT internet service provider, Stargaze, has launched services in the country. In his communication to us, Stargaze Managing Director Chris Catto, said they are looking at rural communities as a key growth area for their company.

We have been alerted by readers to the hacking of yet another high profile website in Zimbabwe, that of the Financial Gazette, www.financialgazette.co.zw. Our checks show that the website was hacked on Friday, 4 January 2013, and remains compromised at the time of posting this article.

Today we woke up to the tip that the website of one of the largest internet service providers in the country, Zimbabwe Online (ZOL) had been hacked. Checking the website, we got the screenshot below:

Last week, the final Jumpstart event of the year was held at Cresta Jameson in Harare. The event was a panel discussion where we invited some of the judges of our annualJumpstart Challenge (it’s just in the second year actually) and local telecoms executives from Econet, the largest telecoms operator in Zimbabwe. The event was sponsored by ZOL.

One of main objectives when we founded the Jumpstart initiative earlier this year was to “connect startup ICT entrepreneurs to mentors that can guide them on building successful businesses.” We are therefore happy to announce that next week, we’re will host an event to that realises that specific objective of mentorship. On the evening of Thursday, 6 December 2012, we will have 4 entrepreneurs and technical executives from some of the largest companies locally as panellists in a discussion on tech entrepreneurship challenges faced locally and strategies to overcome them.

Last month, as we prepared to hold the ZOL Jumpstart Challenge 2012, we contacted the winners and finalists of the challenge in 2011 to check on the progress of their products and companies. The 2011 winner was Mukela Travel, a startup building an online reservation and hospitality management platform. The runner-ups were Softwarehouse with a [...]

This year, again, BarCamp Zimbabwe and the ZOL Jumpstart Challenge were a success. A big success. While BarCamp was held at the same venue as last year, we decided to take it outside and what a refreshing atmosphere full of networking, learning, mobile talk, gadget talk, discussions about mPayments, cloud computing, social media and everything that we [...]

Pitching is both an art and a science that every entrepreneur needs to master. Even if you possess a rare charm that enables you to sell ice to Eskimos, you still need to focus on articulating critical aspects of your startup. Ahead of this year’s ZOL Jumpstart Challenge, we’ve put together the few pointers below.  Each [...]

So it’s been a whole year since the first BarCamp and Startup Challenge, an another one is on the cards. This year’s challenge has been announced today on the Jumpstart website. The BarCamp Zimbabwe event is basically meant to get tech entrepreneurs, developers, designers and really anyone passionate about mobile and web tech into one place for a [...]

I remember the early days of email when I had a Yahoo and Hotmail account with a 5MB mailbox which I thought was totally great even though I was constantly deleting emails and when Gmail threw 1GB on the table that was the end of my Yahoo and Hotmail experience. I had the same sensation [...]

Telecel this week announced a promotional slash of mobile broadband prices by some 50% in a move that may trigger other mobile operators to respond in a bid to remain competitive. The second largest mobile operator in Zimbabwe now effectively has the lowest priced mobile broadband in the country. Amoung mobile operators that is. The new Telecel charges are still more expensive per megabyte than those offered by internet service providers like Africom and Zimbabwe Online.

Zimbabwe Online (ZOL), the ISP that has the largest number of Wi-Fi hotspots in Zimbabwe, has slashed the prices of its Wi-Fi internet service. The service has effectively become one of the lowest priced internet packages in the country. But the slash is coming with some not so good news; ZOL is killing the 15 minutes free trial it offered customers on its ZOLspots (ZOL hotspots).

An update sent out by one of Zimbabwe’s largest internet service providers, ZOL, confirms (what the industry has been saying for about a month now) that Aquiva Wireless and Aptics are having major issues delivering internet via the WiMAX platform. The ZOL update was sent out some 6 days ago and read in part:

Paul Graham, Founder of the Y Combinator incubation hub once spoke of the ingredients required to create Silicon Valley. He summed it up as a combination of:

Rich people (angel or VC investors) + Nerds (talent)