Africom in legal wrangle with supplier over dongles

A report in the Herald newspaper today says a dispute between Africom and a local devices supplier, Superpos, has spilled into the courts where Superpos is claiming to have suffered losses to the tune of US $146,848 in dongle supply deals with Africom that went sour.

According to the report the dongle supplying company claims Africom owes it money for dongles delivered but never paid for ($32,848 in total), as well as dongles that Superpos ordered from China on the basis of an Africom order but later found themselves stuck with the modems after Africom rejected them. The unaccepted modems, according to the report, are worth $114,000.

For their part, Africom says they acknowledge receiving the delivered modems but claim the dongles didn’t meet the specs they required. According to the report, Africom says the modems were not customised as agreed. On the 3,000 modems delivered, apparently Africom doesn’t even know about them.

Africom is one of the 15 licensed internet access providers and has in the market a mobile broadband product that uses the CDMA technology. The dongles in question are for this service.

You can read the full report here.