This is time to review recent happenings around our continent in early 2017. I am sure by now that readers must be bored by the cloud services that my columns have been concentrating on in the last few weeks. Pardon my enthusiasm for a technology that I believe will revolutionise the way business is done in Malawi. I am sure this column will be a welcome break.<\/p>\n
Microsoft East Africa has recently collaborated with Liquid Telecom to improve broadband services across the region. Liquid Telecom has a 40,000 km fibre backbone across 12 countries in the SADC and EAC regions and currently operates its main data centres in South Africa and Kenya to serve these areas.<\/p>\n
The aim is to focus on the delivery of cloud services, small-and-medium business development and the enablement of a television white space technology, with the telco offering the infrastructure in combination with Microsoft\u2019s cloud business portfolio.<\/p>\n
I hope this initiative will touch on Malawi, we need all the new entrant telcos we can get, to ensure that prices continue to be driven downwards, while reliability is increased. Oops, I seem to have strayed into cloud territory again!<\/p>\n
In connection with this, Pan-African telecommunications service provider Internet Solutions (IS) has partnered with Dublin-based Accuris Networks Limited to launch an Africa-wide Wi-Fi network to global carriers, multinational companies and local ISPs.<\/p>\n
In a recent statement the companies explain that Internet Solutions various independent WiFi networks are now consolidated into a combined network accessible anywhere with a single sign-on. They emphasise that Wi-Fi is here to stay in Africa as the most viable and cost effective bandwidth distribution model, and will allow the growth of Internet of Things (IOT) technologies, especially based on smartphones (the cheapest entry level device to the internet currently available on the continent), that link devices to each other.<\/p>\n
Unified communications have taken centre stage in the region in the role of voice and speech technologies in Business to Business (B2B) communication and customer care. The emphasis is on always-on mobile communications to the cloud, and real-time marketing. In Malawi, our very own mobile operator, TNM, has just launched a range of services in collaboration with Kirusa. Kirusa is a mobile services world leader headquartered in New Jersey, with offices across the globe.<\/p>\n
The range of services they are offering us include InstaVoice, Celeb and Sports services. instaVoice allows subscribers to manage their missed calls, voicemail and voice messages over the InstaVoice application, also allowing the user to respond to missed calls and voicemails, through text as well as rich media through a chat interface.<\/p>\n
InstaVoice Celeb links celebrities to their fans allowing local celebrities such as Dan Lu, Alpha Dude and Lomwe to use the voice blogging feature to deliver messages instantly to their fan base. Real time sports and entertainment updates will also be a part of this portfolio range. This partnership is the start of a wider range of mobile collaborations that will be supplied across the continent in the year. Should be interesting for all of us with smartphones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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