Global cloud communications company Infobip has been appointed by Ubongo, a leading African edutainment company, to implement a WhatsApp channel with its latest offering Answers.
The South African unit of food delivery service Uber Eats has launched an app-based over-the-counter-medicines service.
South African operator Telkom has announced a new streaming platform that will focus on local content, which it will bring to a number of devices, including mobile phones.
Following last week’s news that India may be planning to launch its own app store as an alternative to the market-dominating Apple and Google offerings, a spat has been reported between Google and a number of Indian start-up app developers.
We’ve already reported on the growing number of made-in-India apps over recent months. If local news reports prove correct we may soon be reporting on a made-in-India app store.
A number of recent reports have underlined the difficulty of making money with streaming services in the African market – even for a dominant market player like Netflix. Netflix is now trying out at a low-priced mobile-only service.
Marketing and communications industry publication Campaign Middle East has reported that the news service Sky News Arabia is the first TV broadcaster in the region to have a live 24/7 channel output in what is referred to as mobile-friendly vertical mode.
As another reminder of the growing strength of OTT services in mobile-dominated markets, OSN, (Orbit Showtime Network) has signed a multi-year partnership with Vodafone Egypt.
The Indian government continued its crackdown on Chinese technology firms by banning 118 apps, citing security concerns threatening India’s sovereignty.
India has blocked two of the most well known Chinese apps, Baidu Search and Weibo.
While there may be question marks over India’s ability to cope without some Chinese goods and technologies if India decides to block them, the recent banning of 59 Chinese apps may offer real opportunities for Indian companies.
The news that India has banned 59 popular Chinese-devised mobile phone apps, including TikTok and WeChat, has initiated a debate on how far the Indian government intends to go in limiting trade with China – and how far it can afford to go.
In a bizarre and slightly unsettling recent turn of events, an Indian app that reportedly helps people delete or disable apps of Chinese origin has enjoyed massive, if brief, success on the Google Play store before being removed by Google.
The rollout out of voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) continues, with a leading Indonesian player joining the growing number of operators offering LTE-based voice calls to its subscribers.
Latvia is expected to be one of the first countries to launch a smartphone app using a new toolkit created by Apple and Alphabet’s Google to help trace coronavirus infections.
A number of telecommunications-led initiatives in India are offering the country new ways to manage the coronavirus threat.
Airtel Uganda and Avaya are teaming up to facilitate remote working and learning for organisations across Uganda in a bid to prevent the spread of Covid-19 (coronavirus).
Entertainment and video streaming apps are enjoying something of a boost in the Middle East at the moment, not least thanks to a new offering from Etisalat Misr and a surge in usage of Zoom in the UAE.
Facebook is expanding its Coronavirus Information Centre to 24 more countries in Africa in a bid to deliver news from trusted health authorities.
An estimated 3.6 billion people remain offline, and most people who are unconnected live in low-income countries, where an average of just two out of every ten people are online. Now a new initiative aims to reach them with vital health information – by text.
The Kenya-based Regional Centre for Mapping of Development Resources (RCMRD), which focuses on mapping, remote sensing and related fields in Africa, has launched a web application dedicated to monitoring the spread of Coronavirus across the centre’s 20 member states in Africa.
Encouraging news about useful applications of mobile technology to farming has recently come in from two countries in Africa.
Interesting news on the success or otherwise of attempts to bridge the digital divide comes from a new GSMA study that finds that the mobile internet gender gap has narrowed – but the gap is still a big one.
Indonesia is the latest country to introduce a Sigfox IoT network, with the recent official launch by Sigfox Indonesia of what it calls its 0G network for IoT operation in the country.
East Africa’s YOTVChannels and MTN Uganda have introduced a new TV streaming plan in Uganda that includes mobile users in its target audience.
In a fairly turbulent week for telecoms, there has at least been one encouraging piece of telecommunications news: an education-linked story from Zimbabwe – or rather from a Zimbabwean AI expert.
Tokopedia, Indonesia’s largest e-commerce marketplace, is said to be involved in a major fundraising effort targeting up to $1.5bn.
Indian operator Bharti Airtel has announced that its recently-launched voice over WiFi network service – Airtel WiFi Calling – has passed the one million user mark and that countrywide rollout will be accelerated.
The African Development Bank and Microsoft have launched what they call the Coding for Employment digital training platform (Coding4Employment.org), described as an online tool to provide digital skills to African youth, wherever they are across the continent.
Over 25 million mobile phone users in South Africa now have access to mobile internet basics at no cost – and signs are that the new offering – from Vodacom – is already very popular.
Facebook is inviting applications for the third edition of its London accelerator programme, which, for the first time, is open to start-ups from Africa.
Facebook and Twitter have blocked hundreds of accounts that appear to be part of a campaign of disinformation supported by the Chinese government.
MTN and reverse data billing pioneer biNu have announced a partnership which will enable subscribers in South Africa to access websites and apps free.
Mongolia’s Mongolsat Networks has announced plans to optimise multi-screen video delivery through a unified video platform that will, it is claimed, enable Mongolsat to securely deliver OTT and TV Everywhere services.
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