Author: Gugu Lourie

Signal revealed on its blog on Tuesday is testing Signal Payments, a new feature that enables you to send and receive privacy-focused payments as easily as sending or receiving a message. The new feature is on beta version of its apps. The feature currently supports a privacy-focused payments network called MobileCoin, which has its own currency, MOB. “We want payments in Signal to be fast, private, and work well on mobile devices,” wrote Jun Harada, Signal’s head of growth and communication, in a blog post. Signal Payments makes it easy to link a MobileCoin wallet to Signal so you can…

The M B Ontwikkelings Trust is taking Cell C to court for “wrongfully and culpably” interfering in a contract it has with a large retail outlet that supplies starter packs. The trust, which is situated in Maletswai – previously known as Aliwal North – a town on the Orange River, is demanding more than R21.3 million in damages from the embattled mobile phone company. In papers filed at the Eastern Cape High Court, the trust claims Cell C wrongfully and culpably interfered with its contract with DNI Retail, the largest wholesaler of starter packs for the mobile company in the country. Herman Zurich,…

The U.S Supreme Court on Monday sided with Google against Oracle in a fierce copyright dispute over the software used in Android, the mobile operating system. The court found that Google did not violate the law when it used more than 11,000 lines of software code belonging to Oracle in building its Android mobile operating system. Oracle owns a copyright in Java SE, a computer platform that uses the popular Java computer programming language. In 2005, Google acquired Android and sought to build a new software platform for mobile devices. To allow the millions of programmers familiar with the Java programming…

LG Electronics Inc. (LG) announced on Monday that it is closing its cash-guzzling mobile business worldwide. The South Korean firm said the decision to exit the mobile phone sector will enable it to focus resources in growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence, platforms and services. LG said in a statement the decision was approved by its board of directors earlier today. “The wind down of the mobile phone business is expected to be completed by July 31 although inventory of some existing models may still be available after that,” the company said.…

Telkom has unveiled its April 2021 Big Deal, which promises to amplify the way you connect to the Internet. The uncapped fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) promotion for 25.5Mbps is available for R399 a month on a 12-month contract. The deal, which is only available on the Openserve Fibre Network, provides fibre services on a month to month basis. In cases where the router and installation are included, this is subject to the fibre service is active for 12 months. There is no FUP (Fair Usage Policy) thresholds apply. The offer has limited HD streams allowed during peak hours The promotional campaign runs…

Smile Telecoms, a Pan-African telecommunications group, announced on Thursday it has secured $51 million (R750 million) in fresh capital to avert liquidation and fund operations. The company said its restructuring plan has been approved and agreed with the lenders. Smile Telecoms said the debt restructuring plan sees an injection in fresh money funding from its majority shareholder, the Al Nahla, and rescheduling on debt repayment until post-March 2022. Al Nahla, a Saudi Arabian-based company owns 49% of Smile. The PIC is a minority shareholder along with Renven Investment Holdings, a pan-African investment vehicle; Verene, representing Smile senior management and social…

China’s Huawei Technologies on Wednesday posted a 3.2% rise in net profit to CN¥64.6-billion ($9.8 billion) for the 2020 financial year versus growth of 5.6% in 2019. It also said sales revenue in 2020 rounded off at CNY891.4 billion, up 3.8% year-on-year. In May 2019, the US commerce department added, Huawei into the Entity List, which prohibits the company from purchasing US technologies as well as software services. In 2020, the Donald Trump administration further restricted Huawei from purchasing semiconductor products and cancelled licenses for existing suppliers. The United States government has been campaigning against Huawei in the past two years…

Jeff Bezos and other Silicon Valley investors are taking a bet on an accounting startup Pilot that seeks to help small businesses and startups outsource back-office tasks. The San Francisco-based company closed a $100 million (R1,5 billion) funding round this week, doubling its valuation to $1.2 billion (R18 billion). The funding was led by Bezos Expeditions (the personal investment company of Bezos) and Whale Rock Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures. Stripe and Index Ventures co-led Pilot’s $40 million (R600 million) Series B in April 2019. The latest financing brings the company’s total funding raised to over…

New York-based Chainalysis has raised $100 million (R1, 5 billion) and is now valued at over $2 billion (R30 billion). The blockchain analysis company announced on Friday that this latest round was led by Paradigm, with participation from TIME Ventures, the investment fund for Marc Benioff, and previous investors Addition and Ribbit. Chainalysis was founded in 2014 as the official investigators into the hack of Mt. Gox, then the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. “We’ll use the funds to accelerate business growth, expand our product portfolio and continue our mission to build trust in blockchains,” Chainalysis Co-Founder and CEO Michael Gronager and Jonathan…

In townships, people pay data by the minute, by the text, and by the gigabyte. This simply means any new network wanting to bring affordable data to this market needs to fit in with these township consumer habits. South Africa’s big mobile phone operators and fibre providers have so far failed to satisfy township consumers with their expensive products to access the Internet. As a result, many people continue to be excluded from the digital world. Eduard Walker, CEO of FibrePoynt, says an opportunity for a wireless fibre operator to connect townships, peri-urban areas, and small towns to the digital…

Remote work has created new job opportunities for some, offered more family time, and provided options for whether or when to commute. But there are also challenges ahead. The first annual Microsoft Work Trend Index reveals that high productivity masks an exhausted workforce working from home. “Self-assessed productivity has remained the same or higher for many employees over the past year, but at a human cost,” said Microsoft’s 2021 Word Trend Index. The survey finds that one in five global survey respondents say their employer does not care about their work-life balance. Fifty-four percent feel overworked. Thirty-nine percent feel exhausted.…

MetroFibre has secured R2.5 billion debt package from Investec to support its fibre network rollout across South Africa. The debt package complements the recent R1.5 billion equity raise supported by new shareholder AIIM together with current shareholders. MetroFibre, which launched in 2010, is a high-growth player in South Africa’s Fibre-To-The-Home (“FTTH”) and Fibre-To-The-Business (“FTTB”) markets. Over the last 10 years, MetroFibre has expanded its service offering to both residential and corporate customers in line with its strategic objective of being a diversified operator. MetroFibre owns and manages its core network which is a globally compliant Carrier Ethernet 2.0 open access…

London-listed telecom firm Airtel Africa today announced that it is exploring the listing of the mobile money business, the Airtel Mobile Commerce BV. The company, which has a presence in 14 countries across Africa, said on Thursday in a statement that The Rise Fund will invest $200 million in Airtel Mobile Commerce BV. The Rise Fund is a global impact investing platform of leading alternative investment firm TPG. AMC BV is currently the holding company for several of Airtel Africa’s mobile money operations and is now intended to own and operate the mobile money businesses across all of Airtel Africa’s…

The BMW i4 is a fully electric 4 door Gran Coupé and will enter the market during the course of 2021, including a BMW M Performance model. Its refined balance of BMW typical sportiness, comfort and sustainable performance are unique in its segment. The BMW i4 model line will be available in different versions covering ranges of up to 590km. With a power output of up to 390kW, the new all-electric car can accelerate from zero to 100km/h in around 4 seconds. “With its sporty looks, best in class driving dynamics and zero local emissions, the BMW i4 is a…

Nedbank, one of South Africa’s largest banks, says it now has more than 2,2 million digitally active customers as of end-December 2020, reflecting a 25% increase versus the same period in 2019. “We implemented our end-to-end digital onboarding, sales and servicing capabilities as part of our Managed Evolution (ME) technology journey, which have proven to be beneficial in this time, with digital sales in Retail Business and Banking (RBB) increasing to 49% (from 21% in 2019),” Nedbank said on Wednesday. “Excluding MobiMoney, digital sales increased to 26% (from 12% in 2019). Our clients’ access to banking improved, as digitally active…

Nedbank, one of South Africa’s largest bank, announced that its Money app is now actively used by 1,2 million clients for the year to end December 2020, up by 42% from 2019. The Money app, which first launched in September 2019, makes banking more convenient for retail clients. It is an easy-to-use, on-the-go banking app that enables you to do all your banking on your smartphone or tablet. “It continues to be rated highly on the Apple and Google app stores, with an average client rating of 4,4 (out of five),” said Nedbank on Wednesday. The banking group added that…

Nedbank’s super app Avo, launched during the national lockdown height, is slowly gaining traction as more customers signed up to use its services. In response to the coronavirus crisis, which created challenges for many clients in accessing essential services such as healthcare and home repair services, Nedbank launched its innovative super app Avo. The is a one-stop super app enabling clients to buy essential products and services online and have them delivered to their home, with payment via the Nedbank digital wallet. Nedbank first launched the Avo ‘super app’ in June 2020, offering customers and broader South African consumers access…

The Shoprite Xtra Savings Rewards Programme is riding high, adding millions of customers and flirting with 20 million users. The company said on Tuesday its Xtra Savings Rewards Programme launch in the Shoprite supermarket chain during October 2020 was met with an exceptional response from its loyal customer base. Despite the challenges stemming from a launch of this scale during COVID-19 lockdown, the programme was rolled out to 825 Shoprite and Shoprite LiquorShop stores in record time, the company said. “Together with the Checkers Xtra Savings Rewards Programme launched 12 months prior, the Group’s Xtra Savings Rewards Programme now has…

Liquid Intelligent Technologies, formerly known as Liquid Telecom, is expanding its operations into Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Last month, the company raised $840 million in a bond and loans to refinance debt and expand further into the continent. The company that is majority-owned by African telecoms tycoon Strive Masiyiwa is also building one of Africa’s largest data centres in Nigeria. Nic Rudnick, the CEO of Liquid Intelligent Technologies, said the group has appointed a CEO in Nigeria and has been recruiting staff. He added that the company’s new data centre will be live in a few…

MTN Zakhele Futhi is again in discussions with MTN to avert a liquidity crunch after the mobile phone company scrapped its full-year dividend for the year to end-December 2020. MTN’s Zakhele Futhi is a ring-fenced special purpose vehicle aimed at facilitating investment by previously disadvantaged South Africans in MTN Group (MTN). MTN on Thursday suspended its final dividend as it focuses on faster debt reduction at its holding company even after posting a surge in 2020 earnings. MTN said anticipates paying a total ordinary dividend of at least 260cps for the 2021 financial year. “We anticipate that this will be…

MTN Nigeria announced today it has acquired an additional 10MHz spectrum in the 800MHz band. The company said it bought the spectrum from Intercellular Nigeria Limited. MTN did not disclose the amount it paid to buy the spectrum. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has approved the transaction and assigned the frequency to MTN Nigeria, the company said. MTN said the acquisition will significantly improve customer experience, in line with our commitment to deliver excellent service quality to our subscribers. “Through this acquisition, we will be better positioned to support the deepening of broadband penetration in the country,” Karl Toriola, CEO…

At yesterday’s annual presentation, MTN played Nigeria’s popular Afrobeats music, which has grown into a global force. That reminded me of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie who in her most viewed TED Talk of all time, “The Danger of a Single Story”, describes the effects that labels can have on how we think about ourselves and others. “It is impossible to talk about a single story without talking about power,” says Adichie. “There is an Igbo [a Nigerian language] word that I think about whenever I think about the power structures of the world, and it is ‘nkali’. “It’s a noun…

MTN Group on Wednesday disclosed that its instant messaging platform, Ayoba, has reached 5.5 million monthly active users as of December 2020. To ensure Africa doesn’t miss out on the instant messaging revolution, MTN launched its instant messaging platform, Ayoba, in March 2019. Ayoba is an advanced communications application localised for African and Middle East consumer needs, under an independent Over the Top (OTT) brand with unique features for MTN customers. “We expanded our instant messaging platform Ayoba making good strides in the year, to record 5,5 million monthly active users, an addition of 3,5 million,” the company disclosed in…

The latest data released today shows that the value of MTN Mobile Money (MoMo) transactions were at $152 billion (R2.3 trillion) as of December 2020. The mobile phone operator added that it processed 12 400 MoMo transactions per minute (up 35% from 9 200 in 2019). Furthermore, the group disclosed that the number of active MTN Mobile Money users increased by 11,7 million to 46,4 million, generating a monthly ARPU of $1,2. “While COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of mobile financial services, growth in fintech revenue was moderated by reductions in transaction fees to support our customers, lockdown restrictions on agents and…

aYo, a mobile micro-insurance joint venture between MTN and SA’s third-biggest insurer Momentum Metropolitan, is firing on all cylinders. MTN Group announced on Wednesday that aYo insurance joint venture had 11 million registered policyholders and 6 million active policies as of December 2020. The company said in total, aYo generated $6,4 million (R106 million) in service revenue and $10,5 million (R172 million) premium income. aYo provides you with a fast, convenient and easy to use insurance right on your cell phone. You enjoy hospital and life insurance cover through airtime deduction (Recharge with Care) or when you send MoMo (mobile money) to your family or…