NAIROBI, Kenya, July 30, 2013/African Press Organization (APO) 

 Equity Bank and Airtel Kenya have today entered into a partnership that will offer comprehensive mobile commerce solutions to their customers in Kenya, through Airtel Money. 

The service, available to all Equity Bank customers with Airtel lines, will enable customers from both Airtel and Equity Bank to access Airtel mobile banking platforms, perform agency cash transactions at Equity Bank branches and also enable Airtel services customers to withdraw money at any Equity Bank countrywide.

Airtel Money will also enable customers to pay their utility bills, receive bank transaction alerts, check account balance and receive mini statements, among other services.

Speaking at the launch, Equity Bank Group CEO Dr. James Mwangi said: “We are pleased to enter into this agreement with Airtel, which will further strengthen our commitment to extending financial inclusion across East Africa by enabling the unbanked and under-banked to enjoy the benefits of mobile payments, while also giving us the opportunity to better serve Airtel customers.”

“We shall continue to strengthen our business model through innovation, enhanced use of technology, automation for a better customer experience and collaborations with industry stakeholders such as Airtel,” said Dr. Mwangi.

“This partnership with Equity Bank marks yet another milestone in deepening the accessibility of Airtel Money to our customers throughout Kenya. The 203 Equity branches and 600 Equity Bank ATMs, will complement our 10,000 Airtel Money agents spread across Kenya  thus making it easier and more convenient for customers to have guaranteed access to Airtel Money deposit and withdrawal of cash,” said Mr. Jayant Khosla CEO Airtel Africa- Anglophone.

While emphasizing that Airtel believed in the delivery of innovative and relevant mobile commerce solutions that make life easier for its customers, Mr. Khosla also added that they will continue to educate their customers on the benefits of using Airtel Money mobile commerce solutions including the product’s convenience and ease of use.

“Equity Bank and Airtel Money have a shared commitment in ensuring financial inclusion from many in Kenya and beyond. I’m certain that this relationship will in the days to come empower more people in the larger East Africa region where Equity Bank is operating,” said Mr. Khosla.

Airtel Money is fast becoming the preferred way of sending and receiving money across the Kenya and the region with customers widely using to pay utility bills such as electricity, water and pay-television subscriptions. The process is fully automated and reflects in real time providing customers with a faster and more secure mode of carrying out their transactions.

Airtel ventured into the local mobile commerce business two years ago and now has  a vast dealer network of more than 10,000 agents which include banks, bank agents, supermarket chains and Posta outlets.

The partnership with Equity Bank will also help drive mobile money adoption in sub-Saharan Africa where Airtel Money has expanded to 16 operating countries  and demand for provision of convenient financial transaction processing services for governments, corporations and institutions across is rising.

Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of Bharti Airtel Limited.
 

Calls charges per company on 1st Quarter 2013 according to TCRA | Create infographics

AIRTEL Tanzania has donated Mathematics, Chemistry and Biology books worth 12m/- to four secondary schools in Tanga region as part of the company's programme to boost the education sector in Tanzania.

Speaking during a brief handing over ceremony held in Tanga over the weekend, Korogwe District Education Office Mr Shaaban Shemzighwa said the donation would reduce books scarcity and improve education level in the region. "We hope that these efforts will spread all over the country and be a catalyst in the fight against ignorance among Tanzanian youths," he said.

The Sales Manager in Tanga and Kilimanjaro regions Edmund Lasway said the donation was part of the company's programme to assist the growth of education in Tanzania. One of the headmasters of the schools that benefited by the donation, Mr Victor Mwenda from Mkuzi Juu Secondary School said the books would improve efficiency in science subjects.

"We have to praise Airtel for their donation because lack of books is one of the problems that curb our teaching efforts especially on science subjects," he said. He called for students to make use of the donated books and keep them well.

The Airtel Tanzania Social Service Manager, Ms Hawa Bayuni said that Airtel was planning to enter in the new phase of distributing books to secondary schools in all regions of the country under its programme of giving back the profit to the community. "At this juncture a number of schools will benefit at all regions.

The project will target the secondary school chosen by the Ministry of Education that are in serious need of books," she said. "Since we started this project eight years back we have reached more than 1,500 secondary schools in the country. We have equally distributed to every region and reached students at all corners of the country.

DailyNews Tanzania

Tanzania

Embrace Science and Technology, Business Council Chief Exhorts

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BHARTI Airtel, a leading telecommunications service provider with operations in 20 countries across South Asia and Africa, has announced plans to launch the new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone.

The new BlackBerry Z10 is the first smartphone based on the re-designed, re

engineered and re-invented BlackBerry 10 platform, giving customers a powerful and unique new mobile computing experience.

The BlackBerry Z10 smartphone is the fastest and most advanced BlackBerry smartphone yet, and offers customers a smarter experience that continuously adapts to their needs.

The BlackBerry Z10 has already been launched in Nigeria and will become available from Airtel stores across Africa over the next few weeks. The new smartphone will be supported by Airtel's data bundles, designed specifically with the BlackBerry Z10 customer in mind.

DailyNews Tanzania.

Tanzania

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President Kikwete On The Right Handside

Tanzania's government is set to start talks to buy back a stake in a state-run telecoms company from the local subsidiary of India's Bharti Airtel, gaining full ownership of the telecoms provider, the president's office said on Friday.

It did not say why the government would buy back the 35% stake in Tanzania Telecommunications Corp (TTCL) from the local unit of India's largest mobile network operator.

But the transaction will allow the east African country to lift its 65% stake in TTCL and then seek new investors for the company, which the government said would be in charge of managing the country's national fibre optic network.

President Jakaya Kikwete discussed the deal with Bharti Airtel Chairman, Sunil Bharti Mittal during a meeting in Dar es Salaam on Thursday, the statement said.

Communications is the fastest-growing sector in east Africa's second-biggest economy, with seven players in the local mobile telecoms industry fighting for market share, forcing tariffs lower. The country had 25.9-million fixed line and mobile phone subscribers as of September 2012, according to the latest industry data.

Bharti Airtel Tanzania is the second-largest mobile phone operator in the country after Vodacom Tanzania, part of South Africa's Vodacom Group.

Reuters

 Airtel Africa signs MOU with UN WOMEN on initiatives to promote the empowerment of women and girls. Airtel will establish a Farmer’s Information System which will provide real time information to women farmers through its network in Africa.

NAIROBI, Kenya, March 1, 2013/ -- Women farmers in the East and Horn of Africa region are poised to benefit from practical information-sharing tools via Airtel’s mobile networks (http://www.airtel.com). This follows a memorandum of understanding signed between the UN Women (The United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women) and Airtel Africa. 

As per the MoU, UN Women will identify the farmers to be covered under this initiative, whilst Airtel will package and deliver the appropriate mobile solutions to support their livelihoods and enhance their efficiency.

Commenting on the partnership, Andre Beyers, the Chief Marketing Officer of Airtel Africa said: “The empowerment of women is essential to economic development, especially in rural and agricultural economies. We are pleased to partner with UN Women and contribute to their agenda of gender equality and empowerment of women by leveraging the possibilities mobile telephony has to offer.” 

Under the agreement, Airtel Africa will establish a Farmer's Information System, which will enable women farmers to access real time information related to weather, changes to the policy environment (such as taxation and regulation), available support services; as well as other areas. In addition, Airtel will also offer Internet protocol messaging services and closed user groups. 

Mobile connectivity gives rural communities access to education, banking facilities and opportunities to increase trade. By connecting rural communities through its mobile networks, Airtel aims to create positive community impact, greater social interaction and opportunities for economic development.

Christine Musisi, UN Women’s Regional Programme Director for the East & Horn of Africa, said: “This exciting new partnership will use the power of mobile telecommunications to engage and empower women in rural and urban areas.  Working with Airtel, UN Women can reach entrepreneurs faster, through communications platforms as they already own mobile phones. Increasingly, both the public and private sectors recognize that empowering women is smart economics, and that women must be brought to the heart of Africa’s development. We will work closely with Airtel to train women so that they, their families, and the region can reap the benefits of this opportunity.” 

The two-year partnership between Airtel and UN WOMEN aims at building the skills, capabilities and resources of women entrepreneurs. Women provide approximately 70 percent of agricultural labour and produce 90 percent of all food, yet do not always share equally in the economic benefits of the industry. Airtel and UN Women are dedicated to helping women farmers enhance their productive capacity and international competitiveness in the countries where they jointly operate. 

Airtel believes that entrepreneurship and the development of the private sector are essential to achieving economic development and poverty eradication. Under this agreement, Airtel will also co-finance initiatives and projects promoting the empowerment of women and the girl child.

Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of Bharti Airtel Limited

AIRTEL Tanzania on Wednesday announced that it has reduced tariffs to 10 cents a second after the first two minutes of the call. "We have lowered our call rates by 70 per cent to continue to offer innovative, flexible and affordable value that meet the growing demands and needs of all our customers," Airtel Managing Director, Mr Sam Elangalloor said.

He said calling Airtel to Airtel number is hassle-free. "Now Airtel customers can talk all day and all night for only 10 cents per second after two minutes of their call," he explained. "We continue with our efforts to provide efficient communication while fulfilling our commitment to enhance quality and affordable services and provide unique experiences to our customers across Tanzania," added Elangalloor.

Airtel Corporate Communications Director Beatrice Singano Mallya said; "With effect from today, it will cost Airtel's pre-paid customers less to make calls for Airtel to Airtel.”There is no need to enroll into the service; all prepaid customers will automatically enjoy this service on their second minute."

Dailynews Tanzania

The Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) said that the number of phone subscribers had risen to 28.02 million, with the majority using mobile phones, in the period April-June 2012, Biztech reported.

Vodacom was at the top with 12.32 million mobile subscribers, followed by Airtel Tanzania with 7.50 million subscribers, Tigo with 5.61 million, Zantel with 2.36 million and state-owned Tanzania Telecommunication Company Ltd (TTCL) with 227,424. Benson has 1,050 and Sasatel has 4,810 subscribers. This is an increase of 704,946 subscribers in one month: In May 2012, the number of phone subscribers was 27.32 million.

Telecompaper.com

Airtel is the first and only operator in Kenya to comply fully with the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) directive on SIM card registration by making it mandatory that all its new SIM cards are registered before being used on the network as from January 02, 2013.
The CCK had directed compliance on SIM registration by December 31, 2012, inspired by the need to stem the rising incidences of mobile phone perpetrated crimes, including kidnaps, extortion, hate speech, money laundering and drug trafficking. This registration requirement directive also applied to those taking up mobile phone services for the first time as well as those buying additional SIM cards.
Airtel had taken the directive seriously, conducting public awareness campaigns all over the country to rally its subscribers to register their lines ahead of the December 31, 2012 deadline on subscriber registration. In a statement the Airtel Kenya managing director Shivan Bhargava said "We are implementing the directive from CCK to suspend unregistered lines and we will continue to do so until all existing unregistered lines are cleared. We have also made it convenient for our customers to register their lines by simply dialing *800# for the self-registration process. The self-registration menu provides our customers with a simple menu where they fill in all the details required by the CCK including their names, telephone and national ID numbers from the convenience of their handsets."
Mr. Bhargava urged all Airtel subscribers to take advantage of this process andregister their lines immediately to avoid suspension and to enable them to continue enjoying Airtel's affordable quality communication. New subscribers on Airtel are being registered on the spot by the retailers through a short code that provides a menu for registration. The retailer dials *700 # and fills in the details of the customer followed by an immediate confirmation message upon successful completion of the registration process. All new SIMcards offered for sale by the company are only activated upon the successful completion of the subscriber registration process, ensuring that Airtel is fully compliant with the CCK guidelines for the new SIM registration and customer acquisition.
So far Airtel have suspended outgoing call services for 324,033 subscribers out of the targeted 822,526 subscribers on the network. unregistered SIM cards owners were however handed a 90 days reprieve by the regulator toregister their lines failure to which they will be permanently de-activated. According to Communication Commission of Kenya, there are a total of 30.8 million active SIM cards in the country of which 80.4 per cent or24.7 million are registered.

CIO East Africa Kenya

AIRTEL Zambia has invested K140 million towards the donation of computers, furniture and internet modems to 21 schools and organisations.

Handing over the goods, Airtel head of corporate communication and government relations Dr Chabuka Kawesha said the donation is in line with the company’s corperate social responsibility.

He said this when he handed over three computers to Zambia Association of Chambers of Commerce,Trade and Industry, Zambia Association for Persons with Disabilities, Zambia Girl Guide and House of Moses Orphanage in Lusaka yesterday.

“Information and communication technology (ICT), especially internet in the education sector plays an important role particularly in the process of empowering the technology into the education activities”, Dr Kawesha said.

He said Airtel has partnered with the Ministry of Education in uplifting the education standards especially in deprived areas under the company’s ‘Our School Project’.
Speaking at the same function  Zambia Association  for Persons with Disabilities  director Dr Felix Silwimba commended Airtel for the wonderful gesture and for supporting the differently abled people in Zambia.
 

Dailymail Zambia

AIRTEL Tanzania has donated books worth 16 million to eight Dar es Salaam secondary schools.
The schools that have benefited from the support are Al-Haramain Seminary, Whitelake, Mwambao, Hondogo B, Misitu, Yemen, Yeshua and Archbishop John Sepeku Secondary Schools.

Speaking at the event held at Yemen Secondary School in Dar es Salaam over the weekend, the Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS), Michael Ole Mugaya admitted that most of schools lack books, thus making the task to offer quality education quite hard.

"It is good that the donation has been done equally to secondary schools from all Dar es Salaam districts. In fact lack of books is a challenge to our government and we always call for other stakeholders to borrow a leaf and do the same or more," said Ole Mugaya Airtel Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, Hawa Bayumi said her company was concerned by lack of teaching gears in schools which impacts negatively on the quality of education.

"We have donated books that cut across all subjects such as Geography, Mathematics and Science. We believe that students will study comfortably once every student gets a book," said Ms Hawa.
Antipas Chale, Yemen Secondary School Headmaster who gave a note of appreciation on behalf of the beneficiaries said the support was a morale booster to teachers and students.
Airtel Tanzania is running the initiative under the theme "Shule Yetu Project" to help alleviate shortage of teaching aids in schools. Since the beginning of the project, the company has provided teaching aids to over 1,000 primary and secondary schools.

Tanzania Daily News

AIRTEL Tanzania Limited announced a mega promotion to reward its customers during the festive season.
Speaking during the launch, Airtel VAS Manager Francis Ndikumwami said "Airtel is giving yet another opportunity to Tanzanians to participate and win cash prizes during this festive season. ”Today we are launching "Amka millionea" with cash prizes worth 401m/- for just 90 days.

There will be daily, weekly, monthly and a grand prize to be won, where 875 Airtel customers will be awarded a total 401m/- He said that there will be top scorer winner prizes and other lucky winners from daily, weekly and monthly draws. "Amka milionea promotion will ensure every day there are 10 winners to win 3m/- daily, 6m/- weekly and 30m/- monthly.

There will be a grand prize of 50m/- at the end of the promotion". Airtel Public Relations Manager Jackson Mmbando said: "What Airtel customers need to do to enrol to the "Amka Milionea" is to sms the word "WIN OR SHINDA" to number 15595 free of charge, and they will be enrolled into the promotion" He added:

"After enrolment the customer will receive a welcome sms and instruction from number 15656 on how to participate in the promotion where they will receive questions to answer and accumulate points".
Every answer will be awarded points, for correct answers 20 points will be given and 10 points for wrong answers, to ensure all our customers receive greater chances of winning. For every answered question there will be a charge of 350/- Tshs including Taxes. The promotion which started yesterday runs until March 2 next year.

Tanzania Daily News

Airtel customers already avail this facility across the company’s mobile network in 17 African countries, not having to pay roaming charges while travelling across these countries.

“Airtel’s One Network now gives our customers the ability to drastically reduce roaming charges whilst travelling within and across the two continents. Our goal is to provide affordable and relevant mobile communication solutions across borders,” Airtel Africa Chief Marketing Officer Andre Beyers said in a statement.

Airtel customers in Africa need not register for the One Network service or buy new SIM cards as they will now be automatically provisioned as ‘citizens’ of Airtel’s borderless network across 20 countries in Africa and Asia.

This offers opportunities to a base of 60 million Airtel customers in Africa to roam at affordable tariffs in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the statement said.

“By offering free incoming calls whilst roaming, the service ups the ante for global telecom providers as the seamless service across continents is a world-first amongst mobile service providers,” it added.

Within the African countries, One Network also allows Airtel customers to use their local Airtel SIM cards whilst abroad. This would give them access to attractive rates for calls made and enjoy value added services and recharge using local top up vouchers in the country visited, besides being able to access data.

thehindubusinessline.com

New Delhi: Alcatel-Lucent is to help Bharti Airtel meet rapidly growing demand for mobile broadband services in its African operations by supplying advanced new IP-based networking technology to support the delivery of new mobile broadband data and video services.

Rising smartphone ownership in Africa is driving demand for high-bandwidth mobile data services such as video calling and online gaming. To satisfy this demand and meet continued expansion, Alcatel-Lucent will evolve Airtel Africa’s data transport and mobile backhaul1 networks using its IP/MPLS (IP/Multiprotocol Label Switching) technology.

This new backbone network will support all mobile broadband services to Airtel’s 17 affiliates across Africa – serving 60 million customers - as well as a much more robust interconnection to global networks including the UK.

The single international network will offer a more simple structure to improve performance, reliability, capacity convergence and interoperable mechanisms for faster service recovery.

The Airtel investment includes a common platform for Layer 2 and Layer 3 service provisioning to reduce the time of delivering the variety of service types.

Financialexpress.com 

Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel, a telecommunications services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, has said that it has undertaken an end-to-end network transformation program across its mobile operations in 16 African countries.

The program, which is the largest of its kind on the African continent, in partnership with Ericsson involved a comprehensive upgrade and expansion of network elements on all of Airtel's African operations, including switching, radio, network management, data, charging, and consumer-services platforms and systems.

This network transformation program, under which Ericsson has deployed latest wireless technologies, will enhance Airtel's network capacity and robustness and help deliver best-in-class services to customers at affordable rates.

It also makes the company's networks fully ready for next generation services that include high speed data and value added services.

In addition, a full upgrade of the charging platforms across all operations was implemented introducing the latest version of Ericsson's Charging System, enabling Airtel to offer subscribers new and innovative value-added services such as mobile wallets.

Eben Albertyn, Chief Technical Officer, Airtel Africa noted that the customer is at the core of everything they do. "The implementation of this transformation program will enable us to further enrich our customer experience across the region.

Ericsson's systems integration organization delivers more than 1500 systems integration projects per year in multi-vendor and multiple-technology environments. Projects range from single-solution integrations to end-to-end solution transformation projects such as this one.

Lars Lindén, head of Ericsson Sub-Saharan Africa, explained that in the transition to a Networked Society in Africa, operators are facing growing challenges in meeting the rapidly evolving demands of consumers. "The focus of this project was transforming our networks to meet current and future consumer demands."

East African Business Week (Kampala)

Leading telecom operator Airtel Zambia has called on the government to better regulate the communications sector in the East African country in order to promote better competition across the country.

Managing Director Fayaz King was quoted by Biztech as saying that “regulation needs to encourage product development and services and allow a lot more spectrum for operators to have freedom to self-regulate.”
He argued that “the predictability in the long-term nature of policies and regulation need to be taken into account. 

Qhen service providers are not life-threatening to consumers, then regulation should be broad.”
The statement from Airtel Zambia comes as the country aims to increase rural mobile penetration and infrastructure development, but fears in the country are growing that without more regulation, competition will wane, which could see prices rise for customers.

King said that “setting a solid foundation was a key that enabled a business to prosper,” adding that competition “is an important aspect that can lead to employment opportunities if well tackled.”

King said, “foreign investors should not just come and bring their businesses here, but they should also realize that a business should be very competitive if it has to foster development and income in the country.”
The Airtel Managing Director argued the ICT sector “is one sector that is very competitive, adding that competition has enabled mobile service providers to grow to nearly every corners of the country.”

Despite their push, the Zambia Information Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA), the country’s telecom regulator, argued that the sector is “fair” and there are no worries of a reduction in competition.

Prof. Makame Mbarawa

COSTS of making mobile phone calls have been reduced by 37 per cent in the past three years, after introduction of national fibre optic network through the National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB).

Addressing the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) 8th National Congress in Dodoma, the minister for communication, science and technology, Prof Makame Mbarawa, said currently the cost for talking for one minute is 59/-. He said that a minute in 2009 cost 147/-, while when people call a different mobile operator the cost for a minute is currently 137/-.

NICTBB is already connected to major submarine cables of SEACOM (July 2009) and EASSY (April 2010) extending the connectivity to neighbouring countries. The virtual landing stations of the submarine cables through the NICTBB have been established at the respective cross-border points of Rwanda (Rusumo station), Uganda (Mtukula station), Malawi (Kasumulo station), Zambia (Tunduma station) and Kenya (Namanga, Sirari and Horohoro stations).

Prof Mbarawa further said that the government has introduced universal communication fund to facilitate telecommunication to communities in areas with less business attractions and that all areas will be covered by 2014. "So far 3,000 villages do have access to cellular network services as most operators shun them (villages) because of less business attraction," he said.

He observed that the government will introduce the Telecommunications Monitoring System (TMS) which is aimed at tracking the amount of money generated by cellular network companies in December, this year. The system to be administered by Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) will facilitate the government's ability to monitor revenues earned by telecommunications' companies.
Prof Mbarawa also said the Mbeya Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) has been upgraded to a university status (Mbeya University of Science and Technology -MUST-) and that a total of 235 Tanzanian students are currently undertaking undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology in Arusha.

Tanzania Daily News

Dar es Salaam, Stiff competition in the telecoms industry recorded a mixed trend among operators as Zantel emerged the best performer in the second quarter while the market leader – Vodacom Tanzania – lost some subscribers.

Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) telecoms quarterly report indicates that Zantel recorded the highest number of subscriptions after attaining a 17 per cent growth rate, followed by Airtel Tanzania (2.3 per cent), Tigo 0.9 per cent , while Vodacom Tanzania recorded a -2 per cent.

Zantel saw its subscriptions swell to 2.35 million by June 2012, from 1.51 million recorded in March this year, being an  increase of 845,628 subscriptions  in a period of three months. However, Vodacom remained on top in terms of market share which also experienced some changes.

The market share for Vodacom Tanzania stood at 44 per cent – a three per cent drop from 47 per cent recoded in March this year, Airtel Tanzania 27 per cent, up from 26 recorded in March, Tigo at  20 per cent with no change as  of March while Zantel stood at 8 per cent up from 6 per cent recorded in March this year.

Tanzania has continued to record unprecedented growth in voice telecom subscription, now hitting 28.03 million, according to the recently released Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) telecoms quarterly report.

This is a four per cent increase in a period of three months as from March 31 – which stood at 26.97 million to 28.02 million subscriptions by June 30 this year. The available data from the regulator, shows that there was an increase of 1,046,175 subscriptions in a period of three months (four per cent ) down from 1,847,648 subscriptions  (7.15 per cent) recorded in March 31 this year.

By Sturmius  Mtweve
The Citizen Reporter