Archive October 2009

Kai Wulff, CEO – Kenya Data Networks to give talk at Skunkworks on 3rd Nov View Comments

There will be a Skunkworks meeting on the 3rd of November, at Teleposta Towers, 4th Floor.
We are pleased to have the speaker as Mr. Kai Wulff, KDN CEO. Meeting will start at 6 pm. Topics covered will be :

1.    Kenya, now that the Fibre has landed, what?s the future?
2.    What it takes to build a fibre network in Kenya
3.    KDN?s future plans.

All are welcome. Refreshments will be served.

Thanks to the sponsors, Multimedia University College of Kenya for graciously hosting us, time after time, and KDN for their sponsorship and support.

GPRS View Comments

Oct31

General Packet Radio Service. A data communications standard in the GSM family; it offers typical download speeds of 56 kbps and is considered a 2.5G technology.

Get picked up in the elevator…better yet on the street.Develop your 6 minute pick-up lines View Comments

A recent conversation with Paul Kukubo – CEO of the Kenya ICT board informed me of the arrival of a venture capital team from Europe in the month of November to look at viable partnerships in the region and also as a recce on investment opportunities in ICT in the region. From experience I have known it to be exceedingly hard to have a face to face meeting with “old money” to invest in “new ideas” for the simple reason that old money hangs out together in exclusive clubs and golf courses that may be out of reach for the start-up entrepreneur who doesn’t have the sort of money to pay for those memberships. Old money also doesn’t lend itself to walking along the streets of Nairobi for long stretches :-)

So what do you do as an entrepreneur seeking an audience with old money? You must be ready for anything…that means rehearsing your investor pitch and having it fine-tuned to 6 minutes for the odd chance that you will spot Bwana Chris Kirubi or some other representation of “old money” walking along the streets of Nairobi wearing an approachable face or better still get in the same elevator on that odd day “old money” chooses not to use the VIP elevator.

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EDGE View Comments

Oct30

Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution. A data communications standard in the GSM family; it is sometimes referred to as “2.5G” because its typical download speed of 120 kbps is between GPRS and true 3G technologies like UMTS.

Money, money, money, money! the mobile opportunity in Africa,part 4 View Comments

Getting payment from the consumer
Payment for mobile content can be handled in several different ways, of which the simplest (and most common for on-deck purchases ala Safaricom Live) is simply to add the amount onto the customer’s mobile phone bill or deduct it from the airtime balance, in the case of prepaid phone customers. continue reading »

Direct to consumer View Comments

Oct29

Sometimes abbreviated as D2C. In the mobile context generally refers to the sale of content and application directly to the consumer, without going through the mobile operator’s sales channel. Nokia’s Ovi program and the Zunguka mobile client  is an example of D2C marketing

The mobile opportunity in Africa,part 3: a look at content distribution View Comments

My list mobile of content genres for mobile is a lot longer as I opt to split hairs looking deeply into niche markets that on the long tail would generate sizable volumes. However low hanging fruit in the mobile content sphere is in infotainment. Infotainment includes a wide range of applications, including:

  • Games, both downloaded single player games and multiplayer games utilizing bluetooth
  • Audio downloads, including full music tracks, podcasts, and audio books
  • Video downloads and video streaming
  • Information services, including weather, news, financial information, travel updates etc continue reading »

CDMA- Evdo View Comments

Oct28

CDMA Evolution-Data Optimized. A 3G technology in the CDMA family, offering typical download speeds of 300-500 kbps. CDMA EV-DO Rev A increases typical download speeds to 450-800 kbps, and is sometimes referred to as a 3.5G technology

Mbugua Njihia – the mind of is a personal soapbox: views, opinions and thoughts reflected here can be ingested and regurgitated in support of knowledge sharing.