Netone, Telecel and Econet battle hots up

Telecel and Econet are involved in a standoff which seems to be taking ages to resolve.

However, NetOne is not sitting around and watching over the fence. NetOne is flighting press adverts informing people that NetOne is the only network that connects to all Networks in Zimbabwe.

However, this standoff seems to be benefiting Econet more than anyone else, no wonder Econet is refusing to budge.

The clients who had moved over to Telecel are probable re-using Econet to call Econet numbers.

However Telecel is not allowing Econet bully them into submission. They sent their subscribers sms messages informing them (that is us) that they will be launching value voice bundles whilst they are resolving the dispute with Econet.

Whatever those are but be sure these are cheaper calling rates. This also is a message to Econet that once once the dispute is resolved, of which it will, more cheaper calls are coming and Econet should brace for more mass defections and more calls from Telecel to Econet.

Besides, if Telecel is awarded an operating licence what other lame excuse will Econet give?

I hope to see your comments below, who knows you may get an airtime drop in your inbox

Here are the Winners of the airtime drop competition

We have concluded our first airtime drop competition. Below are the winners.

Mabika Thomas aka Mastermind: $5 Airtime

Takura Waniwa: $2 Airtime

Congratulations guys, I can tell you I am on the ground sourcing more prizes.

As we prepare to launch this website, we will be having more competitions.

Also we have dropped some airtime on our Facebook page. Its called Mobile City.

Like it and be part of our pre launch competitions.

To the winning guys, please leave a comment

Airtime Drop Competition Number One!

Yes we are giving away free airtime as we are celebrating a milestone

We have 5000 views for the month of July alone

Yes we are so ecstatic because of the phenomenal growth. Check out stats below

May – 300 views

June – 800 views

July – 5000 views

All these views coming from Google! No marketing was done! It shows we doing something right!

How Do I Win?

So what do you need to do?

Comment on this article and tell us who do you think is to blame in the Econet Telecel Dispute! 

Support your point with a cute argument and your comment may get picked up as the winning comment!

Also make sure you have like our page and if you. Live a comment (that is not off topic of course and you will receive airtime in your email inbox. We will publish the winners of the airtime by 12pm the next day

 

Visit our facebook page here

Prizes Include

1 x $5 aitrime

1 x $2 airttime

3 X $1 airtime

Don’t forget to specify the mobile network you prefer… Tada! See the Winners Tomorrow

Good news for soccer Lovers in Zimbabwe. Get soccer news without internet!

Starfish has collaborated with Econet to launch a mobie soccer results sms platform called Shasha. The platform covers soccer results from local as well as international teams and matches.

However, this is an sms platform where you are charged 49c per week to get resullts as they happen. To get started you have to:

SMS your team keyword to 34447 for just 49cents per week. Follow your team and choose from the following keywords. City, Caps, Dynamos, Manchester, Highlanders, Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal, Liverpool.

This may come in as good news to those that do not have internet connection or when you are out in rural areas for the holidays and 3G network is just not part of those areas you are visiting.

Shasha has a mobile website and it looks silly from a computer though or desktop. However, it loos all sassy and cool on mobile devices.

Shasha has also put a notice on their website telling us that they will launch a Lifestyle section on 7 August where you can send keywords like

• JOKE
• FORTUNE
• TRIVIA
• AMAZING
• INSPIRE
• QUOTE

For the same 49c/week model.

However, these sms campaings are so yesterday in these days of mobile apps. What stops you from just visiting google and typing joke and get thousands of jokes for less?

Besides the internet is not limited to 160 characters of sms and you can read long jokes. Shasha will definately try to limit message length so as to make them fit in an sms.

Wechat comes to Nokia Asha

WeChat the massively popular Instant Messanger that copied Whatsapp has been rolled out to the Nokia Asha Range of mid range smartphones.

Wechat is very popular in China and Asia were it has something in the region of 100 million monthly active users. Outside of Asia, WeChat is enjoying a 70 million user base.

This app is the biggest threat to Whatsapp, which seems to be resisting change! However, WeChat may have started as Whatsapp copycat but it went on to add more features that hold its own! For instance there is a “Shake-and-Find” feature which allows to shake your phone and connect to other people who are shaking their phones at that instant.

WeChat also wants to expand into Africa and Latin America as it ropped in Lionel Messi as its brand ambassador.

However, one thing that may pull you off Wechat is that few of your friends or non at all use it. However, if they are using Wechat you may enjoy it as there is no “Last Seen At” or “Online Now” whatsapp like feature that makes you feel as if your privacy is being intruded.

To download Wechat on Nokia Asha Device, visit this link and be sure to check out device comaptibilty as this app seems to be for Nokia Asha Touch only for now.

These are the supported devices as of now
Nokia Asha 303/305/306/307/308/309/310/311
Nokia X3-02/C3-01

At 1.5 Mega bytes the app won’t consume gobbles of cash from your phone when downloading as 1.5 Mb is almost equivalent to 20 cents data.

Did POTRAZ just block Facebook access as well?

In news elsewhere on the web, it was reported that POTRAZ, the country’s Telecoms regulator blocked sms from international gateways. We aslo wrote our thoughts on the issue here.

This seems to be true as over the weekend, I had some people who wished to join register on Facebook using thier mobile phones as they had no email addresses.

However, registration went smoothly but the sms with the confirmation code did not arrive. We waited for the whole day and retried but the sms was nowhere to be found.

It seems then that the move to ban sms from international gateways by the countries telecoms regulator has denied thousands of the priveledge to cennect to friends and follow news on facebook.

POTRAZ may not have intentionally blocked facebook sms, but facebook became a victim of the mass blockade on sms from international bulk sms gateways.

However, you can still open facebook using your email address if you have one. However, there are thousands of people that do not have email addresses that would like to connect

POTRAZ blocks spam and bulk sms from Econet?

In news elsewhere, POTRAZ has blocked bulk sms from international sms gateways.

However the sad thing is that this looks like a political move as the ban is effective until after elections.

The move has blocked http://www.kubatana.net messages. POTRAZ, it appears, was miffed by those messages that had election results back in 2008.

However, unbeknownst to them, technology has overtook sms. Zimbawe now has 1.4 million Facebook users and 4 million internet users…. Besides whatsapp is also there.

We would have been more happy if POTRAZ had banned those spam sms from Econet that have no option from opting out.

At least Econet should give us an option to send STOP and the spam stops, than to have zero options and be at Econets mercy

Econet launches twiiter support page for all your queries

Econet Zimbabwe has launched a support account on twitter. On their Facebook page, Econet promised to offer fast support.

The support page account twitter handle is @econet_support. If you are on twitter, you can swing over to the twitter page.

I havent used the page but if by any means you happen to check it, happily leave a comment here.

This comes as a welcome move because most people have been complaining about the lack of proper support from their free 111 helpline.

You will most probable get Econet jingles than any help from dialing that number. Some people have reported trying the number 20 times without getting through and ended up having to physically visit econet shops.

We hope this eases the inconvinience people used to witness from the unhelpful helpline.

Good news for Econet SMS and win Promo

Econet has slashed prices of a single response on its sms and win promo.

Now a single sms will cost you 15 cents from the whooping 25 cents. Already sms and win promo has had its week one and two winners.

You can swing over to the econet Zimbabwe Facebook page.

There are loads of prizes to be won including a brand spanking new Toyota Hilux double cab.

So get texting, send Win to 34443 to start amasing points.

Is POTRAZ a toothless bulldog?

The Telecel Econet saga has managed to steal some thunder from the elections this week.

However, what worries most in this issue is the silence from the regulatory authority, POTRAZ.

This body should release an official statement. If Telecel is the one to blame for operating without a licence then they should say so. But you really wonder and yawn as to how they operate without licences.

If Econet is overstepping its bounderies, then POTRAZ should stamp their foot.

Maybe the guys over at POTRAZ are busy campaigning for their respective candidates.

Or their need for money has left them torn apart as to how to act. They need moola from both firms and they just can’t infringe on the other.

We wonder what all this circus will pan out.