DATA AND PROBABILITY

For a while now most mobile phone networks in the region had one kind of promotion. A promotion that was geared at making its customers use more of its products.

Known to its marketing departments as a rewards scheme, the promotions have been quite interesting to watch, participate and if you win, rekindle that friendship that for some reason died.
The networks counts on its clients to hopefully spend more on the network and as the game of chances go win at least a branded pen.

As I said right after the budget, the networks have to device new ways to stream in revenues and they seem to have gotten the Q especially from the mobile manufacturers.
Since mid 2007 many mobile manufacturers have been introducing devices that are WAP enable. This includes entry-level devices that make it possible for users to experience the vast opportunities that lie in the World Wide Web.

So it should be rather obvious if you are a mobile network to turn your attention to DATA.
And am not disappointed all the networks are busy selling their modems and they come with all kinds of offers.
We have over 13 million mobile phone users and have just half of this number using data can translate to more revenue per user.
Remember when someone gets hooked onto the net he/she will easily subscribe to such services like Skype.

While dude will be happy that the cost of calling will be reduced drastically, to get to skype they will have to be either Safcom, Orange or Zain.
Apart from the many ‘freebies’ that one gets from the net, many guys will begin creating E-Commerce products and services spurring a whole new sector.

I am excited now that I could easily surf and drive away with a C class.
Its all in the math of probability…. And the sum of all this is that more people on the net … it will be cheap for me to upload my shower rendition of that song that I keep forgetting the title…..

NO VAT ON MOBILE DEVICES

I know a few guys who are particularly happy with Kenya Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta. One of them is my good friend Dorothy Ooko of Nokia.While many people in the industry wanted a tax reduction on airtime, the minister decided to use the question ‘which came first the egg or the chicken?’
Well as you try to figure that out, lets ponder over this; yes most of us in the region spend lots of time on our devices talking or texting. Few use the many array of services that data entails.
Many of us agree that life without a mobile device is like living in an island. If that’s the case we have to come up with other and better uses of these devices. And probably the best way to enthuse the public is to make the gadgets a little bit cheaper.
With more people able to afford cheaper and better phones, the new data services that are being offered by the different networks will begin experiencing an upsurge of usage.
What this will do eventually is to spur other sectors that rely on data.
With the acknowledgement that Kenyans are finding it hard to get to a bank than a mobile device, Uhuru decision is likely to incite the financial companies to create service for the many un-banked. But first you gotcha give the people the tools first before you roll out services.
As for me, I can now reach my N97 goal faster than you can say N.
Oh Dorothy I told you I saw it back then

BANKS STOP WHINING…INNOVATE

I remember when and why I opened my bank account. It was a very well worded treat from the accounts department. It had exactly five lines, but the last one was the one that impressed upon me.

It said ‘failure to do this will result to no salary’.
So I went to the bank. The experience was not good. Why the needed to know my father and mother has never *&^%$#@ to me and to many people such silly questions are still making it difficult to open a bank account.
Ok they have improved; they now hawk their products right on the streets.

Nairobi streets have become rather congested with MBA holders selling this and that of Bank A, B or C
Well they were napping as the mobile money transfer service took root.

Off course you cannot they still move huge amounts of money as compared to the mobile service: say 60 billion to just 500 million.
However it’s not about the amounts that is the question, its rather about how one acquires a bank account as compared to the two steps or so for opening a M-Pesa or Zap account.

So lets review this, while the Banks are still stuck to a rigid system that seems to turn away prospective clients, the mobile network are learning to appreciate the word simple……..make it simple and I will buy.

So to the banks may be you should consider using the mobile device as an avenue of opening an account since it appears that you still believe that a bank account in Kenya is a privilege.
To the Ministry of Education you seem to be turning a small issue into a mountain.

You just told us the other day that you have digitized all or most of the schools syllabi, so why can’t you see the connection between the mobile phone, Internet and E-Learning.

Most of us folks in Africa will get to the net through the use of a mobile phone and that can solve very many issues especially in infrastructure.
Dr. Bitange Ndemo is worried that we are not ready for the fiber optic cable? He has a point especially considering that only 2.5 million of Kenyans are surfing the net.

I think we will transfer our peculiar calling habits to the World Wide Web. It’s very interesting we take up ICT stuff so am not worried.

From bus fare to church contributions to bar bills now you can Zap or M-Pesa it. So banks and government innovate or we will innovate you.

SAFARICOM PROFITS BETTER…..

Almost all the people I know in Kenya have Safaricom mobile phone number. Most of the guys I know queued for some hours with the intention of owning a piece of this cash cow. The smart ones bought the shares online.

With slightly over a third of the population of Kenya (according to Safaricom), being a subscriber of the company, its more than likely that many eyes and ears were attentive when my good friend Michael Joseph stepped forward to give this state of the company speech.

The firm reported pre-tax profits of 15.3bn shillings ($196m; £126m) for the year to the end of March, down from 19.9bn shillings a year earlier.

Total revenue rose 15% to 70.5bn shillings, but its average revenue per user dropped 23% to 475 shillings. The media reports went on to paint a rather gloomy outlook.

Hmmmm… is this really so? Let me be the first one to say that this ain’t so and there is lots of money to be made in Africa’s telecom biashara (Swahili for business).

Let me remind you what I said back then (not sure when) that the ARPU of all the networks were going to get a hit if all they thought of is how we like talking and this may translate into longer talking.

Well the good news is that most of the users have been graduating fast from tech-stylists to now influential technology leaders. The number of curious innovations that are taking place in the back alleys of Nairobi, small rooms in the many estates is amazing.

Apparently someone leaked the notion to many users in the continent that; since now can be found by pressing the green key, the next thing on you mind should be ‘should I have something cool to say or something to sell’.
More dudes are thinking more of the latter.

Unlike in the western world the mobile phone in Africa is more a necessity. And it’s from this very indispensable device that we are seeing the possibility of bridging the many divides that are in this continent.

Mobile money transfer is such a scenario. Such services will definitely rake in revenues for the mobile networks. Probably the next thing is introducing the Internet.

It would be interesting to see if Kenyans will carry over their peculiar calling behavior into the World Wide Web.

The Communication Commission of Kenya has between 2 to 3 million Kenyans as users of the Internet.

3 out of every 5 Africans will get to know the Internet just from the palm of their hands and that is a huge statistic to think about. Now imagine what will happen if just half of the current mobile phone subscribers were to start being users of the net.

This region is set to experience average growths of 30% over the next four to seven years. And expanding networks with new products will undoubtedly bring in the dow.

MJ seems to be doing that as Safaricom looks for about 9 billion from the money markets. June is next week and cables should be finalizing for initial test runs.

If you are in telecoms, take a day off and visit your likely users in the back alleys and sprawling city estates, they may surprise you on what they do with your product.

I was surprised with what I saw my Nokia could do very surprised. To me the Safaricom profits were better than I expected

PRE-ORDER NOKIA YOUR N97

One thing I love about London is its centrality. Where as the weather sucks (no wonder all Brits have puckered brows), London has the enviable stature of having many first.

If you launch it in London then people will take it seriously. Well guys in Helsinki have been keeping most gadget guys and enthusiasts waiting for the Nokia N97.
Well the wait could be over for most of you. The exact date is not on my fingertips, but from the Pre-sales figures then Nokia guys have a sure product on its shelf ready for a very critical consumer.

While its profits may have shot down for most companies and job cuts everywhere, according to economists we may just be in the final throws of the world economic crisis with recovery on the horizon.

So probably to find out if there is an appetite for its products, the N97 Pre-sale orders have shown this consumer confidence and having this pre-sale thingy in London has may be shown this to the Nokia Execs.

To Tom, Dick and Harry in London or the UK; all I can say is that you are lucky.

It looks that the N97 will be in Nairobi at the earliest in mid to late July, why do I say so; the first shipment of the device will grace American shops in July and Brazilian hands in the same month. I could be wrong, I hope am wrong.
Well I can wait another month.

Thinking about it how come none of them marketing guys in Nairobi with the many consumers products not think of have pre-sale order programmes.
Being among the first dudes with the N97 in town ain’t such bad thing considering that they deliver the box to your door. Oh thats in London.

Damage expect to spend not less than 55k

PEACE AND QUIET

Friday the 8th was a very interesting day for me. After it seemed to be one of those days it meandered into a boring day where friends meet to exchange stories on how the week was or how the economy sucks, I decided to have an early dinner and decided to walk down to River Road Nairobi.
We do have a river in Nairobi; some call it a stream of sludge, anyway which city river in this world is clean?

South of Moi avenue is where the action of Nairobi is. Its in this place that they found that dude that bombed our folks at the US embassy in 98. This is the same place that has majority of the car accessories and spare parts. So its not surprising to find all the whole sellers of gadgets and all that comes in this world. Let alone the strip joints.
So at around 6.30pm when the area starts bubbling with all manner of activity and people hawking almost all known products on this earth, I walked into Coast Dishes a favourite eatery for many travelers that are coast bound.

I ordered a plate of pilau(Asian rice dish full of spices and meat). As if by q one-man Mr. John walked in and told me that he had cracked into a software that can use triangulation in tracking someone if the person is using a mobile phone.
I said that sounds interesting but why on earth would you like to track someone down. Does the person owe you money or did he steal your girlfriend (he would be my friend). John became quiet for a while.

At a time when there are CCTV cameras on the streets, some toilets, metal scanners in every building and where you need to have a PIN number for everything even in raffle games.
Most of my friends switch their mobile phones on Sundays just for some peace and quiet.
I recently got a memo from my boss that said this ‘show cause why action should not be taken for not answering you phone when the office called’
I replied that I was off duty. The boss said am rude. Rude….. for heavens sake I was at my house spending quality alone time watch cheap B movies while farting. Can’t I do that with my mobile phone off?

Now comes this genius who can triangulate and pin point me to a metre or two. Why can’t we leave things the way they were. Just simple things, I text you, you text back; I call you answer. Now there is MMS, Nokia OVI is here, Google Latitude is the rave, but the best was this site and my I do not need to explain just discover: www.themobiletracker.com/english/index.html

Just as the topic was getting better a transformer outside blew up and I was caught in a dilemma, either finish my sumptuous plate or take off like everyone and not pay for the meal. I did both….. I shall pay tomorrow hoping that coast dishes will be opened.

UJAJA WIRELESS TRACKING SERVICES

I hate Mondays; in fact I have come to loath every thing associated with this day. It’s the day that the football review is done and for a while now I hated my coach. Its also the day that I have find a way to repay that loaner from dude friend when an old flame spotted me while I was crossing Kimathi street to my watering hole.
My budget was set, one beer for me and me and me and may be mmmm me again there was no her so I called dude.
Anyway on this Monday I had no debts to pay (very surprising) but I had this breakfast launch thing on my favourite subject gadgets.

The New Stanley hotel on the intersection of Kenyatta Avenue and Kimathi Street was the venue and it was short hop to the place. The breakfast was good period.
What was better was the product launch. A new service for the East African people that will help them keep tabs and definitely track their mobile devices such as laptops and mobile phones.
Known as Ujaja – (which means being clever), the service uses a software which (they do not want to say yet) uses the GSM network and the triangulation features to easily track a lost device.

This is how its works according to the providers; when you phone is stole the guy will remove your SIM card. When he sells your stolen phone, the new user will insert his new SIM card. This activates the a signal that sends a text message to your two preferred numbers (when buying the software, you will have to give the service providers two numbers that will be informed when your phone is stolen)

The text message will rely the new numbers and other SIM card details, later its hoped that when the provider teams up with the mobile networks you shall be able to actually position the phone to about 3 metres.

Where as the mobile phone uses the GSM network, the laptop tracking service deploys the use of URL or IP addresses. When the laptop goes missing, the guy will likely go to the net. As a result a new private address will be sent to Ujaja network telling them of the place and likely position of the laptop.

The funny thing is that East African Data Handlers Ltd are in the business of data recovery and the tracking of devices may have come out as an accident as did to Professor Utonium with the Power Puff girls.

Anyway the service is already in 50 others countries and Kenya and the region will definitely add to this number. For more information visit www.ujanja.co.ke

The mobile solution retails at 2k or about $27 yearly while the laptop solution retails at 7.5k or just under $100.

Me like it and say Mr. Njoroge you made my Monday much better.

FARMERS GO E!

It’s always interesting to watch someone use some technology for the very first time. It may be the use of a simple cooker that can easily harness the rays of the sun or sophisticated vehicle that can transform itself into a robot (touché).

 

What is always amazing is the adoption of the technology. Whereas the creator may have envisaged a totally different use, the consumer turns it around.

 

When you can take a walk into the narrow streets and path ways of Kibera (a slum in Nairobi); here you will see very many clear plastic bottles of water on the roofs of many houses. Why you may ask what is the story here.

 

Its simple the plastic bottles which used to contain mineral water and other beverage, are being used as water purifying tools. After the water has been boiled the water is put into the clear bottles and the ultraviolet rays cleans or purifies the water.

 

So Avian your bottles are being reused before the recycling part comes in. someone read about the use of ultraviolet rays and thought well what if. The health ministry now says incidences of water borne diseases are down 53%. A simple idea does go a long way.

 

And it’s that simple thought that drove some clever Kenyans to develop an interesting programme to help dairy farmers in the region.

 

Agritrace a non-governmental organization in Nairobi has set out with the help of Land-o-lakes and UsAid to automate all the dairy cooperative centres. You may ask why this is important well this is why.

 

The Dairy Board of Kenya has done a magnificent job to turn around the dairy sector. The sector is doing so well that it has made a good number of the farmers become big players in the Nairobi Stock Exchange. However they still say that inefficiencies still grapple the sector. For instance most nearly all milk collection points collate and keep data manually. Mistakes are rampant and here comes the Achilles heels: since every thing is done manually, when a farmer brings bad milk and is put into milk distribution chain, tracing the farmer and rectifying the problem becomes an odious or near impossible task. So what does the dairy board do looking for a simple tracing programme?

 

Agritrace comes in and introduces a smart card for any farmer that delivers milk to a milk centre. The smart card technology has been there for a while and getting the farmers abandon their passbooks was easy.

 

With the smart card, every delivery is automatically entered into the central database. As a result the dairy board can easily track the quality and quantity of milk in every region in the country. Now that the farmers are in a database their quality determines the price and also if a buyer has specific requirements they can just go to the farmer and get a business deal.

 

For the farmer the benefits are many; first when quality of the milk goes they can be alerted in hours and the problem solved within a day. Secondly when payments are done the smartcard alert the farmers by sending a short message to their mobile phones.

 

Since payments has always been a borne with the farmers, money can be accessed from any point of sale such as the ATM, Mobile money transfers and debited directly into one’s account.

Some farmers have even instructed their banks to have a facility that pays school fees straight from the smart card.

All they do is present their cards at the school and the rest is history.

 

For me it was interesting to see an old lady present her smart card at a milk delivery centre and remind the centre’s accountant that she did receive her SMS yesterday after her afternoon nap.

THE HOLIDAY CALLS

This was a good weekend I must say. First it had four days away from the office (you can sense my displeasure of the place).

 I have to be there to earn my two dollar a day pay. (That is what we say when your pay is bad). Anyway on Good Friday I decided to spend the evening with my good old friend Tim. Have known him for over two decades now and he is a chatter box. So imagine his father.

Well Tim’s dad called when we were deep in conversation over a pint. And Tim oh good Tim decided to put his phone on speaker mode.

And this is part of the conversation.

Dad – Hallo, hallo Tim hallo… whats wrong with this boy.

Tim – Hi Dad am hear Sema (what’s up in Kiswahili)

Dad – What did I tell you about picking your phone?

Tim – ah ….

 Dad – ah what …any way where are you?

Tim – I am in town with my friends

Dad – town which town?

Tim – Nairobi

Dad- oh ok… am in Kitale (about 300kms from Nairobi) am with my boys…Remember Mr Onyango your class three teacher he is hear. He got a big bonus from his sugar and he is buying…ha ha ha …Onyango say hallo to my boy Tim he is in Nairobi

There is some commotion as the phone falls down….

Dad – Oh son he is indisposed hahaha….. Anyway your mother said I call you

Tim – what about?

Dad – I don’t know she said I just called you so I called… so you are ok …ok Happy Easter….

That was Tim’s father he called and Tim got his mother’s greetings.

Well if you think that was a funny one; spare a thought for the Austrian mother who was sued by his son for calling him. According to the story the old lady had been (according to the son) constantly calling him to know how he was doing.

Check the story out in the odd news section of Yahoo news.

But that is not all apparently there is a petition in New Delhi India doing the rounds. The petitioners basically want the Indian government to come up with a law that prohibits bad use of the mobile phone.

Bad use includes, talking loudly on you device, picking the phone in funerals and at religious events. The law will also check on ‘offensive’ ring tones.

Well guys there is a feature called vibrate only or silent mode. You could use it in such situations. And as for the Austrian octogenarian POLE.

LIPUA AND REWARDZ TIME

Its Easter season and the cities of East Africa are experiencing the usual exodus. It’s a pilgrimage that many folks in the region tend to. The roads are filled by scores of people who are traveling up country or their rural homes for some time out from the fast pace of the city life.

For those who the city is their home, a holiday at the coast or our many national parks is the ideal plan.

Various companies in the region get to the same routine and offers are galore. You see to many guys that I know; this is the time to take stock on whether there are on course or off.

As for the many service companies a sale or nice package can make for a good book keeping entry.

If you wake up (that is if you are sleeping beauty) in Nairobi a week or two just before Easter this is what you should expect.

1. The ending of the hotels and holidays expo usually at the Sarit Centre. If you are thinking of a holiday get away and you do not want to make that call to the travel agent, this is a good place to visit. Most players are here hawking their products.
2. If you are thinking of buying a house or getting that ‘good’ mortgage than the last week before Easter is when they come out of their glass and marble building to sell you that house no one has seen before or that new paint that well works well for you…
3. And then there is the Kenya Safari Rally where the machines meet the toughest roads in the world – that’s what they say… am yet to learn how to drive a car; do not ask but I car move a vehicle. Most Kenyans can move their cars period.
4. And finally like a well oiled machine or an orchestra, the mobile companies all launch competitions for their customers. The word that is never omitted from their press statements is LOYALTY

 

So Safaricom and Zain did launch their loyalty programmes to reward the consumers that use a lot of their products (it’s been 8 years am yet to win something).

 

Safaricom is spending close to a million dollars on its programme. And it looks like guy are frantically trying to get some of it. Its simple send an SMS with the word LIPUA and you get a chance to win a million Kenyan shillings daily. A couple of guys have won some Dow. I saw their picture holding their cheques and it’s was good for them (I hate them when will it be me). It runs for sixty days and their should be some 60 millionaires as they say. MJ am you friend toss a brother a bone I need the money.

 

Zain on the other hand have something called REWARDZ where its customers will have to accumulate points for every 10 shillings they spend in its many services. You could be the bronze dude or the silver girl but the ultimate level is the gold. Zain is spending 95 million shillings on it so you count the odds. Am still on bronze getting to silver very soon so Rene I could be your friend if you want.

 

Well its rewardz and lipua time and maybe I could get a break since I still call my ex at 3 in the morning telling her that she is still the one. Add our peculiar calling habit. I think I have a shot.