internet – Chanters Lodge Livingstone

Pinterest

Have you heard of Pinterest?

What is Pinterest? Well according to their site this is what they say.

“It is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favorite recipes.“

I love it! I have pinboards for Chanters Lodge, Victoria Falls, Family, Random, and the Zambezi amongst others – I’m still learning. Pinterest is great for posting pictures on to Twitter too, much quicker than Twitpic and some of the other services available.

How to sign up for Pinterest? Pinterest is currently invite-only. You can request an invite from them or you can be invited by someone who is already a part of Pinterest. So – get in!

12
MAR

0

internet, Pinterest

Working On A Dream?

Working on a dream? Pie in the sky? We’ll wait and see whether this piece from Bikya Masr turns out to be true words!

Botswana and Zambia’s telecom operators have agreed to establish a new fiber-optic cable through Kazungula. Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) and Zamtel in Zambia announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding for the new cable.

The new project will cost approximately $260,000 and should take between three and four months to construct and be operational. Zamtel CCO Amon Jere said the project “would help reduce the cost of international connectivity and improve the quality and speed of Internet services.”

Early this year, BTC inked a similar $5 million deal with Powertel of Zimbabwe. That deal means BTC provides the Zimbabwe company with bandwidth capacity for two years after the two organizations completed cross-border fiber connections at Ramokgwebana in December 2009.

“BTC has already committed to invest BWP 504 million to secure reliable bandwidth from the West African Cable System (WACS),” the Botswana company said in a press release on Tuesday.

“BTC has also committed USD 210 million to the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) to further increase Botswana’s bandwidth capacity,” it added.

The construction of a number of cables across East Africa has boosted telecom and Internet capacity in the region, and investors and operators hope they will push the industry into the next generation of development.

6
MAR

0

Africa, Botswana, infrastructure, innovation, internet, Zambia

AfriConnect

This is potentially good news from AfriConnect – but I do wish their ISpot tickets did not have to be accessed through the useless Kazang/Spargris (As a matter of interest the Spargris Facebook page has no likes and access to the Kazang site is very difficult). It would be nice too if AfricConnect provided better value for money. ISpot is very expensive to use and their one month ticket, whilst only lasting less than a week with normal use, is much faster than their cheaper tickets and that’s not fair. I’m not too sure about the comment lower down about slow speed internet ‘changing rapidly’ in Zambia – anyway it’s not happening in Livingstone that’s for sure.

This piece is from MarketWatch

“Airspan Networks Inc., a leading provider of broadband wireless access networks, announced today that AfriConnect Zambia, an Internet Solutions Provider in the Vodacom Group of companies, has selected Airspan 4G equipment to deliver broadband services to the capital of Lusaka and several other major cities in Zambia.

AfriConnect offers wireless-based Internet solutions throughout Zambia that are resilient to the environments in which they are deployed and quick and easy to install. Their solutions provide quality, high-speed communication for all key markets including residential, the rapidly expanding business community, and key sectors such as Healthcare, Government, Agriculture, and NGOs. The Company will now be able to better serve these markets with advanced 4G connectivity powered by Airspan infrastructure.

The deployment, operating in the 2.5 GHz band, employs Airspan’s flagship Air4G compact, macro base station, suiting the AfriConnect deployment with technology that enables wide area coverage and extremely high capacity. The first phase of the project includes several thousand subscriber terminals to be deployed in the capital, Lusaka, and is expected to expand coverage into additional towns and cities.

“AfriConnect focuses on delivering high quality products and service to our customers,” commented Mark Bennett, Managing Director of AfriConnect. “There is a lot of new international fibre optic capacity coming into Zambia at present, and we knew we needed a means to get this additional bandwidth out to our clients. We conducted extensive testing with several vendors and subsequently selected Airspan, whose products demonstrated superior technology and the best results in our environment. Airspan’s leadership in 4G technology will give us a competitive advantage in the field and will enable us to deploy the first 4G network in Zambia.”

Zambia had gained a reputation for having slow connectivity, but that is changing rapidly. AfriConnect is driven to bringing affordable and dependable broadband connectivity to the Zambian community. “Innovative service providers like AfriConnect are rapidly growing their businesses to expand connectivity throughout the typically underserved regions of Zambia,” commented Amit Ancikovsky, President of Products and Sales at Airspan. “AfriConnect uniquely leverages its local presence and the Airspan powered 4G network will help take its customer offering to the next level.”

This is potentially good news from AfriConnect – but I do wish their ISpot tickets did not have to be accessed through the useless Kazang/Spargris (As a matter of interest the Spargris Facebook page has no likes and access to the Kazang site is very difficult). It would be nice too if AfricConnect provided better value for money. ISpot is very expensive to use and their one month ticket, whilst only lasting less than a week with normal use, is much faster than their cheaper tickets and that’s not fair. I’m not too sure about the comment lower down about slow speed internet ‘changing rapidly’ in Zambia – anyway it’s not happening in Livingstone that’s for sure.

This piece is from MarketWatch

“Airspan Networks Inc., a leading provider of broadband wireless access networks, announced today that AfriConnect Zambia, an Internet Solutions Provider in the Vodacom Group of companies, has selected Airspan 4G equipment to deliver broadband services to the capital of Lusaka and several other major cities in Zambia.

AfriConnect offers wireless-based Internet solutions throughout Zambia that are resilient to the environments in which they are deployed and quick and easy to install. Their solutions provide quality, high-speed communication for all key markets including residential, the rapidly expanding business community, and key sectors such as Healthcare, Government, Agriculture, and NGOs. The Company will now be able to better serve these markets with advanced 4G connectivity powered by Airspan infrastructure.

The deployment, operating in the 2.5 GHz band, employs Airspan’s flagship Air4G compact, macro base station, suiting the AfriConnect deployment with technology that enables wide area coverage and extremely high capacity. The first phase of the project includes several thousand subscriber terminals to be deployed in the capital, Lusaka, and is expected to expand coverage into additional towns and cities.

“AfriConnect focuses on delivering high quality products and service to our customers,” commented Mark Bennett, Managing Director of AfriConnect. “There is a lot of new international fibre optic capacity coming into Zambia at present, and we knew we needed a means to get this additional bandwidth out to our clients. We conducted extensive testing with several vendors and subsequently selected Airspan, whose products demonstrated superior technology and the best results in our environment. Airspan’s leadership in 4G technology will give us a competitive advantage in the field and will enable us to deploy the first 4G network in Zambia.”

Zambia had gained a reputation for having slow connectivity, but that is changing rapidly. AfriConnect is driven to bringing affordable and dependable broadband connectivity to the Zambian community. “Innovative service providers like AfriConnect are rapidly growing their businesses to expand connectivity throughout the typically underserved regions of Zambia,” commented Amit Ancikovsky, President of Products and Sales at Airspan. “AfriConnect uniquely leverages its local presence and the Airspan powered 4G network will help take its customer offering to the next level.”

19
JAN

0

Africa, internet, livingstone, rsa, Zambia

Response Network on 107.7 fm

Meet (left to right) Anja Veum, Diane Hoffman, David Jewitt and Cecily Alexander, our guests on the latest edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild. The show airs from 20.30-21.30 hrs every Sunday night on Zambezi 107.7fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. The good news is that with effect from Sunday June 19th, the programme will be streamed live on the internet!

Anja, Diane and David are all involved with the Norwegian International Olympic Committee and Response Network. Response Network is a Norwegian NGO with a branch in Zambia which visits 40 new villages in Southern Province of Zambia every year, providing motivation and information to communities on how they can start their own sports clubs and other self-help activities. Response Network is sponsored by the Norwegian IOC. Cecily and Diane have known each other since University and as Cecily, originally from Trinidad, had always wanted to visit Africa Diane invited her along on this trip. Anja is Norwegian, Diane, David and Cecily all Canadian. It was a busy studio!

The group took it in turns to come to the microphones and talk to listeners about why they were in Livingstone and what they’d been doing since they’d arrived. They described their two night safari to Chobe National Park in Botswana, where they’d stayed at Elephant Valley Lodge, as ‘fantastic’. It had been much colder at night and early in the morning than they’d expected! They’d seen loads of game and had had a thoroughly good time. They’d also been to see Victoria Falls since they’d arrived, getting drenched in the process, and were expecting to go and stay in a local village during the following week to see one of Response Network’s projects for themselves.

The music on the show was super and our visitors particularly liked the two Zambian tracks we played – K’Millian’s ‘Nibandani Banzako’ (Who Are Your True Friends) a song about fair weather friends who desert you when the going gets tough. We also featured Exile’s ‘So Lucky’. Our Guests told Milli Jam and George they were ‘desperate’ to buy Zambian music to take home and the guys agreed to go to the local record store with the group the following week to help them choose the latest hot Zambian CD’s. To add an international flavour to the show we played Bobby V’s ‘Phone Number’ and Stevie Hoang’s ‘Lottery’. ‘Have you won the Pick-A-Lot?’ I asked Milli Jam, ‘is this why you chose that track’? He had not! Rihanna’s ‘California King Bed’ and Beyonce’s ‘I Miss You’ wound up a great selection.

‘As you’re involved with the Norwegian IOC you must be into sport’ Milli Jam commented to our Guests. ‘Very much so’ they agreed and David told listeners that he loved yoga and skiing. ‘In fact’ he said, turning towards me ‘we’ve been conducting yoga sessions in one of your rooms at the lodge’. ‘Ah!’ I replied ‘that’s why I’ve seen these three ladies dressed for sport disappearing into your room carrying towels – I’d perhaps imagined something different’. Much laughter! Anje said she skied as well and generally the group had more interest in winter sport than things like soccer. Anja admitted she liked Man U. We moved quickly on.

Diane told listeners that she was involved with Nowspar – National Organization For Women in Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation – a membership organization of Zambian men and women who believe that sport, physical recreation and activity have the power to foster social change and increase an individual’s quality of life. This necessitated regular visits to Lusaka. Our guests told listeners how much they loved Zambia and Zambian people and urged the local community to continue with the wonderful hospitality offered to visitors. Amid some controversy, we gave away a dinner for two to someone who answered the question posed on air – where do our Guests come from? There were many text messages in reply.

14
JUN

0

accommodation, activities, Africa, Botswana, Chanters, charities, Chobe, entertainment, guests, internet, livingstone, Norway, radioshow, victoriafalls, weather, wildlife, zambezi, Zambia

AfricConnect

As long time Customers of AfriConnect this from LusakaTimes caught my eye:

AfriConnect Zambia, today announced the commissioning of its direct fibre link to South Africa in its continued effort to provide the fastest internet service to the Zambian public. And AfriConnect will in the next few weeks be commissioning a second fibre route through Tanzania.

AfriConnect Commercial Director Ian Ferrao said in Lusaka that the commissioning of the Tanzania fibre route makes AfriConnect Zambia, the first Internet Service Provider ISP in Zambia to have multiple fibre routes. Mr. Ferrao also announced that the company has commissioned 155 mbps of high speed international fibre bandwidth on the network.

At the launch of its new SMT-1 Package in Lusaka, Mr. Ferrao announced “The launch of this service now means our speeds are faster than ever, with low latency to the internet for all customers”. Mr. Ferrao added that AfriConnect has upgraded its back up capacity to have better protection against fibre cuts and maintenance downtimes.

He said several months after connecting its fibre directly to South Africa offering less than 100 ms latency; customers have experienced faster general internet browsing, video conferencing and internet banking. And commenting on the company’s expansion programme, Mr. Ferrao said AfriConnect is expanding to Chililabombwe, Mufulira and Luanshya on the Copperbelt Province and Chirundu in the Southern province.

He said under the expansion programme, some towns will have base stations while others will have technical support stations. He said the towns on the Copperbelt will fall under the Copperbelt hub in Kitwe which now has engineers present to offer support to all its iConnect customers.

Note the lack of mention of anywhere called Livingstone despite the fact that it is the ‘tourist capital’.

26
MAR

0

Chanters, communications, infrastructure, internet, livingstone, Tanzania, Zambia

Africonnect

We’ve been clients of Africonnect since 2005 and were in fact one of the first establishments in Livingstone to use their services and to have wifi broadband. We’re delighted they’re expanding and developing and all in all the service is good, though I complain a lot….We are an ‘ISpot’ open to the public for internet connection at reasonable rates as well as providing a generally good service for our guests. If we had a criticism? Their PR.

Africonnect has commissioned a high speed fibre optic cable link to connect Zambia to the rest of the world. Africonnect Managing Director Mark Bennett said in Lusaka today that the move was part of the continued integration of Africonnect into the Vodacom Group network. Mr. Bennett said at a media briefing in Lusaka today that the company has commissioned a direct fibre link directly into South Africa with ultra low latency.

Zanis reports that he said quicker, more reliable and more robust connectivity into South Africa will improve efficiency for all customers who are connected to the headquarters, suppliers, customers or websites located in South Africa. Mr. Bennett further said in addition to the new fibre installation, Africonnect has commissioned more resilience through a second terrestrial link to Europe, and has bought more satellite capacity, which will offer 1:1 back- up in case of any fibre cuts or scheduled maintenance.

He said part two of the international fibre installation will include the commissioning of an MPLS link into the Vodacom MPLS network located in Johannesburg. He said this will be live in the next weeks. Mr. Bennett noted that the network expansion is now well under way while the upgrading of the Copperbelt network that will create an MPLS backbone between the Copperbelt and Lusaka has been completed.

He said the network upgrading will increase capacity in Kitwe, Ndola and Chingola. He further said as a commitment to the growth of the Copperbelt, the company has also introduced new services in Luanshya, Mufulira and Chililabombwe. He added that Africonnect has begun wireless broadband service in Mazabuka and Siavonga.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bennett has disclosed that with effect from 1st March this year, Africonnect will introduce new low cost; pay-as- you- go wireless internet access. He said for the past five years, Africonnect has offered its high- speed iConnect broadband service via fixed monthly subscriptions with higher cost equipment. He said the company is now introducing a service for homes and small businesses with a start- up cost of under K1 million, including equipment and an initial K300,000 of surf-time. Mr. Bennett has since said the new pay as you internet access will be available throughout Lusaka, with other towns following shortly.

2
FEB

0

Africa, Chanters, guests, infrastructure, internet, service, victoriafalls, Zambia

Zamtel

This is an interesting piece by Nawa Mutumweno on ShoutAfrica

“Zambia telecommunications firm, ZAMTEL, will in the next two years invest $180 million (about ZMK 852 billion) to expand and enhance its operations. According to company managing director Hans Paulsen, ZAMTEL plans to invest in infrastructure development to increase its subscriber base to 2 million over the next two years in addition to improving its service provision.

“We are in the process of bringing in investment programmes to grow infrastructure. Initially, we had targeted to spend $120 million but we realized this was not enough. We are now going to spend $180 million over the next two years. Growth opportunities in the communications sector were vast and ZAMTEL would seize every opportunity to gain a better market share in the industry. “Currently, penetration is about 35% of the Zambian population, meaning that there is still enough room for growth.

ZAMTEL was on track following the restructuring programme initiated on privatization, making Zambia catch up with advances in telecommunications technology. The firm, one of the three telecommunication firms in the country, would greatly benefit from the LAP Green network through knowledge sharing and technological advancements. LAP Green of Libya owns 75% shares in ZAMTEL. Meanwhile LAP Green is to connect over 6 000 households to broadband internet in Lusaka under the Next Generation Network (NGN) after the rollout plan for the town is completed this month.

The firm has so far invested $23 million to roll out the NGN exchanges in the country and is expected to complete Phase One of the roll out plan in Lusaka in January. Exchanges have since been switched from analogue to digital. In a bid to upgrade and modernize fixed line infrastructure across the country, ZAMTEL has embarked on Phase One of decommissioning of all old analogue land line exchanges and replace them with the NGN exchanges (digital).

This change from analogue to digital exchanges will enable customers to get the benefits of additional features on their land lines such as fast and affordable broadband internet, audio and video conferencing as well as missed call notification, among other services. According to ZAMTEL’s corporate communications senior manager Kennedy Mambwe, the NGN roll out plan is advancing well and almost complete in Lusaka.

“We want to upgrade all infrastructure and make sure that every household can have broadband internet speed.”

Bring it on Zamtel! The sooner the better!

27
JAN

0

2011, Africa, infrastructure, internet, Zambia

Tech Support

This from Louisa. Seems appropriate on a day of internet problems! The picture? Clearly a lady driver……..

“Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend to Husband and noticed a distinct slowdown in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend.

In addition, Husband uninstalled many other valuable programmes, such as Romance and Personal Attention and then installed undesirable programs such as Rugby, Football, Sailing and Continuous TV.
Conversation no longer runs, and Housecleaning simply crashes the system.

I’ve tried running Nagging to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,
Desperate”

22
JAN

0

family, internet

Internet Hope?

Is there hope on the horizon? Given our generally crappy internet connection and speeds – even though we do use the best ISP available, any development like this would be so welcome. Thanks to The Citizen for the story.

Zambia and Botswana authorities have signed a memorandum of understanding to connect the two nations with a universal optic cable that will enhance Internet connectivity and telecommunication services. Zambia’s Telecommunications Company (Zamtel) and the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) this week signed the MoU to connect a fibre optic cable network through the Kazungula border post.

The joint telecommunications project will cost US$258,000 and is expected take between three to four months to be built. Zamtel CEO Amon Jere said in Lusaka that once effected, the project would make Zambia a telecommunications hub in the southern African region. Jere said the project would help reduce the cost of international connectivity and improve the quality and speed of Internet services.

He disclosed that that the company was considering connecting another fibre optic cable with Namibia through Kazungula. “We are working on providing high quality but affordable high-speed Internet for all Zambians”, Jere said. “Every Zambian must have access to affordable high quality broadband Internet through both mobile and fixed Internet.”

BTC, which provides the country’s national and international telecommunications services, early this year signed a similar $5 million deal with Powertel of Zimbabwe. Under the deal, BTC provides Powertel with international bandwidth capacity for two years after the two organisations completed cross-border fibre optic connections at Ramokgwebana in December 2009.

Fibre optic cables are a special communication module used to carry data and information, widely used by Internet service providers and in other telecommunication systems. It offers relatively low consumer prices. BTC has already committed to invest P504 million to secure reliable bandwidth connection from an undersea fibre optic through the West African Cable System (WACS).

The picture? Chobe National Park in Botswana, close to Kazangula

16
OCT

0

Africa, Botswana, infrastructure, internet, Zambia

The Ben Reed Interview (3)

This is the last part of the feature kindly written by Ben Reed on Adventures With Ben about Chanters Lodge. Thanks Ben!

“Sunday evenings from 800-900 P.M. are dedicated to The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient Featuring George Soulchild. on 107.7 FM. It’s an outlet for him to live his dream of becoming a DJ, promote Chanters Lodge and have a little fun. On the evening he invited me as a guest, Richard gave away dinner for 2 at the lodge to local listeners. Contest applicants had to text their guess to that evening’s question to win. What was the question? What country was tonight’s guest from? I think my accent gave it away.

In an instant, Richard’s phone was buzzing with responses and well-deserved accolades on his return to radio after a brief hiatus. He’s popular among the radio station staff and the local community. A dinner for two at the lodge is a special treat for many:

27
JUN

1

Africa, Chanters, internet, management, radioshow, reviews, richard