‘Serious’ Sibu Malambo on ‘The Experience’!

Meet Sibu Malambo (above), programme co-ordinator at Contact Trust Youth Association in Livingstone, Zambia, and Guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient, featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela, our regular Sunday night radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. The show airs from 20.30-21.30 (CAT) live and is a great mixture of latest international and Zambian music, and chat. Streams live on the internet too and links can be found here and here.

Sibu told listeners that 10 years ago he had been one of the founders of CTYA (Contact Trust Youth Association). The NGO is involved in motivating and educating  the ‘youth’ in Zambia – the age of youth apparently stretches from 10-35 years old in this country but CTYA’s main focus is on 10-24 year olds. The primary objectives of CTYA are HIV/AIDS prevention as well as civic education, and Sibu estimated that since inception, they had helped thousands of young people. The NGO has several sponsors, one of which is partially financed by USAID. There are seven full time staff working in the CTYA premises in Maramba. As well as HIV prevention and civic education CTYA also educates about care for the environment and entrepreneurship.

The music on the show was great. We opened with latest tracks from The Killers and Robbie Williams. George chose Zambian tracks from Macky 2 and Judyo. Milli Jam dropped Beyonce’s ‘Put A Ring On It’. The musical bombshell of the night came from George who had been asked to pick the ‘oldie of the week’ – we give a prize of a dinner for two at Chanters Lodge each week to the first person to text us the name of the artist on our ‘oldie’ track. George chose the most obscure track ever played for the prize – ‘For The Good’ by Ray Price. None of us in the studio had ever heard of the artist or the track and needless to say the prize went un-won – amidst sms protests by listeners complaining that it was ‘just too tough’! Nice one George! My pick of the week was Tulisa’s ‘Sight Of You’ and we closed with AC/DC’s smash ‘You Shook Me All Night’.

Sibu told listeners that he was married ‘to the most beautiful girl in the world’ – after some in-studio debate and observation of photographs on Facebook, we decided he had some right to the claim! He and his lovely wife have one son – Sibu Junior- just 1 year and 8 months old. Sibu has lived most of his life in Livingstone receiving his secondary education at Linda High School in the city. He explained that he is currently pursuing a course in development studies with the University Of South Africa. He told us that CYTA from time to time hosts beauty pageants, one of the most popular was ‘Miss VCT’ which Chanters Lodge and other business houses in Livingstone had helped to sponsor in the past. Musicians like Shyman and Camouflage had been helped in their musical careers by CYTA with assistance from our own Kaufela.

Sibu is a Chelsea supporter – as evidenced by the shirt he wore for the show.  He said he did not agree with the latest managerial sacking and that Didier Drogba was his favourite all time player. Music wise he said he liked R&B as well as Zambian music. Sibu is well known to Zambezi 107.7 listeners because he hosts a popular CYTA show every Wednesday evening on air, sponsored by the station. “Wow!” I said (on behalf of those who have to pay for their shows!).

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing 10 years from now, he hoped still to be helping the Zambian youth in an expanded NGO, and to have one or two more children with ‘the most beautiful girl in the world’! He also mentioned that he would like to be involved in policy making for youth development in the future in Zambia. “Politics?” I queried. “Maybe” was the reply.

In thanking him for appearing on the show, I made the point to listeners that people like Sibu Malambo are the unsung heroes in Zambia – just look at the falling statistics in HIV infection in Zambia and you’ll see why I said that!

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Justin Brinkhoff on ‘The Experience’

Meet Justin Brinkhoff (above) from Denver, Colorado. Colorado was a ‘swing state’ in the recent US election and also one of the states that legalized the social smoking of marijuana in a vote at the same time. “What did you think of the election?” we asked Justin when he appeared as a Guest on the most recent edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela. (That’s our regular Sunday night radio show on local radio in Livingstone). “We were happy Obama won” replied Justin “and the vote on marijuana was somehow a natural progression, as the drug was already allowed in Colorado for medical purposes, we’re not yet sure how the law will be implemented.”

Justin told listeners that he worked for Visa, the credit card company, but revealed that the company did not give him an unlimited free credit card with which to go on holiday (surprise, surprise!) He’s a computer programmer and he revealed that he was in Zambia with his wife Rebekah who was resting back at Chanters Lodge where they were staying. Before coming to Livingstone they had spent a fantastic week in the South Luangwa National Park, staying at Flatdogs. During their safaris they had seen four of the ‘big five’. They had not seen rhino but had made up for this by taking the rhino walk with Bwaato Adventures in Livingstone the previous day, they had seen all nine rhino in the Mosi-o-Tunya NP and had been thrilled! The day of the show, Justin and Rebekah had taken the one day safari to Chobe NP in Botswana and had seen an amazing number of elephant and crocodile – as you usually do in Chobe.

Milli Jam wanted to know Justin’s musical tastes and he revealed that he’s still very much into 80’s rock, loving bands like Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Guns and Roses and AC/DC. On this show we featured tracks by Bruno Mars, Example, Exile and Nalu, Mr Vezzy, Rihanna ft Chris Brown and Alicia Keys. Our oldie of the week was by Zambian artists Amayange and the prize for guessing the artists on the track – ‘Dyress’ was quickly snapped up by text, and once again we had a great response. My pick of the week was Tulisa’s ‘Live Your Life’ and we closed with Carrie Underwood’s ‘Two Black Cadillacs’ – after a little presenter confusion!

Justin revealed that when he and Rebekah, a project engineer in a construction company back in America, had been in the Luangwa Valley they had spent one day volunteering in one of the local schools in Mfue and they had loved the experience, relating well to the children who had sung and danced for them! It was their first time to come to Africa. They hoped to spend some time in Zimbabwe and South Africa after leaving Zambia. Justin revealed that they had first met on a blind date organized by his brother in law and that he and Rebekah had been married for two years.

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing in ten years’ time Justin replied that he and Rebekah would like to be travelling full time with their children! “Get in” we said!

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Brian Suto & Jen Gase rock ‘The Experience’!

What do the average Washington DC investment adviser (with Charles Schwab ) and partner, an IT project manager, do on their Sunday night in Livingstone, Zambia just 10 kms away from the mighty Victoria Falls? Why, appear on the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela of course! That’s our regular Sunday night radio show airing weekly between 20.30 and 21.30 hrs on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Joking apart we were delighted that Brian Suto and Jen Gase (pictured above), our Guests at Chanters Lodge, agreed to appear on our show. Lively and interesting Guests they were too.

Brian and Jen told listeners that although they’d only arrived in Livingstone at lunch time the previous day, on their first afternoon they’d already taken the sunset cruise on the Zambezi on Lady Livingstone which they’d thoroughly enjoyed. On the morning of the show they’d been to Mukuni Big 5 for the lion encounter and then walked out to Livingstone Island to swim in Devil’s Pool, which they described as ‘stunning’. The following day they were scheduled for a half day’s white water rafting before they left Chanters for the Zambezi Waterfront to link up with G Adventures. They explained that they were booked for an eight day camping overland trip with Gap, taking them from Zimbabwe to Johannesburg via Kruger NP. “Looking forward to it?” George, the host for the day, wanted to know. “We are” replied Brian “but I’m not too sure about the camping.” Jen gave a knowing laugh. “Washington investment adviser camping?” She seemed to be thinking, sure……

George wanted to know if the couple lived near the White House and our Guests said that they lived just 10kms away. Had they met President Obama? We wanted to know, they had not, but they hoped to and were delighted he had won the election. So were we. Music wise Brian told listeners he was into rap, whereas Jen liked softer music such as Mumford and Sons. On this show we featured tracks from The Wanted as well as Christina Aguilera at the top of the show. Zambian tracks were from T-Sean and Zone Fam, which we followed up with offerings from Lana del Rey and Keri Hilson. Our oldie of the week was Danny’s ‘Could I Be’ and we had a great response from listeners by text telling us who was singing the track – all trying to win dinner for two at the lodge. Vuuka won.

Asked where they’d met, Brian and Jen said it had been in Florida where they’d been working for the same company. “Was it love at first sight?” George wanted to know “not really” seemed to be the reply. They told listeners they’d been married for two years. Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing 10 years from now, Jen said she wanted still to have Brian by her side along with 2+ children, Brian seemed to want to be running a small lodge somewhere other than in America – as you do when you’re an investment adviser!!

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Kim Musonda in the house – again!

No, not the Big Brother Africa House this time, but the studios of Zambezi 107.7 fm in Livingstone, the city’s leading local radio station and host to the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela. That’s the regular Sunday night radio show we sponsor, airing between 20.30 and 21.30 hrs every Sunday night! Kim was the Guest on the most recent edition. To the uninitiated, Kimberly Musonda (pictured above) was one of Zambia’s representatives in the Big Brother Africa house in South Africa, 2011 edition, on MultiChoice DSTV, staying in the house for 88 days and thus becoming one of the last seven contestants. “Did you fall in love on the show?” We wanted to know. “I had ‘almosts’ and crushes” she replied. We laughed.

Kim lives in Livingstone and was educated at Macha Girls Secondary School in Southern Province though for a large part of her childhood she was brought up in Botswana where her dad was working for the UN. After Grade 12 she toyed with further education in journalism but gave it up to follow a beauticians’ course at Kabwe Trades Training Institute. She is now a qualified masseur and can fix your hair, nails and skin too if you have an appointment. She has established her own business ‘House Of Kim’ and deals in cosmetics, apart from organizing the media dates, promotions and endorsements that have followed her successful stint in the Big Brother House. “How did you manage to get chosen for Big Brother”? Milli Jam wondered. Kim explained that she had applied on line along with thousands of other people and was eventually chosen from some 5000 other auditioned candidates. She said she’d been surprised to be chosen as she is rather quiet by nature and had even nearly missed the auditions. “What did your parents say when they heard you were to appear?” We wondered. “My dad told me not to tell my mum”! Was the reply. “Quiet by nature……” I wondered. She did admit later that she was ‘fun loving’! That somehow sounded more likely!

The music on the show was latest and featured new tracks from Rihanna, One Direction, Nicki Minaj, Alicia Keys and Ne-Yo internationally and ZoneFam and JK on the Zambian scene. The oldie of the week was Jennifer Hudson’s ‘Spotlight’ and the prize of a dinner for two at Chanters Lodge given to the first person to text us telling us the name of the artist on the oldie of the week was quickly snapped up. As usual we gave listeners all the latest news from the lodge, the social media scene and the US and UK charts.

Kim told listeners about her voluntary work for the “Give A Little To Save A Soul” not for profit organization which collects contributions from the public and distributes them to the old peoples’ home in Livingstone, as well as to local orphanages. She announced that there would be a party at one of the local Livingstone schools on Independence Day – October 24th in order to raise funds and she appealed to the audience for contributions. Are you “married or single?” Milli Jam wondered later. “Neither” Kim replied “occupied”. “We see” we said. “I also have a crush on Chris Brown” she admitted……

Asked where she would like to be and what she would like to be doing 10 years from now she replied that she would like to be married with two children, highly involved in the media with a lot of blessings and endorsements. She would also have love to have her own fashion label. I wouldn’t bet against this vivacious, personable, pretty Zambian girl achieving that!




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Trevor Noah In Lusaka

Judging from the comments on Twitter from Zambian girls Mr Noah is almost as much in demand as Zambian National Soccer Team Coach Herve Renard – and undoubtedly funnier! Get in! Oh! And the tickets are apparently sold out already! Others on Twitter say ‘we don’t care, we’re going there to get a glimpse!’

South African Stand-up comedian Trevor Noah will be performing in Zambia on 30th November at government complex.The South African comedian who is currently living in the United States has also been a radio DJ, actor and TV host.

Born to a (white) Swiss father and (black) South African mother. His mixed-race heritage, his experiences growing up in a Soweto township, and his observations about race and ethnicity are leading themes in his comedy.

Noah has performed all around South Africa in The Blacks Only Comedy Show, Heavyweight Comedy Jam, the Vodacom Campus Comedy Tour, the Cape Town International Comedy Festival, the Jozi Comedy Festival, and Bafunny Bafunny. His stand up comedy specials include The Daywalker, and Crazy Normal both of which have been released on DVD.

Following his Daywalker performance Noah began hosting his own TV Show ‘Tonight with Trevor Noah’ which aired on South Africa’s MNet network.On 6 January 2012 Noah became the first South African stand up comedian to appear on The Tonight Show.

Noah is also the subject of the documentary You Laugh But It’s True which will be released in 2012

Tickets on sale at all KFC outlets .

 

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Peter Bailey and Lewis James

 
Meet Peter Bailey (left) and Lewis James, above, as they appeared on the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela last Sunday night. The Experience is our regular Sunday night radio show airing from 20.30 to 21.30 hrs on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Peter and Lewis hail from Knysna in South Africa, a coastal town on the famous Garden Route. Peter owns a sports shop in the town and Lewis works with him. Peter has his own boat and told our listeners he goes fishing ‘eight days a week’! Peter and Lewis, with wives Pat and Julia had been spending a few days on holiday at Chanters Lodge and we were delighted to invite them on to the show as our Guests.
“When did you arrive in Livingstone?” Asked Milli Jam at the start of the show – one of his usual opening gambits. “This time or in 1948?” Was Peter’s surprise reply. Peter explained that he had been brought up in Livingstone as a young man in the 50’s – his father had come to Zambia after the war and had opened the Zambezi Bar in town – actually still open up to a couple of years ago. Peter had been educated at Hillcrest Technical Secondary School, just up the road from Chanters Lodge and had been head boy in his time. Lewis explained that it was his first visit to Zambia and told listeners that he and Julia were loving the experience, and really like Zambia and its people.
The music on the show was great, though both our Guests told us they had much more interest in fishing than they did in music! We opened with Amy Macdonald’s ‘Pride’ from her new album, coupled with Redlight’s ‘Lost In Your Love’ – charting in UK as we went on air. George featured Zambia’s Roberto with ‘Good Women’ a track from Roberto’s new album, together with EddyBoy ft Kaufela and ‘Baby x 2’. Kaufela is of course our very own George by another name! Milli Jam picked Rihanna ft Ne-Yo and ‘Hate That I Love You’ as our oldie of the week and we were happy that the prize was won – it’s given to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing the track. We also featured songs from Tyga ft Chris Brown, John Legend, Gyptian and Jan Sean ft Tyga.
“Have you managed to do any fishing while you’ve been in Zambia?” Milli Jam asked our Guests who explained that they’d had a few days in Mambova on a houseboat before they arrived at Chanters, and even that very morning had been fishing in the Zambezi quite near the Falls catching some14 fish! “Where are they?” Our DJ’s wanted to know, and Peter explained that some had been given to the wild life officers in the park, others were given to the Chanters Girls. “And being eaten right now back at the lodge I wouldn’t be surprised!” I quipped.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years’ from now, the unsurprising replies were ‘still alive and fishing’! Even though I had told them ‘fishing’ would not be an acceptable reply!

 

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Handleys Rock Zambezi 107.7 fm

There are three generations of Handleys in the photo above – patriarch Len on the right, daughter Jenna next left, and grandson Jobe on his mum’s left. Completing the picture, replete in his Springbok shirt, is family friend Greg Mortimer. The shot was taken in the studios of Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station, when the guys appeared on the latest edition of our weekly Sunday night radio show – The Chanters Lodge Experience. The show was hosted by George da Soulchild Kaufela on this occasion, due to Milli Jam’s absence on business. Great job Kaufela did too, at short notice.

The Handleys hail from Bendigo in Australia and were visiting Zambia and Livingstone for the first time. Len told listeners that he was a semi-retired solicitor, but that he still does occasional work for government funded legal aid. Jenna explained that she was working for a local council in facilities for the aged and disabled. Lively Jobe – the star of the show – said he was 11 years old, in grade 6 and that that very afternoon he had been riding elephants out at Mukuni Big 5 Conservation Park! Had he been scared? Not a bit of it! Had he ridden the same beast as his mum? Not at all – they had each had their own jumbo! Greg told us that he is a South African who had been living in Australia but was now domiciled back in South Africa. He works in a business consulting company dealing in patents and trademarks.
The music on the show was good. We opened with Maroon 5’s latest ‘Wipe Your Eyes’ just as their smash ‘Payphone’ featuring Wiz Khalifa, debuted at number one on the UK singles chart – the group’s first UK number one. We coupled that back to back with Eric Church’s US number one country track ‘Springsteen’. Local selections were from Ruff Kid and Slap Dee. Our oldie of the week was a local track ‘Dyress’ from Amayenge. We give a prize of a dinner for two at Chanters Lodge on every show to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing the oldie of the week, and this time the prize was quickly snapped up. Other tracks were from Paloma Faith and Train.
The group told listeners that they had enjoyed seeing Victoria Falls and were excited about seeing the Falls from the air the next day when they were scheduled for helicopter and microlight flights. They had loved the sunset cruise on the Zambezi and were looking forward to a one day safari to Chobe National Park in Botswana during their holiday. While Jobe and Jenna had been riding elephants, Greg and the rest of the group, including Len’s daughter Tatum and grandson Caleb, had ridden the white water rapids on the Zambezi from rapid 10-25 that very afternoon. “Did you spill?” We wondered and they told us theirs was the only boat on the river which did not! Had they enjoyed the experience? You bet they had! Were they tired and sore? Errr…..yes!

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years’ time Len said he hoped to still be playing lawn bowls and travelling, Greg that he hoped he would still be travelling but with his children who would then be old enough to enjoy it, and Jenna hoped also still to be seeing the world. Jobe gave the impression that he would like to be married by then! We laughed! 

Great show with lovely people!

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The Calgary Crowd on Zambezi 107.7 fm

Actually this wasn’t the whole ‘Calgary Crowd’ who’d been staying at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone, Zambia, there were a couple more back at the lodge! They are big people and it’s quite a small studio! Meet (left to right) Julie and Dallas Mauck with Hobie Schmautz. All hail from Alberta, Canada and were visiting Zambia – and for that matter Africa – for the first time. They were a little hesitant about appearing on our regular Sunday evening radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm – The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient, featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela – but I twisted their arms and I believe they enjoyed ‘The Experience’ – though it was, perhaps, one of the last things they expected to do while they were visiting Livingstone and Victoria Falls!

During their visit to Zambia, apart from appearing on the radio, Julie and Dallas, married for 20 years this year and celebrating the anniversary with their stunning trip to Africa, as well as Hobie and the rest of the crowd, had taken a 30 minute helicopter flight over the Falls which they described as ‘amazing’. On their second day they’d rafted the famous Zambezi white water rapids – numbers 14-25 which are those open while there’s ‘high water’ – as it is at the moment. I asked Hobie on air if he’d enjoyed the ride and he said ‘well, yes, I did seeing I can’t swim’! The group had also ‘zip lined’ from the famous railway bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe but had, apparently, drawn the line at bungee jumping!
 
The music on the show was good, we dropped Cheryl Cole’s UK number one hit ‘Call My Name’ back to back with Flo Rida’s ‘Whistle’ at the top of the show. For the Zambian part of our play list we chose Dandy Krazy’s ‘Dangana Nkupule’ as well as B’Flow’s ‘Efyo Waba featuring P-Jay. Jennifer Hudson’s ‘Spotlight’ was our ‘oldie of the week’ – listeners have to text us telling us who’s singing the track if they want to win a dinner for two with drinks at Chanters Lodge – they do and they did, so the prize was quickly won. Milli Jam featured Camp Mulla’s ‘Party Don’t Stop’ – they’re a Kenyan outfit – and for our Canadian Guests we played ‘As Long As You Love Me’ Justin Bieber’s dubstep smash, featuring Big Sean.
 

Julie and Dallas told listeners that they run their own business back in Calgary – it’s a quick service garage that offers complete oil and filter changes in 20 minutes for US$60. We believed them!! And so too did we believe that you can get used to -45C degree temperatures though I’m not sure I’d want to! The group also told us they’d had a great time in South Africa on safari for almost three weeks before they arrived in Zambia, and that they would be headed back for Canada the day after the show. Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years’ time Julie said she and Dallas would like still to be healthy, wealthy and travelling! Hobie was ‘hoping for the best’.

Great show!

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Kaufela plays East Coast Radio, RSA

The 14th annual African Renaissance Festival this year will be held in Durban, South Africa with aims to connect Africa and to secure the continent’s future. As part of the celebration Darren Maule and the Breakfast Stack from East Coast Radio, Durban’s number 1 radio station, with aims to strengthening ties beyond borders came to broadcast from the Sun International Royal Livingstone Hotel on the 24th and 25th of May 2012 – their first international outside broadcast .

Of course their show and visit would not have been complete without having a local radio voice to represent Livingstone – that’s where George da Soulchild-Kaufela Zambezi 107.7 FM Breakfast Show presenter – and for that matter co-presenter of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient every Sunday night – came in! Rumour has it that he abandoned his breakfast show on Friday Africa Freedom day so he could feature on Darren Maules Breakfast show, which beamed via satellite live from the Royal Livingstone sundeck! George described the experience as ‘a chance in a life time’ and one of the greatest moments of his radio life. On the show George talked about his radio show on Zambezi 107.7 FM, Zambian music and night life in the tourist capital.

George couldn’t help but drop East Coast Radio Listeners’ one of his tracks saying ‘what’s a Zambian without some Zambian music’! Among many other activities that the East Coast Radio crew got up to in the tourist capital were mingling with the locals, trying out different traditional meals, horseback riding and white water rafting. They rode the jet boat, visited the Victoria Falls and went clubbing with Soulchild in Ayoba before heading back home!

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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.”

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