What’s The Big Deal With WiFi? (feat. Riaan Graham)

Following last week’s media coverage of the partnership between VAST Networks and Ruckus Wireless to deliver on Africa’s largest single deployment of WiFi infrastructure at the recently opened Mall of Africa in Midrand, South Africa— we thought it might be a good idea to invite a certified WiFi-freak to help us understand why WiFi may indeed be “the next big thing” in terms of ushering in seamless connectedness on the continent.

Joining me on the African Tech Round-up this week is Riaan Graham, Ruckus Wireless’ Director for Sub-Saharan Africa. In this week’s discussion, Riaan argues that the perfect wireless ecosystem requires the harmonious interplay between fixed line telecoms operators and mobile telcos, with WiFi playing a complimentary role. However, as fixed line operators and mobile telcos continue to grapple with diminishing voice revenues, and opt to back technologies like LTE and LTE-U over WiFi, that idyllic scenario is undoubtedly a long way off.

Meanwhile, the growing demand for free internet access delivered via open public WiFi infrastructure (hat-tip to the likes of Project Isizwe) further complicates matters for legacy commercial interests who are desperately trying to work out sustainable business models to ensure they thrive in a data-driven future.

First published on AfricanTechRoundup.com.

Uber Kenya: Everyone’s (Not So Favourite) Driver

Uber’s Roman-style campaign to achieve utter and complete worldwide domination has encountered a teeny tiny setback in Kenya. Much to the surprise of many, the company is yet to enjoy the runaway success it has become accustomed to.

In last week’s episode of the African Tech Round-up we reported Uber Kenya’s plans to run a limited experiment to allow its Kenyan customers to pay for trips using cash and M-Pesa. This followed claims made by the company that the slow adoption of their service in Kenya was due to the fact that many Kenyans are unbanked and do not possess credit and debit cards.

In this week’s show, my guest co-host, Vouchercloud South Africa MD, Lyndon Munetsi and I discuss the challenges that Uber might be facing in rolling out its hugely successful business model in Kenya– especially given the company’s well-documented zero-quibbles approach to taking on new territories. In the meantime, it remains to be seen whether their latest attempts to woo Kenyan users will prove to be effective.

Also, be sure to stay up to date with all the week’s biggest news from across the African continent:

• Find out why African seed fund and accelerator 88mph is taking a break from investing in African startups,
• Get details on how tech education innovators Andela and WeThinkCode_ are poised to disrupt tech talent development on the continent,
• Learn why Ad Dynamo is giving up its reputable contextual ad network business to concentrate on servicing Twitter,
• Get the low-low on the launch of a new Kenyan laptop brand called Taifa, and 
• Discover which major African capital city is set to get free movies and calls via WiFi.