Sovaya on Fire?

Another baby on the block….Sovaya. They are sprouting every day. I log on to their website, and this is what they say……

Get instant wireless broadband connectivity on demand!

With a network covering the whole of Nairobi and its environs, all you need is your Sovaya recharge card and you will be surfing at speeds that leave you breathless!

Whether it’s home or office, we have you covered.
Good thing there are no speed limits online!

- NO installation costs – NO monthly standing charge – No equipment costs
- NO bandwidth quotas – Pay only for what you use

and so on and so forth………Lots of exclamation marks.

As your resident skeptic, I lifted the phone and called their office (since am always wary of website details accuracy by service providers in Kenya). A couple of rings later am talking to Margaret….the call drops, quick redial, we are on, and she walks me through the cocktail of services they are offering. I ask many questions trying to cross check the details and she handles them well. If only they could do something about the echo on their landline, but then again maybe thats just me.

Here is the low down, from the horses mouth, disregard the website story.

If you are in the right neighbourhood, you should get the signal via your WiFi card. Then you will not need any terminal equipment on your premises. If not, you have to pay KES. 4,000 (refundable) for the equipment, repeat you have to pay some caution money , yes I said disregard the website story. The installation will not cost anything, they promise.

After you are hooked up, you either sign up for the bundles below (by visiting their office in Soin Arcade, Westlands), or you buy pay-as-you-use cards via M-Pesa. The instructions on how to pay using M-Pesa shall appear on the landing page.

Bundles are as below;

Small Residential – KES. 4,080 incl. VAT for 32kbps / 128kbps (uplink/downlink)
Large Residential – KES. 5,800 incl. VAT for 64kbps / 128kbps (uplink/downlink)
Small Business    – KES. 9,280 incl. VAT for 64kbps / 128kbps (uplink/downlink)
Small Corporate   – KES. 16,240 incl. VAT for 128kbps / 256kbps (uplink/downlink)
Large Corporate  – KES. 27,840 incl. VAT for 128kbps / 512kbps (uplink/downlink)

So there you have it….unless you are interested in home surveillance, business surveillance, home telephony, business telephony, entertainment and something called super directory. Since I don’t like paying for equipment, am already unhappy with this setup. But then again, thats just me.

Sovaya…….bridge the digital divide. Call them on : 020 2365283, 0736 512164, 0713 078405 else, Email : info@sovaya.com, or walk to Soin Arcade next time you are in Westlands.

Anybody on Sovaya? Lets hear if they are really on fire.

Linux for Kenyans – Update

AVAILABLE LINUX/UNIX DISTRIBUTIONS

Contact
E-mail: shekeine@yahoo.com
TEL: +254 (0)720 851941

DVD Editions

Linux Fedora 10
Linux Mandriva 2009.0, 2008 .1
Ubuntu Ultimate Edition 1.8
OpenSUSE Linux 11.1
PC-BSD (UNIX) 7.02
Debian OS (inclusive of all Debian repositories)

CD Editions

Linux Fedora 10 (KDE)
Linux Fedora 10 (GNOME)
Linux Ubuntu 8.10, 8.04
OpenSUSE Linux 11.1
Open Solaris 8.11 (UNIX)
Linux Mandriva 2009.0, 2008.1
ZENWalk Live 5.0
PC Linux OS 2008 Version2
eAR Media Centre
Puppy Linux 4.12
Gentoo Linux 2008.0
GOS 3.0
Knoppix 6.0

PRICING
Any Linux/UNIX DVD; KSH 3000
Any Linux/UNIX CD; KSH 700

Contacts
E-mail: shekeine@yahoo.com
TEL: +254 (0)720 851941

The Fibres are Coming!

Seacom have promised to pop the champagne corks on 27th June 2009. Mark that on your diaries people. This is the story form their website  (http://www.seacom.mu/news/news_details.asp?iID=57)

Brian Herlihy, SEACOM President, said: “We are delighted to have actual cable in the water and the count-down to June has begun.

“We have made tremendous progress since our groundbreaking in Mozambique last November and we can now sense a real level of excitement for SEACOM’s arrival. Through my travels, I continuously meet people who speak about the many ways they intend to exploit the world of broadband which is about to reach Africa.

“I am also most pleased with our recruitment successes and the fact that SEACOM was able to source the necessary skills to operate the cable from African talent. We are inundated with highly qualified candidates and hiring almost all of our employees from African labour pools.“

From June 2009, southern and eastern Africa will finally get truly connected to international broadband networks. Plentiful and readily available bandwidth will result in lower telecommunications costs and new opportunities across many sectors that will include the call center and business process outsourcing industries. Other life-enhancing disciplines such as educational, clinical and scientific research, which rely on the real-time sharing of data around the world, will also become a reality for many Africans organisations.

They go on to say

SEACOM has also been preparing to provide services to customers by June and recruited over ten experienced local telecommunications professionals from India, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania to operate and maintain the cable stations. Many of these personnel have already been trained at the SEACOM Network Operations Centre in India and are now participating in the testing of the system as it is being installed. A complementary set of personnel is being recruited and will start training in March. These teams will also work with the landing partners’ operators in Egypt and Djibouti. SEACOM is pleased to have been able to tap into the huge resource of talented young African telecommunication professionals, who are now ready to provide customers with the required support from June onwards. Project progress here http://www.seacom.mu/progress/progress.html

So moving on………….

The question, fellow Kenyans is, what shall we do with ALL that bandwidth? ISPs, are you preparing the last mile to our offices, scholols, colleges, universities, hospitals, and homes ? Are you packaging solutions for us? We do not eant to waste time with the fibre optic cable landed and terminated in M0mbasa.

What think you, fellow Kenyan?

Anyone for Tangerine?

The new kid is Tangerine, a Lonrho-house based ISP that is promising “Broadband. Experience more”. There are the usual promises of “real” broadband using Wimax technology. Sounds great to me, so far.

Business packages are as below. For the Premium plan for large corporations, you would have to call for pricing.
512 MB 5,120/=
1Gig 10,200/=
2Gig 20,400/=
3Gig 30,600/=
5Gig 51,000/=
All prices exclusive of VAT and taxes.

The business plans, enjoy video/radio streaming, chat, emails and speeds upto 1 mbps download! You are also priviledged to 5 free email addresses*, free domain
switching*, free anti-virus. Anti spam protection (* subject to subscription of 2Gigs and higher)

Residential broadband solutions are as follows.

64 kbps 4,900/=
128 kbps 7,900/=
256 kbps 15,900/=
512 kbps 19,900/=
All prices exclusive of VAT and taxes.

CoolCONNECT residential package allows you always on-connection, shop online, video / audio streaming, chat, leisure browsing

Beyond that they offer domain name registration, web hosting, virtual private networks and point-to-point links.

Let us wait and see the uptake of this service. Tangerine contact : Tel: + 254-(02) 341760/2, Fax: +254-(0) 3417267, E-mail: sales@tangerine.co.ke

Does anyone have any experience with Tangerine?

Internet in Kenya

Fellow Kenyans! At least that is how I will be starting my speeches after my
inaugration…..but I digress. I wanted to create a new forum for the user
experience with Internet access in Kenya. Be it at home, at work, on the move, in your village, in a cyber, in school, in a cyber in the village, on your mobile device etc

Let us share and educate each other. Post in the comments section below and I shall update the post with the comments, editing for clarity, brevity and to remove repetition.

I would like to chronicle pre and post fibre optic cable Internet connectivity in Kenya.

NB: Am very keen on Linux users….am told you can “tweak” your connection speeds in Linux. Where is Johnny from Egerton, our resident Linux guru?

I shall go first….I work from my balcony at home (but I don’t say). Currently am using KDN residentail broadband solution, a.k.a Butterfly. They have installed a wireless modem in my crib, my laptop is wi-fi ready (of course), so I hook up from the balcony, bila shoes! They have various packages ranging from 100/- to 5K, I think. The difference is the speeds and duration of connection. Am currently on 2,990/- for a whole month, unlimited! Contact Icon Telesec, the service resellers and installers on info@icon.co.ke or +254 20-386-0023 (office)

If only KDN could update their Butterfly website with these details, I would be happier. While I have yet to achieve the speeds Joe Gathu speaks of, am happy with the price / service. Once the FOC down the road from my crib is hooked to our gatehouse, am sure bandwidth will improve. We are currently on a wireless backhaul to the KDN network.

So post your expreriences below, and I will pick the items and update this post categorized by provider. Also feel free to email me your guest blog post for consideration as a full post on the same topic.

Happy surfing!

Yes We Did!

I spent the whole day 20th Jan as as couch potato. Reason? Our very own Barack Hussein Obama was taking oath of office in Washington DC, as the 44th president of the US of A. By “our” I mean, Kenyans.

I happened to be on a day off my very busy schedule, and just veg’ed out on the couch, remote in hand, an assortment of drinks and lots of munchies.

I was awed by the technology and gadgetry on show at the inaugration ceremony. For me, it took too long, lots of slow moving diginitaries, all manner of traditions and stuff. Of course we were represented by Pres. Obama’s granny, Sarah, from Kogelo here in Kenya. There were are a few other family members, right behind Pres. Obama. I shall hunt for those pictures and show case them here.

At 12noon Eastern Time (8pm Kenya time), our “very own” became president, by default! The US constitution stipulates that on 20th January, the year after elections, at noon, the President-elect become President, with or wthout taking the oath of office. He took his oath about 8minutes later. That’s awesome! The official webiste for the Whitehouse was spot on and a quick refresh showed a new website. There is a sign up page where the Obama government can keep in touch with its people. Alot we can learn as Kenyans. Very cool stuff in there.

Over at CNN.com, there is an awesome technology on showcase, photosynth. Photosynth is a Microsoft technology that creates 3D spaces from anyone’s 2D photos. They used over 140 photos taken at “the moment” Pres. Obama took oath, all synthesized to create a 3-D image. Satellite imagery was also on hand to mark the occassion. Truly awesome!

A big thanks to CNN for keeping me on the couch all day long. Awesome and historical!

Linux and Us Kenyans – Part II

Guest blogged by John Kimwai (shekeine@yahoo.com)

Hi everyone, thanx to MwendaNET the Linux movement now has a front from which to battle the curse of Windows (excuse me).

Some of the obstacles to the spread of Linux, even as seen from comments on MwendaNET are;

1) Most of us are still holding on to ancient Linux distros whose operation may involve extensive use of command line tools made necessary by the need to install software from external sources.

2) Some of these older versions of Linux distros lack inbult driver software for most of the modern hardware components such as 3G modems, printers,etc. In most cases they need to go online to download the respective drivers or get them yourself and compile, install them (using one of those command line interfaces).

3) On multimedia support, some Linux distros such as Ubuntu do not ship with proprietary codecs, so you might need to download and install them ,or on being prompted let the system get and install from the Internet.

Basically, most of us don’t seem to be in the know that there are Linux DVDs aside from the CDs. The DVDs come  heavily loaded with more than what you would need (whether the computer in question is a server, client or for an individual desktop user).

Current Linux distros (my favourite being Linux Mandriva) come with excellent hardware support and applications(totalling to 4.3GB) to enable one do amazing things. Read on for the low down.

1) Manage your Nokia phone as ypu do with Nokia PC Suite.

2) The generous and merciful Mandriva Linux community thought it human to have a Linux antivirus for Windows in both the 2008.1 and 2009.0 DVD versions. This means you can scan your Windows PC from Linux, the antivirus in use here is actually clam av. This means you can clean your Windows PC of viruses and other malware as they lie there inert(under a Linux environment). How cool is that?

3) The 2009/2008 version also features OpenOffice 3, Mozilla 3.03, kde 4 (a Linux graphical manager), DVD burning software, pdf reader, media players (including vlc) packed with all codecs which guarantees support for any media files, function based widgets and panels on the desktop, torrent downloaders, plus universal hardware support for any computer and peripherals such as printer/scanner/bluetooth/tv card/infrared, the list is endless. In summary software to enable you do anything.

4) Furthermore, you  dont need to know any funny commands to manage your system, all operations (software un/installation, application launching and management, hardware and network management are all GUI based, intergrated within the graphical managers such as gnome,kde,xfce etc). The display, windows organisation, multiple desktop/workspace features, widgets, 3D desktop effects are the most I have ever seen. For your information just Google “mandriva 2008.1 or 2009.0 features”.

Oh and for anyone familiar with the concept of virtual machines, Linux Mandriva allows you to install Windows within it, as a program, then install your Windows stuff in it. All this is handled by a program known as virtual box, and we talked about the Mandriva system coming with clam av for Windows, put 2 and 2 together!! Go figure!

Currently this is what I have in my collection;

a) Linux Mandriva DVD 2008.1 edition (4.3GB) for x64_86 platforms, 64-bit computers @ KES. 2,500/-
b) Linux Mandriva 2008.1 Live CD (700MB) for all platforms both 64-bit and 32-bit computers @ KES. 700/-
c) Ubuntu Linux 8.04 (700MB) @ KES. 700/-
d) Linux Mandriva 2009.0 DVD Edition for x64_86 platforms, 64-bit computers @ KES. 3000/- (now readily available)
e) Linux Mandriva 2009.0 Live CD Edition (700MB) for all platforms, both 64-bit and 32-bit computers @ KES. 1000/-

Also in stock are the following;

1) Linux Mandriva 2007 DVD (for both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms)

2) PCLinux OS (tiny me) for 32-bit and 64-bit platforms), superlight weight (only 190MB) which can be loaded into RAM and the OS runs from there. Basic resources, Opera browser, audio player, photo viewer, excellent graphics, best distro for a quick “What is Linux” demonstration, one can install all the stuff they want and then remaster the system i.e create an installable CD with the installed applications already therein.

3) Zenlive 5 (32-bit and 64-bit platforms), another lightweight Linux CD but with much more than PCLinux OS (tinyme). It includes browsers, DVD/CD burners, an Office suite, pdf reader, media players, basic hardware support etc.

4) Ubuntu 8.10(64-bit platform)

5) Mandriva 2008.1 CD (for both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms)

6) Mandriva 2009.0 CD (for both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms)

7) Zencafe Linux, the perfect solution for cybercafes. This is an operating system specifically tailored to provide and manage services(for the client and server machine respectively),efficient accounting system, maximum security, efficient deployment of services, and excellent network adminstration at the servers end.

Please note

a) The DVDs and CDs come packaged and labelled accordingly.
b) The distributions also come along with proper documentation, help files, software guides and “how to” files on a separate CD (in pdf format) to enable you navigate through and master the entire content.

My contacts,

John Kimwai,
Tel: 0720-851941,
E-mail: shekeine@yahoo.com
P.O. Box 536 Egerton University,
Njoro, Kenya.

Balcony BroadBand

Fellow Kenyans, wireless broadband has arrived on my balcony! Those who have been following my quest for wireless broadband on that my balcony (bila shoes) will know I have searched high and low. The problem with Kenyan service providers is they tend to spend alot of time launching lofty products, with lots of shock-n-awe, glitz, pomp and ceremony. They then take all available stands in exhibitions, shows, malls, and so on and show off their latest services with jaw-dropping demos that leave you “seeing stars”.

Now try calling the sales office, and you usually get indifferent sales staff who read from some print out and churn out jargon about Wimax, and fibre optic cable, and wireless-this-wireless-that, they talk of ADSL and upload and download and 256kbps and 512kbps and 1MB, and DHCP and WLAN and stuff…… Bottom line, they know zilch! Between the demo staff and sales staff, lots of sales are made. Try the after sales service (if any).

So it was with lots of trepidation that I filled some forms and had technicians hook me up to a nifty, ADSL modem, with wireless capability in my sitting room. Stay tuned as I kick off my shoes and hit the balcony with the laptop. Ahhhh, broadband on the balcony, bila shoes. I will keep you posted and also how you can have these people close the digital divide for you.

What your comment on residential broadband using FTTH? That is fibre-to-the-home.

Linux and Us Kenyans

Alot has been posted on the comments forum of my star post on 3G networks, Internet access in Nairobi and Kenya. A new crop of young Kenyans are emerging chanting the Linux mantra. And we the older geezers (MS-DOS, BASIC, DBASE I, II and III and Wordperfect crowd) are nodding our collective heads.

While my experience with Linux is rather scanty (never mind that I advise you on this post on how to reset a forgotten password in Ubuntu), I do have a dual boot WinXP / Ubuntu 7.04. I also have the Ubuntu 8.04 CD somewhere on my crammed shelf and am awaiting delivery of Ubuntu 8.10, thanks to our brothers @ Canonical. Feel free to contact me for a copy. Also support Johhny (shekeine@yahoo.com) out in Naxx (Egerton, actually) by buying his CDs, he seems to have most of the Linux distros. Job Kingori (aka 20-Year-Old-Geek) has started a nice Linux for dummies (and geezers) blog. See it here.

Recently at a shopping mall in Nairobi, I lit up my trusty hp laptop, fired up Ubuntu and was surfing away in seconds, bila configs. I did lots of stuff, watched videos, burned CDs and DVDs, backed up my work to an external disk, wrote poems (see my other weakness here) and basically felt good while surfing for free, using free software. That’s how the world should be like, no?

All you Linux buffs, Job Kingori (20-Year-Old-Geek) and Johnny, am looking for authoritative guest posts on Linux, holla back through my email. We need to educate the masses. 

NB: Is anybody working on Kenux……a Kenyan flavoured distro of Linux. I think Asianux is already on, Google it.

Broadband Internet in Kenya? Are we there yet…….Pt 1

Fellow Kenyans …………. Anyway, alot has been written about broadband (or the lack thereof) in Kenya. Everybody is touting its connectivity to be broadband, and promising uptime of 99%, the holy grail being 99.999%. All nicely said, but what is broadband? Many definitions abound, but without getting bogged in speeds and stuff, it is all of the below, and more….

Technology that enables faster internet access, and as a result allows services such as interactive digital TV, video conferencing and video. Go here for more.

High-speed Internet generally taken to be Internet offered at speeds greater than 150Kbits/second. Go here for more.

Refers to three different kinds of high-speed Internet connections; cable, DSL and satellite. Go here for more.

Without getting bogged in terminology, read this this gem from Wikipedia: 

Although various minimum speeds have been used in definitions of broadband, ranging up from 64 kbit/s up to 1.0 Mbit/s, the 2006 OECD report is typical in counting only download speeds equal to or faster than 256 kbit/s as broadband, and the US FCC currently defines broadband as anything above 768 kbit/s. Speeds are defined in terms of maximum download because several common consumer broadband technologies such as ADSL are “asymmetric” — supporting much slower maximum upload speeds than download.

Broadband is often called high-speed Internet, because it usually has a high rate of data transmission. In general, any connection to the customer of 256 kbit/s (0.256 Mbit/s) or more is considered broadband Internet. The International Telecommunication Union Standardization Sector (ITU-T) recommendation I.113 has defined broadband as a transmission capacity that is faster thanprimary rate ISDN, at 1.5 to 2 Mbit/s. The FCC definition of broadband is 200 kbit/s (0.2 Mbit/s) in one direction, and advanced broadband is at least 200 kbit/s in both directions. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has defined broadband as 256 kbit/s in at least one direction and this bit rate is the most common baseline that is marketed as “broadband” around the world. There is no specific bitrate defined by the industry, however, and “broadband” can mean lower-bitrate transmission methods. Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use this to their advantage in marketing lower-bitrate connections as broadband.

In practice, the advertised bandwidth is not always reliably available to the customer; ISPs often allow a greater number of subscribers than their backbone connection can handle, under the assumption that most users will not be using their full connection capacity very frequently. This aggregation strategy works more often than not, so users can typically burst to their full bandwidth most of the time; however, peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing systems, often requiring extended durations of high bandwidth, stress these assumptions, and can cause major problems for ISPs who have excessively overbooked their capacity. For more on this topic, see traffic shaping. As takeup for these introductory products increases, telcos are starting to offer higher bit rate services. For existing connections, this most of the time simply involves reconfiguring the existing equipment at each end of the connection.

Since this is Kenya, let us use 256kbps as the mimimum speed for broadband internet access. In part 2 of this series, I will compare the various offerings from the Kenyan market, so that you the consumer can make an informed choice. Let nobody bamboozle you with marketing hype. The low down is coming soon here! Don’t blink!