Moving to uplink speeds, South Korea once again led the pack with an average of 18.04Mbps while Ghana tops Africa with an amazing 6.35Mbps and ranked 12th in the world, Rwanda comes in second place again with 2.40Mbps and ranked 25th in the world, Kenya in third place has an average uplink speed of 1.55Mbps and ranked 36th in the world.

Strange how Rwanda tops Kenya with far significantly better speed tests when they buy their broadband service through Kenya. Is internet service cheaper in Rwanda?

NB: In an attempt to keep things as even as possible, Net Index only counted results from nations in which tests were taken from at least 75,000 unique IP addresses.
Based on user test info generated over the past 30 days.

After 10 weeks of chasing up on getting my box connection at home, I got home today to find it connected.

First thing I got round to doing was hooking up my wireless network onto the IDU provided to me by KDN for free. I got the 1mb/1mb link broadband of course, and I have no idea what the contention rate on this thing is. No one at KDN gives that information out either.

Now we all know that KDN are the last mile service providers of Seacom in the region and have the largest fiber network in the region. For an ISP this big they sure are poor at following up with their potential clients and totally suck at marketing. I wonder if they have enough clients for their own liking.
Trust me, following up with these guys to get this link at home was no easy task. It is completely difficult to get hold of anyone at KDN who would have any useful information regarding your installation status, at times it is just impossible to get anyone on the phone (about 65% of the time).

Lets get down to the chase. After all the excitement of getting this connection, I faced nothing but DISAPPOINTMENT (typical from Kenyan ISP’s isn’t it guys). Now this link for one doesn’t even go through Seacom but through KDN’s fail over satellite links

Tracing route to www.facebook.com [66.220.145.10]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 204 ms 230 ms 254 ms l3.london.kdn.intersatafrica.com [212.113.15.97]

5 227 ms 370 ms * ae-34-52.ebr2.London1.Level3.net [4.69.139.97]
6 601 ms * 350 ms ae-44-44.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.137.78]

7 * * 262 ms ae-3-3.ebr4.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.132.93]

8 264 ms 271 ms * ae-84-84.csw3.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.134.1
86]
9 261 ms 263 ms 266 ms 4.68.17.149
10 263 ms * 259 ms FACEBOOK-IN.edge3.Washington4.Level3.net [4.53.1
16.6]
11 262 ms 346 ms 267 ms ae2.bb01.iad2.tfbnw.net [204.15.20.88]
12 331 ms 400 ms * xe-1-3-0.bb01.sjc1.tfbnw.net [74.119.76.170]
13 330 ms 332 ms * ae1.dr02.snc4.tfbnw.net [74.119.76.185]
14 328 ms * 331 ms eth-17-2.csw01a.snc4.tfbnw.net [74.119.76.46]
15 411 ms * 350 ms www-10-01.snc4.facebook.com [66.220.145.10]

Trace complete.

Secondly the local loop connection just doesn’t do it for me. The latencies are so high & inconsistent it is unbearable, a simple ping to Access Kenya’s DNS shows this

Pinging 196.200.16.2 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 196.200.16.2: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=58

Ping statistics for 196.200.16.2:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 1, Lost = 3 (75% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 4ms, Maximum = 4ms, Average = 4ms

Reply from 196.200.16.2: bytes=32 time=79ms TTL=58
Request timed out.
Reply from 196.200.16.2: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=58
Reply from 196.200.16.2: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=58

Ping statistics for 196.200.16.2:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 9ms, Maximum = 79ms, Average = 43ms

So far this link is good for nothing. Really I have always complained about Access Kenya, but there link’s have been far more consistent and better. This product from KDN is a total rip off, more so because it simply fails on the local loop network too.

For now I will be hoping to see some sort of improvements made to this service and strongly advise anyone willing to go for this service to keep off for a while.

The first thing that came to my mind when I visited Maduqa was, WOW!! Now there is a new concept for the local upcoming online community, a free online store platform.
All a user needs to do is create their store and host their products, so simple. Maduqa in the meantime do the actual hard work of promoting the site, for the end user that is a bargain.

Maduqa offers online presence for small businesses and individuals. You can create and manage your online business/online shop anywhere, anytime. The aim is to give tangible online presence providing bigger market and outreach for the small businesses and individuals.

The sign up process hardly takes 1 minute, once you input the details for sign up it automatically logs you in and takes you back to the front-end of the site.
Clicking on myAccount gives you the opportunity to place your ads (At this point I had no shop yet)

The concept is good so far, but still lacking on areas. Will maduqa be able to pull this off? They have the potential to.

Firstly Maduqa are the first with such a concept locally, so this gives them the upper hand on things, they will be able to analyze the market before others come in with a similar concept.
Secondly they have a great idea of marketers going out to try and capture and convince potential clients to use their services, currently with three marketers they could get a bagful of clients. A simple workout would show that if each marketer got 5 customers to sign-up per day you would have 15 new potential shops a day, 375 shops a month!! With the number of exhibition stalls out there, there is no reason why that number is hard to target.

Where Maduqa lacks.
For one the site is just too dizzying, with the scrolls at the top and bottom its simply too busy for the eyes and tends to distract you. A simple amazon sort of layout would do wonders.
I tried to visit a few existing shops and there was no integration to payment gateways. I was required to email the owner in order to buy.
The site does not contain security (SSL) of any sort, what are the maduqa management planning in terms of security? How about buyer/seller protection? What will they do to ensure all sellers are legitimate and that all sales are concluded? I found no disclaimers whatsoever.
Inability to go back to homepage from any other page on the website, you have to alter the url in the address bar.

Maduqa plan on going onto the mobile web platform real soon to target the ever increasing mobile web user.

Maduqa has got a good concept up their sleeves, however they have a long way to go with plenty of room available for major improvements and enhancements. Maduqa have a great platform to build on.

Hopefully the next time I revisit this review on Maduqa, it will have more features to boast about.

This is sure to come in handy should you ever get the urge to grab that brand new app while you’re climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, or while making your way across the beautiful Sahara desert.

Because of the way the iPhone SDK agreement works, inclusion in the new App Stores is not automatic—instead, developers need to log in to Apple’s iTunes Connect portal and request that their apps be added to the new distribution channels.

This should definitely rock the Internet service market and should have other ISP’s preparing their marketing teams to come up with new products.

This Barely a day after I posted about ISP’s not heating up the competition. I take my words back as Zuku have done just that with the introduction of bandwidth in double digits (Mbps) and a massive price drop.

Zuku who have share holding in TEAMs and available bandwidth from Seacom, have mentioned that they have 50Gb of bandwidth available to sell to the market compared to Access Kenya’s 10Gb, 5Gb from either fiber provider.

I am now surely looking forward to increased bandwidth and increased price drops in the coming months.

Its now been 6 months since Kenya finally went digital, and in these six months all I have seen is a gimmick – “Doubled your bandwidth for free”.

Dear ISP,

We are the customer! We are not stupid.

I have noted that there are only four major player in the industry at the moment – KDN, Access Kenya, Orange & Safaricom. They all provide the end user with internet access in one way or the other.

My main stress has been internet access for home users & SOHO’s

Safaricom - Safaricom’s main strength in the data market has without a doubt been the 3g modems that they have been selling for as little as 2000shs ($27). Almost everyone has a Safaricom line, and Safaricom banked in on this and started selling the 3g modems at a throw away price. They have provided bundles that are soft on everyone’s pocket in terms of cost of bundle but not usage. The more the use the more you pay. That is a major disadvantage as safaricom have really fast bandwidth and you may get carried away with your usage.

3g coverage is scattered and inconsistent. Safaricom customer support is extremely difficult to get through to.

Access Kenya – Access Kenya had always set their sights on corporate clients, but when the fiber was close to completion they decided to move into the home user market with the introduction of access @home. @home is a WiMax based connection that has a lot of connectivity issues once the base station you are connected to starts getting saturated. Why am I telling you this? Because Access Kenya are known to saturate their base stations. At 6000shs +VAT ($80) for 512kbp/128kbps  and an additional cost of equipment & installation at 15000shs +VAT ($200), the average home user would never go for this because its too steep.

Access Kenya will really need to up the ante if they want to get into the home market big time. They may have broken their customer targets 2 months earlier, but the home users that are connected to their service are an extreme minority.

Access Kenya @home support team is much better than that of the corporate team and beat any of their competition hands down at providing good support.

KDN – KDN have for long been corporate solution providers, providing service through WiMax. They came up with the much scanty butterfly product for individuals on the move. KDN are still focused to providing corporate solutions and not really in a hurry to move into the home market.

KDN support is a major fail and their recent two awards are nothing compared to their image. KDN really need to review their customer support & sales team and how they work.

Orange Kenya – When Orange was Telkom Kenya, they had been the BIG boys solely because they were the monopoly. That is in the past now, and Telkom Kenya is now Orange Kenya and they are trying to come back into the market with a bang. Orange are finally connected to TEAMS Fiber and speeds are blazing. Orange Kenya have the real vision towards broadband roll out to home users via old copper cables and the use of a livebox with inbuilt Wi-Fi. At 4000shs ($54) for 512kbps/256kbps and additional cost of 3500shs ($47) for the livebox, Orange Kenya have almost got it right, they need to reduce the costs further and increase the bandwidth. Most of us still have the traditional phone lines and would not mind moving onto the service

Orange Kenya have re-vamped their Customer support who at least answer their phones now, but who really need to be taught a lot more on their products. Technical team has also been really improved and downtimes are a thing of the past.

New Players

Tangerine Broadband – With what they have been advertising as – for as little as 649shs ($8), they have a sales team that do not know what they have for sale. Not much information means they have nothing to sell.

Zuku – Double play package providers, providing TV & broadband from wananchi online. At 4500shs ($60) and additional setup cost of 3000shs ($40) with free equipment, Zuku may just have the chance to sneak in front of the competition. What really puts Zuku off is the poor sales follow up and the poor support. Complaints of extremely slow speeds (6kbps-15kbps) are also plenty.

The Internet has spread around the Globe like wildfire, and Africa has not been left out. Its now Africa’s turn more than ever to display its true potential, its Africa’s turn to showcase its whizz kids.

The need for local content is growing, with international content not meant for everyone due to drawbacks such as language barriers, differences in social and traditional values, and general usefulness of information, local content will cater for the exact needs of the audience looking for it.

Local content can also bring down Internet costs, by ISP’s providing access to users only to the local loop for local content delivery. This way the users are still informed about their surroundings and are able to keep up with what is happening around them and also communicate with other users online at cheaper costs.

Content does not just happen to come from anywhere, it needs to be created. With so much content coming in from developed countries, to be content providers in developing countries could be discouraged from moving forward with actually providing their content, simply because they would feel who will get to their content within the region.

To reverse the discouragement, these content providers need to be encouraged and ICTvillage.com are doing just that. ICTvillage in partnership with KDN have come up with a local content hub idea, a local digital village. For as little as 3000 shs ($40) a month (subject to terms and conditions) one can setup a digital village and provide access to free LOCAL INTERNET within their building enabling the users to perform the following tasks online for free:

• Send & receive Email
• Read local newspapers
• Visiting websites hosted in Kenya
• Download government content
• Make & receive phone calls (on-net)

This should spearhead a surge in local content development. To make this even more successful, local hosting charges should then also be revised and brought in line with those of developed countries where anyone from anywhere in the world can get hosting for as little as 750shs ($10) a month.

This is the opportunity web developers have been craving for, this is where they can now make their presence count as they target their websites to the intended audiences much easily and much faster, this is where geniuses will emerge and their work recognized online.

From what I have seen ICTvillage.com do have a a slight drawback as home users cannot quite take advantage of the service unless you happen to live in apartments that have been hooked up to the service. The service is open to schools, office buildings, government offices, restaurants, clubs and no mention of residential areas. Please do not forget residential areas make the large number of users for content.

As always your comments are welcomed, lets get a discussion going and see what else we can do to improve on local content.

Meanwhile I am off to get my site locally hosted (provided it not going to blow a hole in my pocket)

I did browse through the blog and noticed only 2 blog posts were done, one in June the other in August. I guess this was more of a test and learning phase for the people who will be blogging from the City Council. Now that you have advertised the site, please put it to work. Its a really good initiative to reach out to the people providing them with information and at the same time taking in their views and comments. It also puts into motion the notion of working hand in hand to progress together.

I have seen Town Clerk Philip Kisia, respond constantly in the dailies watchman section, so I am confident that once the blog is in full use he will get to the public in a much easier and efficient way.Through this blog Mr. Kisia feels the general public will now have the power and opportunity to run the city. The Council should use this site to make people aware of all existing and new by-laws.

The council needs to start embracing technology in many other areas to improve its services to the city of Nairobi and also to cut the losses in makes due to improper transactions taking place in various areas and due to improper records.

Meanwhile kudos to Mr. Kisia for making the move and its the beginning to something good once fully in use.

I would love to see what you guys out there have to say about this and welcome your views and comments.