At Home

South Africa’s first mobile-only bank called ‘Take Your Money Everywhere’, or Tyme, has officially launched. The mobile-only bank is a distribution channel of the South African Bank of Athens, an authorised financial services and registered credit provider. Mobile operator MTN and retailers Pick n Pay and Boxer are also involved in the venture. The bank’s Web site is http://tyme-capital.net. – ITWeb Africa

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Angus Hay, Neotel" />SA’s second fixed-line operator, Neotel, has introduced two new prepaid data bundles, both coupled to its wireless NeoFlex MiFi device. Neotel says the MiFi device offers the user a personal WiFi hotspot, while the NeoFlex MiFi 36G and NeoFlex MiFi 100G will give consumers access to 36GB and 100GB of data, respectively. Dr Angus Hay, GM of strategic business development at Neotel, says the NeoFlex MiFi bundles give consumers the ability to use their data whenever they choose within a year of purchase. – ITWeb

Panda Security has recently released Panda Cloud Systems Management, a solution designed to manage, monitor and maintain IT resources from a single console. Network administrators are able to perform audits and manage and monitor computers remotely.

Shoprite has signed a deal with SlipstreamBI to provide Tableau data visualisation and enterprise reporting software. SlipstreamBI is a Silver Partner for Tableau Software in SA.

FNB Connect, the ISP to FNB, is now offering its ADSL customers free LinkedIn and Pinterest data browsing between 7pm and 11pm. FNB Connect currently also offers customers free Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Big four bank Nedbank says a system error recently affected consumers trying to shop through Amazon and PayPal. Head of Nedbank’s card risk services, Rene de Villiers, explains that when clients shop online, transactions are validated against the three digits on the signature strip on the back of the card and are then either approved or declined. However, in the case of Amazon.com and PayPal, the authentication checks did not come back with a CVV number, and as a result, Nedbank could not authenticate the transactions, which led to the deals being declined, says De Villiers. – ITWeb

A Web site that allows people to put as little as R1 into a collection of assets, including property and classic cars – in a bid to grow an online community of investors – has recently gone live. Crowdinvest, founded by Anton Breytenbach, claims to be SA’s first crowdsourced investment platform, and aims to broaden the local investment platform by lowering the barriers of entry to investors. – ITWeb

The ICT sector was strongly represented at Frost & Sullivan’s recent Best Practices Awards Banquet in Cape Town. The following companies, among others, were acknowledged by Frost & Sullivan: Business Connexion – South African Managed Services Customer Value Enhancement Award, Neotel – South African ICT Competitive Strategy Leadership Award, Vodacom South Africa – South African Network Management Services Vertical Market Penetration Leadership Award, and 1stream – South African Hosted Contact Centre Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award.

Into Africa

Ghana’s communication minister, Haruna Iddrisu, has inaugurated 10 mobile communication towers in rural areas of the country, in a bid to enable first-time connectivity in those communities. This means the mobile network operators may now serve rural communities with relatively low population densities of less than 1 500 people, profitably. – ITWeb Africa

Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe finance minister

Zimbabwe plans to focus on five major aspects of ICT to ensure the country tightens linkages in economic supply chains. Finance minister Tendai Biti said the country’s government would, in 2013, concentrate more on fibreoptic, global tele-density, broadcasting equipment, ICT for education and e-governance. – ITWeb Africa

Zambia’s government says the mobile telecommunications sector in the country has spurred economic growth in key industries such as mining, tourism, agriculture and health. Minister of Transport, Works, Supply and Communication Christopher Yaluma said government will continue to look for opportunities to improve the telecommunications infrastructure through the provision of appropriate incentives that favour growth in marginalised rural areas. – ITWeb Africa

Khaled Mikkawi, <a href=

MTN Rwanda" />MTN Rwanda plans to expand its mobile money service to reach more than 50% of its customer base. The service, which MTN Rwanda introduced in February 2010, has more than 600 000 active users to date – the equivalent of 20% of the operator’s mobile subscriber base. CEO Khaled Mikkawi said: “Mobile money is a strategic service for MTN.” – ITWeb Africa

Kenyan Mobile operator Safaricom says it will start hosting its mobile money transfer service, M-Pesa, in the East African nation by 2015. The mobile operator says the move seeks to reduce the system’s frequent outages that anger and inconvenience its 15 million users. Currently, M-Pesa is hosted and managed by British multinational telecommunications company Vodafone Group. – ITWeb Africa

Bharti Airtel has entered into an outsourcing agreement with Allied Mobile Communications, a South African-registered company that will manage the retail customer services of the Zambian operator. The move further entails that Airtel has terminated the contracts of retail customer service employees. Airtel Zambia’s MD Fayaz King said his company plans to remain responsible for all the needs of its subscribers. – ITWeb Africa

Abroad

Orange, the mobile brand of France Telecom, launched a global free calling and texting application, in direct competition with services such as Skype, WhatsApp and Viber. Giles Corbett, who developed the application called ‘Libon’ for Orange, said telecom operators needed to come up with equivalent services. Libon will be available for smartphones using Google’s Android software in 2013. – Reuters

Facebook is proposing to combine user data with that of recently acquired photosharing service Instagram, and will loosen restrictions on e-mails between members of the social network. Facebook said it may share information between its own service and other businesses or affiliates that Facebook owns to “help provide, understand, and improve our services and their own services”. – Reuters

Finnish technology startup Blaast recently opened an Android application store, hoping to tap into booming demand for affordable smartphones in Indonesia and other emerging markets. Blaast said its Android store will launch in Indonesia, with carrier XL Axiata preinstalled on Sony’s new Xperia J smartphone. – Reuters

Facebook board member Marc Andreessen sold roughly $54 million worth of shares in the social networking company to cover taxes he owes on his holdings. Andreessen’s sales are among the latest transactions by Facebook insiders as trading restrictions have expired following the company’s May initial public offering. – Reuters

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Paul Otellini, Intel" />Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini will retire sooner than expected, and the top chipmaker said it may name an outsider for the position for the first time, to steer a difficult transition towards mobile computing. Otellini will retire in May at the age of 62, earlier than the company’s mandatory retirement age for CEOs of 65. – Reuters

Networking equipment company Cisco Systems said it will buy privately held cloud networking company Meraki for $1.2 billion in cash, as part of its cloud and networking strategy. Cisco said the acquisition of Meraki is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco’s 2013 fiscal year and is subject to regulatory approval. – Reuters