Telcos and Banks end long running squabble
In October 2019, MTN Nigeria sent a notification to its customers that it would begin charging them a fee every time they used Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) codes to make bank transactions.
It followed a new decision from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) a month before that allowed telcos to charge customers directly for those transactions. Because USSD transactions are done via mobile networks, they cost money and someone has to pay.
In the beginning, the plan was for banks to pay those charges which telcos say are around N12 for one session and then remit it in bulk to the telcos. The banks balked at that plan and asked telcos to charge customers directly.
New name, new gameplay
Last month, Africa’s largest fibre company founded by Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa raised $840 million in debt capital. This week it announced it’s changing its identity from Liquid Telecom to Liquid intelligent Technologies.
Backstory
Founded in 1997, the company started as the satellite and voice operator of Econet Satellite Services, a subsidiary of Econet Global. Then in 2004, Econet Satellite Services as it was called rebranded to Liquid Telecom and went on to launch high-speed, cross-border fibre networks linking Southern Africa to the rest of the world in 2009.
Over the years, as part of this growth, Liquid Telecom made numerous acquisitions, including the ISP Zimbabwe Online in 2012, Kenya Data Networks in 2013, Realtime Zambia in 2015, and Neotel in 2017.
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My Life in Tech: Rolake Rosiji
At Oxford University, one of the most competitive courses to get into is Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). Over 60% of applicants get rejected without even an interview and only about 14% get admitted.
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