Wrap-Up: Our pick of main stories, Tuesday February 10, 2015

Commuters boarding public service vehicles from Kencom, GPO and Ambassador Stages to pay using cash-lite cards from today although the matatu industry feels that there is a lot that needs to be done before the industry can go entirely cashless. Bungoma residents on the other hand have all reasons to smile after Orange rolled out its WiFi in this county. Oh! And did you know today marked Safer Internet Day (#SID2015)? This and much more in our wrap-up.

Stakeholders to work together for smooth Digital TV transition

The Consumer Federation of Kenya recently organized a digital migration forum that brought together key digital television stakeholders including the Ministry of Information and Communication, Communication Authority, Digital Decoders Dealers Association, content developers and Digital Broadcasters Association of Kenya who deliberated on current challenges facing the analogue to digital broadcasting resolving to work together towards making the transition a reality.

During the forum, the decoder association noted that the continued delay in migrating to the digital platform had negatively affected their members investments where the majority had injected huge amounts of capital in their ventures only for the delay to lead to hesitation by Kenyans to acquire the type approved set top boxes thereby translating to huge losses.

Orange rolls out Wi-Fi in Bungoma County

Orange has rolled out Wi-Fi in Bungoma County. The Wi-Fi solution, which is in its first phase, covers the county headquarters in Bungoma and the town. The second phase of the project, which will be launched at a later date, will cover the entire sub-counties and the adjacent areas.

Company CEO Vincent Lobry says that the provision of wireless Internet in Bungoma County is part of the company’s strategy of spreading its data solutions offering into the counties and supporting its mandate to provide broadband access for all citizens. “The solution will also aid in opening up opportunities for business in these areas, as well as support the county governments to improve on their service offering through integrated ICT solutions,” he adds.

Google Kenya, CODE-IP lead campaign on child online safety

Whether it’s creating easy-to-use tools to help you manage your information online or fighting the bad guys behind the scenes, you need assurance that you are safe when using the Internet.

Today being Safer Internet Day (SID), Google in partnership with CODE-IP Trust, a non-governmental organisation that supports local content and new media, have been hosted by Precious Blood Secondary School, Riruta, Nairobi, to celebrate the day and to engage with partners in designing a Child Online Safety campaign known as Kenya Webrangers, which will empower teachers, parents and teenagers/students with the knowledge and tools for safe and responsible use of the Internet.

No more cash in PSVs from Kencom, GPO and Ambassador bus stages

The National Road Safety Authority has announced that commuters boarding public service vehicles from Kencom, GPO and Ambassador Stages will have to pay using cashlite cards starting today.

This means that the buses that pick up at those stages and their passengers will have to arm themselves with the machines and the cards respectfully before the deadline. This new directive comes in at a time when majority of commuters still exclusively use cash to pay fare.

In acknowledgement of the passengers’ reluctance to adopt new technology, the NTSA said in an advertisement: “PSV users are hereby informed that the card providers will be at the above mentioned stages to issue the public with cards at no cost. (They) are further advised that the card providers will be available to assist on the usage of cashlite cards.”