Tawanda Mashava

All things, without fear, and informational
Showing posts with label Ownai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ownai. Show all posts

Monday, 1 June 2020

Alternative ways to buy ZESA Tokens


ZESA is trending today (1 June 2020, Covid Lock-down) on Twitter, and for a good reason, it is very difficult to buy tokens today, just like the first of (almost) all months. I have personally never come across an explanation from ZETDC as to why this is always he case, but my kindergarten ICT tells me its because of the current system that the guys at ZESA use: the KWh are cheaper with the first purchase/s of each month up to a certain threshold, and the cost rises exponentially with each subsequent purchase, meaning its wiser to buy most of your electricity power needs near the beginning of each month (translating to the first of each month for most of us. 
This means most people try and buy their ZESA on the first of each month, and clearly the ZETDC servers are failing to carter for the increased traffic, and I don't think there is a will to correct this situation because it has been ongoing for a very long time now.

I faced the same problem today when I wanted to buy my magetsi worth ZW$200RTGS (I hope that's
how it's written). Ecocash was telling me my request was submitted for further review or something like that. My favorite application for buying ZESA and topping up most of my accounts, TopUp Zimbabwe (www.topup.co.zw) was even warning me before doing anything that ZESA servers were giving them too many errors and it might/would take up to 48 hours before the issue is resolved. I could tell the issue was big because ZETDC servers were failing to respond back to TopUp.co.zw with my account details after supplying the Meter Number.

I eventually managed to by me Token, and I will list a number of ways one can use to buy, try all the methods, and one should work for you:

1. Ecocash / One Money way

This is the most accessible way to buy electricity as almost everyone is on the Ecocash platform, I don't know much about OneMoney as I have never used it. The steps for Ecocash USSD are as follows:
  1. Make sure your Ecocash Wallet is funded (obviously)
  2. Dial *151# and enter your Ecocash PIN on the prompt.
  3. Select Option 2. Make payment, and then Option -> 7. Regular Payments  followed by -> 1. Pay ZESA then Choose option -> 1. Buy Token
  4. Enter the amount in RTGS you wish to buy the token for
  5. Enter the Meter Number.
  6. Follow all the prompts until you confirm your purchase and you will receive your ZESA Token as an SMS
This is one of the next to impossible ways to buy ZESA on the first of the month! You can also try using the Ecocash Android App.

2. Bank

NMB Bank advertising their essential payments service
If you have a bank account (and yes, there are many people who do not have an active bank account!) and have registerd for SMS / Mobile / Internet banking, you can use your RTGS balance in the bank to buy ZESA Tokens. There are too many banks out there with different ways of doing things, so we cant highlight the method for each and every bank, but I have used my NMB (USSD code *240#) and Steward accounts in the past on the 1st and never had problems.

3. Topup.co.zw (My personal favourite)

Topup.co.zw is my personal favorite because of the way it makes it easy to buy electricity tokens. A simple minimalist interface makes the use of this site a joy. Unfortunately, today I failed to buy using this method because ZESA servers were frustrating the process, but (if you have data) just visit topup.co.zw and try it, today or any other day. 

Payment Convenience is what topup.co.zw is all about.
You can use topup.co.zw for a whole lot more things, including buying your Netone airtime using Ecocash, a challenge for many people. You can even have a shortcut on your mobile device for quicker access the next time you want to use the system, yes, its not a native app, you will still need data to access it, but its very handy.

4. Instapay

After I failed to buy using my favourite method, I then used Instapay. I have the InstaPay app installed on my Android phone, and you can too, just visit Google Playstore and install so you can easily use it the next time, but this time I used the web version, you get it here: https://instapayweb.vas.co.zw/ and its what worked for me today, and a few people I directed there also managed to buy their tokens quite easily. It works in a similar way to topup.co.zw, but I personally prefer the interface on TopUp compared to Instapay web version.

Go ahead, chose a method and let me know which method worked for you in the comments box, and also help with any other ways so we can all benefit.

5. Update 1: ZimPayments
I have also learnt of ZimPayments, and a lot of people seem to have success by using the service found on https://www.zimpayments.com/zetdc. I haven't used it personally, but you can still try it.

6. Ownai
Some people are also finding success using the Econet Owned Ownai which you can find here: https://cs.ownai.co.zw/zesa.php
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Thursday, 31 December 2015

Facebook's Free Basics: The Other Side

So, according to TechZim, Facebook will be launching its Free Basics service in Zimbabwe in January 2016. Oh, good thing, I mean, what else would be better than having the Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW) of information, available even to the poorest areas of Zimbabwe and poor Zimbabweans, for FREE, yeah, you heard me right, for FREE, not some bundles or other such marketing gimmicks as we have been used to being provided by our Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Econet and Telecel. After all, this service has already been launched in some African countries.

According to Facebook, a number of SELECTED basic services will be offered to the Zimbabwean community for free, and these basic services include websites or apps that deal in health, education and so on. This should be a welcome development, as important information about such things as health will be available to the masses for free, a situation better than the current situation where only those with the money to buy data can access such information. The overall aim is to make anyone and everyone, especially the poor, access such basic information, thereby bettering their lives.

For the Poor, but not for the Poor

Sarcastically.....Yes, access to internet is going to better the lives of people who have no access to sanitised toilets, toothbrush, basic healthcare, education, have no source of income, no chances of mobility. This can be considered a dangerous proposition, giving people with no access to basic rights information on what could be, without allowing them the remotest chance to be a part of that which they will desire.
The poor need the basics, Sanitized toilets, and not the internet
Raising poor people's aspiration, by providing them with internet access, must be met with opportunities to pursue the aspirations, otherwise its plain cruuelty. If we are going to be honest with each other, these poor communities rarely use the internet for productivity, but for chatting, music and videos, whilst we might not necessarily want to dictate what anyone uses the internet for, this free access will create an even greater demand for such services as Facebook, thereby distracting the productivity of these communities, whilst increasing the marketing value of Facebook, via the aptly named Free Basics (FB as well)

Net Neutrality

The issue of Net Neutrality has been discussed and exhausted, but I will highlight it again here. A lot of us Zimbabweans might not understand what Net Neutrality is, so I'll take the definition from Wikipedia:
Net neutrality (also network neutrality, Internet neutrality, or net equality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet the same, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication. (Wikipedia, 31 Dec 2015)
Let me further explain what this means, Anyone should have access to any website or web resource, at the same price.

This probably still doesn't make sense to some, so let me give an example of clear violation of the principle of Net Neutrality: Econet offers Facebook and Whatsapp Bundles, at a cheaper price than accessing other sites per Megabyte. This means people on Econet platform are more likely to visit their Facebook than many other platforms and websites on the Internet. (Facebook is not the Internet, and the Internet is not Facebook)

So what is the problem with you being granted access to information or apps that you use everyday at a cheaper rate than others that are not so useful websites or apps? Everything. For starters, it makes the playing ground uneven, consider a small Zimbabwean startup that has developed an app to compete with Whatsapp, who will use that app if accessing it is more expensive compared to accessing the established brand? The internet should be open, and access should be fair so we can all compete at the same level.

The worst thing, in reference to Net Neutrality and the Free Basics service, is that Facebook and the ISPs decide what is basic. We do not need Internet Gatekeepers. This hand-picking of services to be included will obviously lead to discrimination against other services not on the list, especially those of rivals, take the case of Econet's Ownai a classifieds platform that is zero rated from an Econet line, it makes it unfair on other such services as www.classifieds.co.zw, and eventually will kick out smaller rivals out of business, leading to monopolising certain sections of the Internet.
Yes, they will decide what we can, and what we cannot access!

Privacy Issues 

 Facebook basically is in the business of selling data, your data, to those who want to market their products and services, they are not in the business of connecting you with your loved ones, they only use that as bait. Now allowing all services that are accessible via Free Basics's data to pass through Facebook's servers simply means we are giving them more data than they can collect via their Social Networking platform, Facebook itself, and they will make money using your data, without your consent.

A better explanation of the dangers of this is given by the Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institute of Science in their statement criticizing Free Basics:
This flaw is not visible to the lay person as it’s a technical detail, but it has deep and disturbing implications.  Since Facebook can access un-encrypted contents of users’ ‘basic’ services, either we get to consider health apps to be not basic, or risk revealing health records of all Indians to Facebook.  Either we get to consider our banking apps to be not ‘basic’, or risk exposing the financial information of all Indians to Facebook.

Finally

Whilst Free Basics seems a very noble idea, and will obviously come with some immense benefits to the Zimbabwean population, we need to be worried, lest allowing them to run such services will eventually give them access to almost all data on all Zimbabweans. Whilst this might seem far-fetched, Facebook can eventually become stronger than the Government:





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