Upepo Technology recieves Microsoft AI for Earth grant.
Upepo Technology Company Limited, a Kenyan technology firm has become the latest recipient of Microsoft’s AI for Earth grant. The award from Microsoft is to help the company extend its innovative developments. Upepo joins 21 other Microsoft AI for Earth grantees across Africa.
Upepo Technology Company Limited provides intelligent water management solutions that support water utilities and water community associations. It also provides support to large abstractors of surface and ground water including agricultural enterprises, industries and commercial property owners to accurately measure and manage water while predicting future trends in consumption.
Microsoft’s AI for Earth program aims at empowering people and organization to solve global environmental challenges. Microsoft provides them with artificial intelligence to solve issues related to water, agriculture, biodiversity and climate change. Through grants Microsoft provides access to cloud and AI tools. As well as opportunities for education and training on AI and investments in innovative and scalable solutions.
“This important grant from Microsoft is a turning point” says Kevin Kihara, Upepo’s CEO. He also says Microsoft services such as “Azure Cloud, IoT and AI resources will help develop products to mitigate water losses“. These loses Kevin Kihara says, “directly contribute to large and excessive surface and ground water withdrawals” which are “detrimental to the supply of water for communities living downstream“.
Conserving and improving access to Kenya’s water supply
Kenya Water Service Regulatory Board (WASREB) shares that water access rates in Kenya have stood at 55% the last three years. It believes by adopting technology and enhancing infrastructure a 30% reduction in non-revenue water can be achieved by 2030. Saving up to Kes 80 billion for infrastructure expansion, enhanced supply and quality of water across Kenya.
“Through Microsoft’s AI for Earth program, we are excited to partner with Upepo. As they develop innovative intelligent solutions that will both conserve and improve critical access to Kenya’s water supply.” – Ghada Khalifa
Ghada Khalifa, Philanthropies Regional Director for Microsoft Middle East and Africa says, “In the next two decades, demand for fresh water is predicted to dramatically outpace supply.” Technologies such as the intelligent cloud and AI, Ghada says will model and measure the Earth’s water supply. To help us manage and protect fresh water.
In this review i talk about the Vodafone Ghana Fixed Broadband service that solves my 4 years old need. Better late than never as it is a money saver.
UPDATE: There’ve been changes to the service after I first published this post. Kindly scroll down to read about it.
As someone who is always on the go and mobile, i tend to spend a lot on mobile data. I am a heavy user of data. Mobile data isn’t cheap, not in Ghana and any African country. I remember some years back when it was so obvious this was going to be my routine i decided to find a solution. My pocket was feeling the drain by telecommunication companies.
My quest was to find that network that will offer me good internet speed, more data and a reasonable price. I searched, researched, spoke to telecom business managers on their various mobile data options but there was no hope. No one had it all. The closest i came to was super expensive. I was being offered a dedicated line et all but seriously out of my budget.
So i stuck with using Vodafone Ghana Fixed Broadband at home and a mash up of other mobile data packages on the go.
Not the Saviour
I remember when a friend suggested GLO was the saviour i needed. He wasn’t far from right. The pricing was great and they gave lots of mobile data. Maybe as a way to wow in more clients. There was a slight problem though. In the locations i frequent and have to use it, there is either poor or no signal. I would have to use about 30 minutes to 1 hour finding the right spot to place phone or mifi. Oh and this was in Accra and also around the airport so GLO really where does your network work, lol?
Fast forward to June last year when Vodafone Ghana announced it was introducing a new service. Where any suscriber of its fixed broadband service can enjoy their fixed broadband data on their mobile phone. I was like wow God has finally answered my cry.
To put it in context, it means i can walk around with over a 100 GB of data on my mobile phone for less than how much it will actually cost to buy that as mobile data. Let me help you get a clearer idea.
Vodafone currently sells 20GB mobile data at GHS 199, 200GB at GHS 399. Whereas Vodafone Ghana Fixed Broadband packages range from 20GB at GHS 85, 40GB at GHS 125, 80GB at GHS 180, 200GB at GHS 265 and 500GB at GHS 400. (these prices might have been changed as at the time of reading). This means if i buy the 200GB for FBB and transfer it to mobile i have saved about 134 GHS.
Vodafone Ghana Fixed Broadband Delight
Now this is why i’m delighted and like this service offer. It offers me lots of data at a very good price. Compared to buying the mobile data at a very expensive amount for even less data. Vodafone 3G’s service – (see i’m not even mentioning 4G, that’s for another post) – is everywhere and offers good speeds to do most of my work. Streaming isn’t the best with light buffering on HD content, so i won’t stream HD away from the fiber broadband router (which offers great speeds up to 100Mbps on default routers). But it does however offer everything i had wanted some 4 years ago.
From the terms and conditions of the service, i can buy a data package and as long as i don’t move all of the data – to render the account inactive (you can leave only 1MB, lol) – from the broadband i can keep moving it back and forth till it is either exhausted or package expires. Rendering your FBB inactive after moving all the data to your mobile sim means you can’t reverse it.
Does it work?
Does it work? Yes it does work. I have suscribed to the 200 GB FBB package and moved plus or minus 100 GB to my phone. I spend only nights and weekends at home so balance i guess. Also don’t judge me, lol, i stream everything on HD with the broadband, i mean why not. When i’ve watched various premier league matches, movies, documentaries and run the FFB data down i just use the USSD or the myVodafone portal to send more data to the FBB to top it up. The app can be used as well.
So far i’ve linked two different mobile numbers to the FBB account. Oh one mobile number at a time. Vodafone says “the linked number can only be changed after 30 days of linking“. Well i was able to do that in less days so not so sure about the real limits. The data on the SIM has a three months validity which is good.
I have been able to find more hacks around this to enjoy the service to it’s max. More of that in another post. Subscribe to be updated on new posts.
Have you used this service offer? Did it work for your needs? Got more questions? Share and leave them in the comments or ask me on twitter.
UPDATE
Vodafone has reduced the validity of the shared mobile data from 3 months to align with that of your broadband. You can only link 1 mobile number in all the FBB packages except the office package. (Vodafone really! At least let the 200GB and 400 GB packages link to 2 numbers) Notice anything else? kindly share.
Microsoft is rolling out Windows 10’s next major update, Windows 10 May 2019 Update, tagged version 1903. The update doesn’t come bearing lots of new major features but you will like the new additions. It has more under the hood improvements. That bring you better customizations and makes Windows 10 perform better.
The update is general available now and Microsoft will be rolling it out in a phased and controlled rollout. To avoid the October 2018 Update fiasco. So if update issues are encountered it can be controlled and dealt with. I want to believe this will be a smoother experience. As Windows insiders got to test the release preview build and it has been improved. Here is a full list of What’s new.
Who can get Windows 10 May 2019 Update?
Anyone with a Windows 10 device can get the latest update. Microsoft says it will start automatically updating Windows 10 devices that are reaching end of service. This means if your Windows 10 operating system is an old one like the Windows 10 Anniversary Update or other, once you are connected to the internet, Microsoft will initiate the update for you.
For Windows 10 devices that are at, or within several months of reaching, end of service, Windows Update will automatically initiate a feature update; keeping those devices supported and receiving the monthly updates that are critical to device security and ecosystem health.
What do you do?
I will say if you are a careful and skeptical person, relax and let the Windows 10 May 2019 Update hit your downloads automatically. Alternatively you can check windows update in settings and select check for update, to initialize it. If you a more advanced user, you can use the Windows 10 Update Assistant. Or create a Windows 10 media installation and run the media creation tool.
Is there anything else you will to know? Ask me in the comments or on twitter @silverscholar and i’ll make a post about it.
The fourth edition of MEST Africa Summit will be in collaboration with Microsoft. This year Microsoft partners with MEST in the event as platinum sponsors. The summit will explore the latest innovations in the African tech ecosystem. Mest Africa Summit 2019 will take place in Nairobi, Kenya from June 10th to the 12th.
The 3 day Pan-African Tech Summit will have keynotes, fireside chats, panel discussions and workshops. It will look to discuss key topics impacting entrepreneurs and investors in Africa’s technology space. Conversations will range from the impact of AI and machine learning on Africa’s workforce, the role of tech in cultivating a more energy-efficient Africa, ways data is being used to enable financial inclusion on the continent, how key sectors and innovations are contributing to the ecosystem, etc.
“At Microsoft we believe in empowering every organization and person to do more. The work that MEST does with innovators in Africa aligns perfectly with our mission to transform people’s lives through technology engagement.” – Chris Lwanga, Senior Director Software Partnerships, Microsoft
“As we gear up for this year’s Summit, we’re excited to welcome some of Africa’s most engaging entrepreneurs, partners, corporate leaders and ecosystem facilitators. We’re thrilled to partner with Microsoft, whose entrepreneur toolkit is helping developers across the continent more easily build impactful solutions. We look forward to diving deep into discussions around the innovations and solutions that are rapidly driving change on the continent.” – Aaron Fu, Managing Director, MEST
2019 MEST AFRICA CHALLENGE
MEST Africa Summit 2019 will also host the Mest Africa Challenge finals. Competing regional finalist will pitch to win the grand price of $50K in equity investment and the chance to join the MEST community. Finalist teams are from Ghana(OZE), Nigeria(Ampz_TV), South Africa(Snode Technologies), Kenya(Wayawaya Ltd) and Cote d’Ivoire(Seekewa).
We are listing open positions in Nigeria in the Microsoft Interns4Afrika initiative.
Microsoft 4Afrika‘s internship initiative provides real employment opportunities to talented young professionals in Sales, Marketing and IT Technical Support tracks. A response to demand from its software distribution and development partners across Africa and the Middle East.
Do you live in Nigeria? Get to be a Technical Support, Sales or Marketing intern. Microsoft’s Intern4Afrika initiative will offer the intern a unique experience with a dynamic and agile technology organization.
The intern will get the opportunity to work for 6 months with a Microsoft partner organization on real projects. Get to collaborate and learn from your colleagues. “You can also get to be hired by the firm depending on your performance and if you are interested in being hired after the internship program” a participant shared.
All the best to you as you apply. If you do get in, come back and share the experience with us? Also kindly report any broken links so we can fix them. Thank you.
