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8
Aug 2011 |
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The two largest trade unions at fixed-line telecoms giant Telkom, which represent more than half its total staff complement, are threatening to bring the company to a standstill from 20 August if it does not improve its current wage offer. The Communications Workers Union (CWU), the South African Communications Union (SACU) and Solidarity have been locked in wage negotiations with Telkom for more than five months. However, organised labour is starting to run out of patience with the fixed-line operator,... |
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7
Aug 2011 |
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MTN has scooped the Sunday Times Top Brands Award in the Business to Consumer (B2C) category, further reaffirming its growing status as the preferred brand in the telecommunications sector. "We are delighted to be recognized by the Sunday Times Top Brand Award. This accolade is especially important to us, as it is a reaffirmation from our customers of the great effort that our team has made to ensure that MTN is a preferred choice," says Serame Taukobong, MTN South Africa Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).... |
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5
Aug 2011 |
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The Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) has slammed Telkom as a "roadblock" for hampering the expansion of cable broadband in SA. "Telkom is a betwixt and between beast. It has significant state ownership, but it has significant private shareholders and the two drives there are different," Dominic Cull, ISPA regulatory advisor told News24. While Telkom has private shareholding, they are seen as a state entity in SA and ISPA contends that the split between national goals and revenue drives a ... |
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4
Aug 2011 |
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Neotel added 10 000 customers to its retail consumer subscriber base in first quarter of its 2011/2012 financial year and plans to introduce new data plans later this month to ensure that growth continues. CEO Sunil Joshi says Neotel had 50 000 retail subscribers using its code division multiple access (CDMA) and WiMax wireless networks at the end of March, and this figure had risen to 60 000 by the end of June. The company wants to grow the number to 75 000 this financial year, and Joshi says it is on... |
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3
Aug 2011 |
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VODACOM is refusing to compensate customers who claim to have suffered financial loss through the companys network failure in June җ despite the National Consumer Commission demanding that it do so. The June outage was caused by "a multiple failure in the transmission network" and affected 10% of its subscribers, Vodacom said in its response to the commissioner, Mamodupi Mohlala. Vodacoms refusal to compensate its customers is a test of the commissionҒs powers. The Consumer Protection Act, promulgated... |
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2
Aug 2011 |
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Cell C has taken its first step in helping achieve the Department of Communications' goal of 100% broadband penetration by 2020. The operator says Kimberley will be the first city in the Northern Cape to benefit from its broadband services, with the unveiling of the company's network in the city today. "According to recent research, over 700 schools in the Northern Cape don't have access to affordable Internet, many of them in Kimberley itself." Cell C says, as part of its rollout in Kimberley, it will... |
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2
Aug 2011 |
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South Africa's second largest mobile operator, MTN plans to roll out over 1 000 Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS) base stations in rural areas for the next two years. During an interview session with ITNewsAfrica today, MTN Chief Technology Officer Kanagaratnam Lambotharan says his company's vision was to provide mobile broadband connectivity throughout South Africa, citing the huge investments in solar powered radio transmission and Base Transceiver Station (BTS) sites. MTN plans to bring... |
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2
Aug 2011 |
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Telkom's insistence on bundling its ADSL data service with a compulsory voice service may mean that the company is acting in a way that contravenes South Africa's new Consumer Protection Act (CPA). That's according to Internet Service Providers' Association of SA (ISPA) General Manager, Ant Brooks. He said that section 13(1) of the CPA has clear prescriptions against bundling goods and services in a manner that forces consumers to enter into agreements or transactions they do not require as a condition of... |
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1
Aug 2011 |
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Telkom's insistence on bundling its ADSL data service with a compulsory voice service may mean that the company is acting in a way that contravenes South Africa's new Consumer Protection Act (CPA). That's according to Internet Service Providers' Association of SA (ISPA) General Manager, Ant Brooks. He said that section 13(1) of the CPA has clear prescriptions against bundling goods and services in a manner that forces consumers to enter into agreements or transactions they do not require as a condition of... |
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1
Aug 2011 |
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Vodacom has instituted a fix-it plan to make network outages, dropped calls and disconnected services a thing of the past. Portia Maurice, Vodacom's chief officer of corporate affairs told Moneyweb that since the most calamitous of Vodacom's network outages on June 30 - the last day for cellphone users to register their Sim cards under the new RICA Act it has "put a lot of time and effort into understanding the events of June 30. We've subsequently installed additional links to provide an additional backup... |
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25
July 2011 |
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Seacom says it is investing R100 million in its own terrestrial cable link between Gauteng and Kwazulu-Natal. "This is one of the many investments that we are making...as we continue to build the African Internet based on low-latency, high speed and reliable infrastructure," Seacom CEO Brian Herlihy said in a statement. For the last few years, the company had relied on a land-based partnership with Neotel to use its fibre-optic network. The money would be used to buy optical fibre links as well as equipment... |
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21
July 2011 |
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Vodacom revised its data services structure and pricing, which will see contract data customers reap savings of up to 43 percent and get double their data for free with Night Owl, moving the effective savings to as high as 72 percent. The move means that from 1 August customers will pay less for accessing the Internet. Customers will now pay as little as 7 cents per MB for data consumption. "Vodacoms change to red brought with it the promise of real changes to the network, customer service and value.... |
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21
July 2011 |
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SA's largest cellular operator, Vodacom, added 1.9 million customers to its base in the three months to June, the bulk of which came from its local operation. The gain is despite two network outages in recent months that left many subscribers unable to make calls for extended periods. During the quarter, Vodacom grew revenue 8.1 percent and bolstered its subscriber base to 45.4 million, a 20.4 percent gain. The group attributes its growth to its "brand refresh". Vodacom has earmarked R400 million to... |
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21
July 2011 |
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Cell C is introducing new 10GB and 20GB broadband packages at rates as low as 3c/MB as SA's broadband price war gathers in intensity. From 1 August, the company will introduce a 10GB/month package, including a 7,2Mbit/s MyZone router or 21,6Mbit/s USB modem, for R499/month on contract for 12 months or R4 999 once-off on prepaid. The new products come just weeks after 8ta, Telkom's mobile operator, introduced a special offer of 10GB of data for R199/month, excluding modem. Earlier on Thursday, Vodacom also... |
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21
July 2011 |
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South Africa based mobile operator Vodacom Group said on Thursday that it had registered 96.6 percent of its customer base for the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (RICA) by 30 June 2011. The group said that approximately 953,000 customers did not register and "we were obliged to lock their SIMs. As at 11 July 2011, about 205,000 of these customers had registered and their service has since been reactivated. "The SIMs locked due to RICA... |
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