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4
Feb 2011 |
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Newcomer 8ta has leapfrogged its bigger competitors Vodacom, MTN and Cell C as the first South African mobile operator to offer an exclusive data bundle with the sale of Apple's popular tablet PC at local iStore outlets. This is despite Vodacom and MTN's pre-existing distribution deals with Apple for the distribution of the iPhone in the country. The two operators last week noted that neither had immediate plans to distribute the iPad but that its existing data offerings were on offer for use with the... |
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3
Feb 2011 |
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Broadband Infraco, FibreCo and a Vodacom/Neotel/MTN consortium all have one thing in common. They all have built or are in the process of building a local fibre network to take on Telkom. But there is little talk on when fibre connections will make it to consumers. The main purpose of these new networks is to simply drop the price of local bandwidth, which is more expensive than international bandwidth. However, besides the drop in data costs and negligible speed increases, there seems to be no other... |
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3
Feb 2011 |
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Consumers are likely to come to rely increasingly on wireless technologies for broadband Internet access because the country is not investing sufficiently quickly in fixed-line alternatives. That's the view of MWeb Business GM Andre Joubert, who says that if Telkom, the country's incumbent fixed-line operator, is unable to speed up investment in wireline access technologies, then wireless will become the way most people get online. Joubert says he is concerned at the slow rate at which Telkom is rolling... |
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3
Feb 2011 |
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VODACOM s share price jumped 4,5 percent to R74,50 yesterday on news that its local data business grew by a third during its December quarter. VodacomҒs average revenue per user grew 18 percent to R165 from the same period last year. Prepaid average revenue grew 22 percent to R93 but contract revenue declined 10 percent to R408 due to the strong growth of lower-end contract packages. A headache is Gateway, a voice and data carrier provider in Nigeria and other African countries, which has been struggling... |
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3
Feb 2011 |
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Mobile operator Vodacom's strategy to offset losses from decreasing interconnect revenue has led to more minutes and data being used. However, income is not growing at the same pace and the company could battle to keep growing in a saturated market. In the third quarter of the financial year, Vodacom turned over R16.03 billion as revenue grew 5.6 percent, excluding the impact of currency fluctuations. The company added 2.2 million new subscribers and maintained its market share. However, the cellular... |
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2
Feb 2011 |
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Only weeks after a series of controversial Telkom dossiers were released by a labour union, yet another "faceless" whistle-blowing dossier has surfaced, alleging corruption at the fixed-line operator. However, the continued anonymity of the author/s of the dossiers has prompted the company and industry analysts to question the validity of the accusations. The document purports to be penned by a group calling itself the "Faceless Concerned Citizens". Telkom describes the document as a collection of untested... |
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2
Feb 2011 |
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The board of state-owned telecommunications infrastructure company Broadband Infraco will take action against any employee who did not follow correct procurement procedures. The company was reacting to a report on Moneyweb that published details of an internal audit report by Deloitte that revealed several alleged irregularities at the company, including missing documentation and the flouting of tender procedures. Moneyweb says Infraco chairman Andrew Mthembu and nonexecutive directors Tumi Magasa and... |
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1
Feb 2011 |
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Neotel has been struck by three senior-level resignations just a week after parent company, India's Tata Communications, announced that Neotel MD and CEO Ajay Pandey was being redeployed and would return to his native India. TechCentral has established that chief marketing officer Jacky Humphries has left, effective 1 February. Also headed for the exit is Mukul Sharma, executive head of the MD and CEO's office, who, like Pandey, is returning to India. Sharma, who previously headed Neotel's retail consumer... |
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25
Jan 2011 |
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Another operational glitch at mobile operator MTN has resulted in approximately 200 of its subscribers being disconnected from the network. However, some confusion surrounded the cut-offs yesterday, with some of the affected subscribers seemingly unclear about the cause of the problem. A frustrated subscriber alleged yesterday on Talk Radio 702 that, according to the operator's call centre, he had been cut-off for not having registered in terms of the Regulation of Interception of Communications and... |
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25
Jan 2011 |
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Telkom has secured a $127 million (about R900 million) loan, which it will use in part for the expansion of its new mobile business, 8ta.Telkom has secured a $127 million (about R900 million) loan, which it will use in part for the expansion of its new mobile business, 8ta. The syndicated loan, which is being offered by Sinosure, China's state-owned export credit agency, comes with a term of up to seven years. Telkom unveiled the mobile arm of its business in October and revealed it expects to spend... |
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24
Jan 2011 |
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Despite Telkom dithering on meeting the November deadline for the local loop unbundling process, the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) has come in full support of communications minister Roy Padayachie's commitment to the date. Citing business and regulatory hurdles, Telkom earlier this month warned that it was highly impossible to meet the November deadline. On the other hand, Wilmari Hanni, ISPA management committee member, maintains: "The ISPA wholeheartedly endorses communications minister... |
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21
Jan 2011 |
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The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that the speeds offered by the Telkom Simple internet product "are the slowest available broadband speeds on the market" and that Telkom is therefore prohibited from using an infomercial that describes the "simple" product as "fast". The ruling was made in response to a complaint by Bivesh Pema, a consumer who said that Telkoms description of the Simple product as "fast internet" implied that the product was relatively fast. But Pema said comparative... |
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21
Jan 2011 |
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Fixed-line operator Telkom is set to appear before the Competition Tribunal in May to defend a charge of abuse of dominance. Telkom will face charges based on a 2002 complaint by the then value-added network service (VANS) providers to the Competition Commission. Hearings into the matter are set to take place between the end of May and the middle of June. However, the almost seven-year-old case could be delayed even further if the commission seeks to amend the charges that Telkom is set to face. The VANS... |
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21
Jan 2011 |
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Broadband in SA has been described as "pitiful" at best, as local providers continue to get slammed for misleading the public while government employs an "archaic" national broadband policy. All the while, broadband offerings in SA continue to fall behind the standard offered in leading and even emerging economies. This is despite the recent influx of international broadband, delivered by a series of undersea cable across the continent. WWW Strategy MD Steven Ambrose explains that SA has undergone an... |
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19
Jan 2011 |
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Trade union Solidarity is urging for stability and leadership at Telkom, following the news that acting CEO Jeffrey Hedberg will not renew his contract - a move the union has described as "a disaster". News of Hedberg's resignation arrived amid speculation that government may want to appoint a permanent CEO of its choice, before it loses the right to do so with the expiration of its special A-class shareholder status in Telkom, in March. It is also widely speculated that government, the majority... |
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