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22
Nov 2010 |
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Telkom will accelerate the roll-out of new-generation technologies in its access network to deliver faster broadband over digital subscriber lines to consumers. That's the word from Telkom SA MD Nombulelo Moholi, who was speaking to TechCentral on the sidelines of the group's presentation in Sandton of its interim financial results for the six months to 30 September 2010. Moholi says Telkom is planning to step up the deployment of Metro Ethernet, replacing ageing systems that still use the Asynchronous ... |
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21
Nov 2010 |
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Newly appointed Minister of Communications Roy Padayachie lived in a five-star hotel several days a week for four years at a cost of around R5000 a night - a few hundred metres from his official residence, which he deemed not good enough. Padayachie cost taxpayers an estimated R2-million while living it up at the Sheraton Hotel in Pretoria. That excludes his room service bill. He lived in the Sheraton between 2004 and 2008 when he was deputy to late minister of communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri . He ... |
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21
Nov 2010 |
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Lars Reichelt was a happy man last week. The CEO launched CellC's new data network in Gauteng on the ninth birthday of the cellular network. A week earlier, Cell C, Internet Solutions and Convergence Partners had agreed to build a 12000km national fibre-optic network that will cost R5-billion. As they like to say in the internet industry, you can never have too much fibre. From a new cellphone data network to a new fibre company, the last two weeks brought good news for telecoms in South Africa. Cell C... |
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20
Nov 2010 |
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For the first time in its nine-year history, Cell C could make its rivals sit up and take notice, thanks to the aggressive roll-out of its high-speed, competitively priced broadband services. Cell C has yet to make a profit in one of SA's most lucrative industries. But, for the first time, the company balance sheet is strong enough to "give Cell C the oxygen to breathe" and allow it to spend R5-billion this year and "a couple billion more in 2011" on its first high-speed wireless broadband network, said... |
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19
Nov 2010 |
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Despite its fault-finding 2010 Soccer World Cup mobile network quality report, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has no intention of penalising the guilty mobile operators for their poor performance. ICASA released findings that Vodacom, MTN and Cell C had all missed quality of service targets, which the authority had been monitoring throughout the World Cup. The report outlines details of service quality, including dropped calls, signal strength and voice quality, on networks... |
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18
Nov 2010 |
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MWEB's ADSL clients were without internet access to internationally based websites for about three hours yesterday after a cable was damaged during roadworks at the Buccleuch interchange, largely affecting Johannesburg residents. The incident demonstrates how fragile SA's internet network is. Angry clients began logging on to MWeb's Facebook site just after noon, reporting that their internet access had gone down. The country's biggest internet service provider, outside the mobile broadband environment, ... |
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18
Nov 2010 |
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Local mobile telecom operators, which have been hoping that mobile broadband will offset flatter revenue from voice services, are now making headway in getting their customers to use cellphones for data services If the trend of accessing the Internet on a cellphone has not yet reached a tipping point in SA, it is not far from it. Local mobile telecom operators, which have been hoping that mobile broadband will offset flatter revenue from voice services, are now making headway in getting their customers to... |
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18
Nov 2010 |
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Soon after being slapped on the wrist by the ASA for "implying" that it had a 4G network, Cell C found itself involved in a labour dispute with Government for using a contractor that is illegally importing Chinese workers to build the towers it needs deliver its speed promise. The fact that the company denies any knowledge of the Chinese worker involvement has confused the issue further: Does the one hand know what the other is doing? That aside, it seems Cell C has other woes on its plate. Telkom's current... |
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18
Nov 2010 |
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The Competition Commission wants to add charges against Telkom in two cases of alleged market position abuse, which is now being investigated by the Competition Tribunal. Telkom faces potential charges of up to R7bn in the two cases, one relating to a complaint by Internet service providers and another lodged by former value-added network service providers (Vans) as far back as 2004. The tribunal has yet to hear the main arguments in either case, thanks to what it calls "a number of technical proceedings"... |
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18
Nov 2010 |
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MTN Group CEO Phuthuma Nhleko has offloaded more than 3,2m shares in the mobile telecommunications group. The shares have netted Nhleko a cool R424m. The sale comes just months before Nhleko is due to leave the group. He's due to step down by March 2011, though MTN's board is still to name his successor. Nhleko's sale of shares, concluded at R131,66/share, was done in part to settle his obligations "arising from the early termination of a transaction concluded with a commercial bank". At the same time,... |
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17
Nov 2010 |
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SA's consumer segment seems to have warmed up to Neotel again, after the converged telecoms operator revised its prepaid and postpaid voice and data offerings. The revised offer became necessary as the company reported it had missed its target of 50 000 subscribers by June this year. Consumers had also being putting pressure on Neotel, arguing the company was neglecting the consumer market in favour of its corporate and wholesale business. On the back of these complaints, Neotel last month introduced... |
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17
Nov 2010 |
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Members of Parliament expressed concern yesterday that the state-owned Broadband Infraco was unable to fully carry out its mandate because the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) had refused to grant it an appropriate licence to serve the public from its network directly. They were also concerned that Broadband Infraco - set up when Alec Erwin was public enterprises minister - was dependent on on one big client, Neotel, which competes with Telkom to provide landline telephony services. The ... |
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17
Nov 2010 |
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New communications minister Roy Padayachie brings talent and fresh vigour to a portfolio long in need of both. But his desire to hang on to government control over Telkom makes little sense. I wrote in this column two weeks ago about how Padayachie was a breath of fresh air at the department of communications. He's wasted no time trying to solve some of the intractable problems on his plate, not least among them the disaster that is the SABC. And, unlike his two predecessors, he's adopted a consultative... |
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17
Nov 2010 |
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Broadband Infraco, South Africa's newest parastatal, will break even within three years of its commercial launch tomorrow, its CEO, Dave Smith, has told MPs. He told parliament's committee on public enterprises that Infraco would not require further equity injections from its shareholders - the government and the Industrial Development Corporation - unless they revised its mandate. The two owners have invested R1.64-billion in Infraco, which owns 11.4% of the West African Cable System currently building... |
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17
Nov 2010 |
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Together with activating its high-speed HSPA+ network in Gauteng today, Cell C also announced prepaid and monthly postpaid options for its allowance-limited broadband services. CEO Lars Reichelt stressed that the cheaper data offerings - prepaid bundles between 100MB and 1GB - need competitive prices, because these are the products used by "those who are not that well off". Reichelt said increasing connectivity is the company's mission, citing statistics from the Department of Communications, ANC and in... |
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