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5
Aug 2010 |
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Trade union Solidarity is calling for the immediate suspension of Communications Minister, Siphiwe Nyanda until a comprehensive investigation into the former military leader is completed. The request follows yesterday's revelation that yet another government contract - to which Nyanda is closely linked - has had to be canned following discovery of procedural irregularities. Solidarity spokesman Jaco Kleynhans says Zuma needs to take control of the issues around the department and send a strong message... |
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5
Aug 2010 |
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Bandwidth on the East Africa Submarine System (Eassy), a new, 10 000km-long submarine fibre-optic cable on Africa's east coast, is now available from Neotel and MTN, the two telecommunications operators announced at a press conference on Thursday. At the same time, the design capacity of the system has almost been trebled, going from 1,4Tbit/s to 3,8Tbit/s, making it the fastest cable system serving the African continent. However, only 60Gbit/s on that capacity has been "lit up" so far. Eassy is the second... |
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5
Aug 2010 |
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The days of limited and expensive international bandwidth in South Africa are over as the EASSy cable became the second submarine cable to launch on the East coast of Africa. MTN's Trevor Martin's, who also serves as the EASSy consortium's chairperson, announced in Sandton this week that the cable had come in ahead of schedule and almost 10 percent under its USD300-million budget. The 10 000km cable lands in South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, the Comores, Tanzania, Kenya, Somaliland, Djibouti and Sudan... |
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4
Aug 2010 |
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Cellular operator Cell C has launched a new brand identity on Wednesday. The new logo for the company depicts the letter C within a circle, similar to a 'copyright' sign, while the company's new corporate colours were taken from the South African flag. Cell C has also changed its slogan to "The power is in your hands." Said CEO Lars Reichelt: "We tried to keep it simple. It has to be easy to grasp and like." "We want to be innovative and different and have more of a modern look." Launching the new brand... |
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4
Aug 2010 |
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Cell C's R5bn broadband mobile network will be launched in about three weeks, says its CEO, Lars Reichelt. The third-generation (3G) network, which is capable of theoretical download speeds of up to 21Mbit/s, will be launched in phases across six cities. It already has about 1 300 3G base stations live and "friendly testers" are putting the network through its paces. It has acquired bandwidth on the Seacom undersea cable. By the end of the year, Cell C is expected to cover about 30 percent of the country... |
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4
Aug 2010 |
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Telkom's former CEO and CFO both received higher performance bonuses during the past year, despite the company's lacklustre showing in its results for the 2010 financial year to March. For the year to March, Telkom reported all but flat revenue growth, with turnover moving 0.7% up, to R37 billion, and reported headline earnings falling from R3 billion last year to R236 million this year, after cash-generative Vodacom was spun out of the group. In addition, Telkom's operations are not generating cash. The... |
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4
Aug 2010 |
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South Africa's third mobile operator Cell C plans to have about 30 percent of the country's population covered by its new network, dubbed 4Gs, by the end of this year, CEO Lars Reichelt said on Wednesday. The operator is spending R5-billion in 2010 on rolling out its 4Gs network, which makes use of evolved high-speed packet access (HSPA+) in the 900-MHz and 2 100-MHz frequency bands. Reichelt added that billions more would be spent on the further roll out of the network in 2011. He explained that the 4Gs... |
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3
Aug 2010 |
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Telkom sold its controlling stake in Telkom Media, now Super 5 Media, for just R68m, the JSE-listed telecommunications group's 2010 annual report has revealed. This means Telkom lost a net R403m from the failed venture. It had loaned the business R471m, a loan that it has now written off, according to the report. The idea to launch in the pay-TV market was made by former Telkom CEO Papi Molotsane, who was later axed. Molotsane's successor, Reuben September, who left Telkom recently, sold the stake to... |
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3
Aug 2010 |
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Cell C and Research In Motion (RIM) on Tuesday announced the availability of the BlackBerry solution for Cell C customers in South Africa. Cell C customers will now be able to enjoy the productivity benefits of using BlackBerry smartphones to stay connected to people and information while on the go. Customers will benefit from enhanced communications, with easy, wireless access to email, phone, calendar, web, instant messaging, multimedia and a range of other mobile business and lifestyle applications.... |
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2
Aug 2010 |
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Vodacom Group introduced South Africa's first mobile on-demand television service on Monday. TV:On Demand will be available through Vodacom and parent company Vodafone's Vlive! service. Users will be able to view popular television content like movies and shows for R75 per month, or R20 per week, and can be activated or deactived at will. The service is being launched in partnership with the On Demand Group. Victor Borges, GM of On Demand SA, said that the service will be introduced with users getting... |
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2
Aug 2010 |
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SA's third mobile operator, Cell C, has responded to criticism from local comedian Trevor Noah by publishing a full-page letter of apology to its customers in Sunday and daily newspapers. Noah recently poked fun at SA's mobile industry, saying the cellular networks are horrible and calls are continuously being dropped. He zeroed in on Cell C, saying the operator had the worst network of the three, including MTN and Vodacom. Now the viral effect of social media has resulted in almost 10 000 views of the... |
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2
Aug 2010 |
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Mobile telecommunications operator MTN on Monday unveiled its R22-million, 2 MW trigeneration plant, which would power a new building housing a data centre and test switch centre at its head office campus in Fairland, Johannesburg. The trigeneration plant is powered by methane gas, which is piped over 800 km from Sasol's Mozambique gas fields to Egoli Gas in Johannesburg, and then to the company's office, MTN South Africa MD Karel Pienaar explained. The JSE-listed company hopes to become energy independent... |
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2
Aug 2010 |
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A partnership with On Demand Group has facilitated Vodacom's second mobile TV offering in as many weeks. Called TV:On Demand, the new service allows the on-demand streaming of a variety of series and videos to subscribers at R75 per month, or R20 per week. Series will become available shortly after television release and can be accessed through Vodafone Live at any time, with no additional data charge and no cap. Last week, Vodacom and MultiChoice announced a partnership that provided monthly or weekly... |
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1
Aug 2010 |
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Wireless broadband provider iBurst is asking the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to sanction the continued use of 30 towers that were illegally erected. iBurst was found guilty last November of erecting 30 towers around Gauteng without following the proper environmental procedures. It entered a plea and agreed to pay R90 000 in total as a fine. The company has since applied to the agriculture department to rectify the towers. However, this is an onerous process and requires that ... |
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1
Aug 2010 |
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Ntumba Incorporated, the auditors of a company owned by Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda, is at the centre of financial mismanagement and irregular expenditure allegations at Sentech. Sentech, the loss-making state-owned broadcast signal distributor, also falls under Nyanda's watch. City Press is in possession of documents that show that auditors Melusi Ntumba and Vhonani Mathebula authorised six payments to the tune of R1.1m to themselves and a board member who hired them. This took place while ... |
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