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18
April 2009 |
Atmosphere gets heavy as more poo-poo hits the Telkom fan.
Fresh accusations of irregularities involving a tender proposal emerged at Telkom this week as beleaguered chief executive Reuben September remains under investigation by his board for alleged misconduct. A group of bidders on Friday sent a letter to Telkom, demanding clarity on the status of a five- year tender, worth R1.2-billion a year, that was meant to have been signed by Mar |
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17
April 2009 |
New addition to family renders company captainless.
Alan Knott-Craig, MD of wireless broadband operator iBurst, has resigned. Knott-Craig, the son of the former Vodacom Group CEO of the same name, says he has quit to spend more time with his family. “As you may know, I’ve recently been blessed with a daughter, and over the past year my priorities have changed slightly,” Knott-Craig says in an e-mail to the FM on Friday morning. “My |
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17
April 2009 |
After 493 steps backwards SA needs leaps to fix legacy of the poisonous one.
SA’s likely next president, Jacob Zuma, will soon have the difficult task of appointing a cabinet. It is crucial that he installs a competent communications minister to run what has become one of the most critical portfolios in government. Communications minister and anti-apartheid struggle stalwart Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, who died last week, was by all accounts a dedicated and wel |
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17
April 2009 |
Lawyers giggle with delight, toothy grins.
Telkom, Vodacom, Vodafone and the Department of Communications are being taken to court by the Communication Workers Union, it said on Friday in a statement. The union served the three telecoms companies and the department with notice of an urgent court interdict application in a bid to halt the merger transaction between Vodacom and Vodafone. Last year Telkom announced the sale |
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16
April 2009 |
Pshychiatrists start lining up to treat AT&T's bigwigs.
Telkom and US-based AT&T today signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will see the operators collaborate in sub-Saharan Africa. Speaking at the signing ceremony this afternoon, Telkom CEO Reuben September said: “The MOU will be developed into full contracts at a later stage.” The local telecoms giant explains the crux of the deal would be that New York-listed AT&T would |
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15
April 2009 |
White elephant faces chopping block.
Telkom Media's fate will be decided tomorrow, Thursday 16 April, when Telkom shareholders meet to vote on the closure of the pay-TV project. When it was awarded a pay-TV licence by the Independent Communications Authority (Icasa) in 2007, Telkom Media was widely touted as the company that would give MultiChoice a run for its money. Telkom Media has eaten up R500 million in cash si |
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15
April 2009 |
The tale of the disappearing bandwidth, volume 27.
Vodacom has not picked up any trouble with its data services over the past few months, says the local mobile giant. This is despite consumers alleging they are running out of data faster than usual and not being accurately monitored by the company's supplied usage tracker. However, Vodacom says there have been no irregularities in data and the usage tracker should only be used as |
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14
April 2009 |
Strikingly obvious that dignitaries don't keep up with the news.
SA's new minister of communications will have a larger focus on education and training, following the country's general elections on 22 April. This is according to transport minister and ANC policy head Jeff Radebe, who was speaking to journalists at the funeral of communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, in Kroonstad, Free State, yesterday. Matsepe-Casaburri died at a Pret |
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14
April 2009 |
Monkey possibly to be employed to fix current mess.
With just over a week before the national elections, a political analyst says it is anyone's guess which new ministers will be elected into key portfolios affecting the ICT industry. Past appointments to technology-related ministries have proven illogical and have baffled analysts and the public, leaving the field open to speculation. Aubrey Matshiqi, a senior associate political |
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14
April 2009 |
Drowning in money now perilously close to actually happening.
Vodacom's release from the dead hand of Telkom early next month could see billions of rands unlocked and give the economy and shareholders' pockets a boost. Vodacom has an estimated value of between R50-billion and R80-billion, according to analysts canvassed by the Mail & Guardian. It will list on the JSE on May 5. Although its biggest rival, MTN, sits with a market capitalisation |
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14
April 2009 |
Up to 10 years in Fox River for stealing copper.
South African dealers in second-hand goods will find that the landscape has changed forever. President Kgalema Motlanthe signed the Second-Hand Goods Bill on April 1. The legislation is aimed at reducing copper theft, in particular, and it has sharper teeth than its predecessor did. Director Bert van der Walt of the South African Police Service (SAPS) was one of the players in br |
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13
April 2009 |
The reason SA's telecoms sector was put in a blender and flushed down the toilet.
When Icasa told former president Thabo Mbeki to his face, and in front of her, that she was the biggest problem it faced, she grinned. Mbeki did nothing Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, who has died in Pretoria at the age of 71, was in charge of one of the most critically important portfolios in government for the past decade — which, for most of that time, was an unmitigated disaster. As |
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11
April 2009 |
Vodacom causes man to commit suicide, listing goes ahead, JSE needs money.
Vodacom’s JSE listing met fierce resistance this week when a software developer demanded R160-million, claiming that the cellular giant had misled investors in its listing documents. In October 2003 Kevin Jenkins, managing director of Number Secure, a mobile application developer, and Barry Blackburn, director of sales at Vodacom Service Provider, signed a partnership to provide a |
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9
April 2009 |
Two new positions open at Dept. of Comms, applicants with brains required.
FOR years people have said that the telecoms industry is poised for exciting times as liberalisation makes its slow but relentless way forward. Now, unexpectedly, the government has a chance to inject vigour into the sector by placing dynamic characters in the communications department . The death of minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and the resignation of the director-general leave |
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9
April 2009 |
Cell providers found huddling in corner.
Telkom's full mobile offering is expected to get off the ground in the last quarter of this year. In just under three weeks, Telkom will shed its stake in subsidiary Vodacom. The company has been quietly rolling out its WCDMA network, which looks to have good coverage in Johannesburg, although it still seems sketchy in other parts of SA. Telkom says it already has a significant |
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