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23
July 2010 |
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South Africa's Mobile telecommunications operators have proposed an extension to the cut-off date for RICA believing they will not have their customers registered in time to meet the December 31 deadline. RICA is the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act. It requires everyone who has an active cellphone number or purchases a new prepaid starter pack, to register their SIM cards with their operator. Vodacom said on Thursday that it has proposed... |
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23
July 2010 |
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Seacom, whose SA-East Africa-South Asia fibre-optic submarine cable system went down on 5 July, is in the process of restoring capacity to all its customers. The cable operator confirmed last night that physical repairs to the fault were in the final stages of completion and that final testing was under way. Technical teams began working with customers to reinstate Seacom traffic to pre-outage configurations throughout Africa, a process that should be completed within the course of the day. Seacom's... |
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22
July 2010 |
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The enforced reduction of mobile termination rates since March 2010 has chopped almost R400m of the quarterly income of telecommunications firm Vodacom Group. On Thursday, the group reported a 4 percent increase (to R14.4bn) in service revenues from its South African operations for the three months to end-June, but said that it would've been up by 8.2 percent were it not for the interconnection reduction which had a R393m effect on its bottom line. Interconnection rates are paid when network traffic... |
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22
July 2010 |
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Mobile operator Vodacom was making good progress in the mobile data space, CEO Pieter Uys said on Thursday, noting that the group was seeing strong growth in data revenues. JSE-listed Vodacom reported overall data revenues of R1,35-billion for the first quarter of the year, ended June 30. "This was a positive start to our financial year with overall group service revenue increasing 3,1 percent in constant currency. Our continued focus on broadband leadership paid off with group data revenue growing 43,2... |
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22
July 2010 |
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Lower mobile termination rates have cost Vodacom close to R400 million in revenue during the last quarter, effectively slowing the operator's service revenue growth rate by 3.8 percent. Speaking this morning at Vodacom's quarterly results, CEO Pieter Uys noted that service revenue was up 4.4 percent, but if the negative impact of lower mobile termination rates was removed, it would have been up 8.2 percent. Uys highlighted that the operator saw an overall 18.3 percent decline in interconnect revenue during... |
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22
July 2010 |
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Three telecoms firms have subscribed to a new undersea cable linking Nigeria and West Africa to Europe, paving the way for a transformation in Internet access in Africa's fastest-growing telecoms market. The Nigerian arm of Etisalat, South Africa's MTN and Nigeria's Starcomms are among the first to sign up for broadband services from the cable, its operator the Main One Cable Company said on Wednesday. The 7 000km fibre optic cable, built in partnership with US firm Tyco, runs from Portugal to Nigeria and... |
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21
July 2010 |
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The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) today withdrew its invitation to industry to apply for spectrum in the 2.6GHz and 3.5GHz band, effectively canning SA's first high-frequency radio spectrum auction. The sought-after spectrum is ideally located for high-speed broadband connectivity, specifically for LTE and WiMax technologies. Speaking at a press conference in Sandton this morning, ICASA councillor Marcia Socikwa noted that since releasing the first invitation to apply, the authority... |
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21
July 2010 |
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As Neotel gears up to launch its first prepaid consumer products in the next few weeks, the telecommunications operator has announced it has concluded a deal with JSE-listed Blue Label Telecoms to take the offerings to market. Blue Label will offer Neotels prepaid products through its retail points of presence across the country. The products are expected to be launched next month. "Neotel will soon be launching prepaid services to the market and we required a partner that had a wide operational footprint... |
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20
July 2010 |
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Telkom had a golden opportunity. Despite most of the market being caught napping on March 18 when Mweb launched affordable uncapped ADSL packages (and most service providers then rushed to bring offers to the market), Telkom had a three-month window to "rebalance" its tariffs before filing its annual price changes with Icasa. Nearly every single analyst and technology journalist in the country expected Telkom to do something - anything - about its ADSL pricing in the face of increased competition. And the... |
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20
July 2010 |
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The East African Submarine System (Eassy), the second high-capacity fibre-optic cable along Africa's east coast, is live. However, local Internet users will have to wait until at least August to enjoy the benefits. The West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC), the largest shareholder in Eassy, announced this week that the cable is ready to be tested by its owners. Alcatel Submarine Networks, which built Eassy, will officially hand over the cable to the WIOCC board on Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya. Though... |
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16
July 2010 |
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The Department of Communications (DOC) has published SA's broadband policy, outlining its intention to deliver broadband services to all citizens by 2019. But analysts believe the actual co-ordination and financial requirement to implement the policy may be too overwhelming. The policy outlines its main objective as "facilitating the provisioning of affordable, accessible universal access to broadband infrastructure to citizens, business, communities and the three spheres of government, and to stimulate... |
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16
July 2010 |
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Telecommunications company MTN Group said in a business update on Thursday that the majority of the markets in which it operates continued to show strong subscriber growth to the end of May 2010 despite increasing competition. Group subscribers increased nearly 10 percent for the 5 months to the end of May 2010. "This positive subscriber growth translated to sound revenue growth and profitability in the various local currencies," it said. The group noted that the continuing strength of the South African ... |
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16
July 2010 |
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MTN Group shareholders approved a R33m windfall for outgoing boss Phuthuma Nhleko on Thursday. The settlement, which will be due in a once-off sum, is payable on April 1 2011 and is in respect of a three-year restraint of trade. This dwarfs the R7m paid per year for two years to Alan Knott-Craig when he exited Vodacom Group in 2008. Nhleko, whose contract expired on June 30, agreed to stay on in his role until March 2011. A market source viewed the payment at "reasonable", given Nhleko's extensive contacts... |
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16
July 2010 |
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Senior managers at Telkom must be brought to book for alleged corruption and fraud at the parastatal, the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) said. This included managers who were resigning, said CWU spokesman Matankana Mothapo, who questioned the timing of the resignations. "We are concerned about the level of corruption taking place and the misuse of public funds by those people in power," he said. "Now that Telkom is busy with investigations, people start resigning. "There is something wrong with... |
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15
July 2010 |
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MTN on Thursday announced a new proposed broad-based black economic empowerment transaction of R8.1 billion to be executed through its South African local listing. The company's president and CEO Phuthuma Nhleko said in a statement the transaction would broaden MTN South Africa's effective black economic empowerment (BEE) ownership through a public offer to black individuals and groups to beyond 30 percent, when combined with the company's previous BEE initiatives. "BEE is integral to the ethos of MTN, an... |
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