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1
Dec 2009 |
Government involvement turns Telkom earnigs to crap.
IT WAS bound to happen sooner or later. Years of monopolistic profiteering and a stranglehold on the telecommunications market has caught up with Telkom. The company's revenues have dwindled, competition is mounting, it faces billions in fines from the Competition Commission and has come under fire for planning to lay off some 4 000 temporary staff members. Telkom also continues to be at the centre of talks about the high price of telecommunications in South Africa, especially when it comes to Internet... |
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1
Dec 2009 |
Life lost for cellphone, criminal probably couldn't get past RICA.
Residents of Block W in Soshanguve took the law into their own hands at the weekend and meted out instant justice to a suspected cellphone thief who had just ended a young life. An angry mob of more than 80 people hunted down and assaulted a 22-year-old man before throwing him into his mother's burning shack. He burnt to death. On Sunday evening 14-year-old Nkateko Maheso, a pupil at Kondelelani Secondary School, had gone out to meet friends just before 6pm when she was fatally stabbed over a cellphone va... |
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30
Nov 2009 |
Years of Telkom bill payments to go poof.
After five years of litigation-filled delays, Telkom is closer to being slapped with a penalty of up to R3.76 billion for anti-competitive behaviour following last Friday's ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). On Friday the court ruled emphatically that the competition authorities did have the jurisdiction to investigate allegations of anti-competitive behaviour against Telkom. If these allegations are now proved at the Competition Tribunal, Telkom could face a fine of about R3.76bn. The allegations... |
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30
Nov 2009 |
Residents to line houses with tinfoil.
Craigavon residents have defamed iBurst by putting "warning" posters up in the area, says the company. Wireless broadband provider iBurst is set to turn on its offending Fourways tower, if residents yet again fail to prove they are ill. The tower at the centre of the debacle was constructed in August, and residents have since been claiming - in various media - that they are ill, with ailments such as skin rashes, headaches, vomiting, sleep disorders, fatigue, upset stomachs, tinnitus and other health... |
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28
Nov 2009 |
Combination of bad service and silly Government act.
Between June and September this year MTN lost 750 000 subscribers. The cellphone giant is mainly blaming this on the implementation of the new Regulation of Interception of Communication and Provision of Communication-Related Act (Rica), but many subscribers are singing a different tune, saying that it is the poor customer service that has led them to take their business elsewhere. "A combination of factors, including challenges on the network and supporting systems, slowing GDP growth, pressure on consumer... |
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27
Nov 2009 |
High Telkom prices fuels foreign expansion.
Africa's largest fixed-phone operator is said to be targeting a 60% share of the Zimbabwean operator, TelOne, according to government officials. A spokesperson for TelOne confirmed it was in talks with a foreign operator, but declined to give details. "We are currently engaged in discussions with some party that we cannot disclose at the moment because of the non-disclosure agreement that we have signed with them. Our negotiations are at a very advanced stage such that we would not wish to jeopardise them... |
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27
Nov 2009 |
In case of emergency, call lawyers.
THE awarding of a R30-million cellular voice and data contract to MTN by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has become mired in controversy - with rival Vodacom stating it has "reason to suspect that certain irregularities might have occurred during the evaluation and adjudication processes". The concerns were raised by Vodacom eastern region managing executive Carol Hall in a letter to the acting director of the city's supply chain management unit, a copy of which is in the possession of The Herald. It ... |
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27
Nov 2009 |
Not enough lawyers thrown at problem, clearly.
Telkom hopes of escaping the recent multi-billion rand fine proposed by the Competition Commission have been dashed. The telecoms company is now liable for the commission's fine, which referred its findings of abuse of dominance against Telkom to the tribunal for adjudication. It had asked the tribunal to levy an administrative penalty of 10% on Telkom's annual turnover for its financial year ended March 31 2009. This fine equates to R3.59bn. Telkom's group executive for legal services, Anton Klopper said... |
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27
Nov 2009 |
Thanks for working so hard for us, now get lost.
Telkom has reached an agreement with organised labour about the retrenchment of certain staff. However, it refuses to release details of the numbers, or disclose if it will only affect contract workers or those in permanent employ. Yesterday, trade union movement Solidarity issued a statement saying Telkom was planning to "unfairly retrench 4 000 staff", whose contracts expire in March next year. Telkom spokesman Pynee Chetty confirms Telkom met and reached an agreement with organised labour, and that the... |
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27
Nov 2009 |
Not well thought out as consumers end up footing the bill in any case.
The Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) on Friday welcomed a Supreme Court of Appeal decision to set aside a decision on the referral of a complaint against Telkom to the Competition Tribunal.SPA said in a statement the decision paved the way for the Competition Tribunal to finally examine Telkom's conduct in the internet services market during the early part of the decade. "It also sets important precedent regarding the jurisdiction of the Competition Commission over the communications sector... |
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26
Nov 2009 |
Tis the broadband season to be jolly.
"Around 200 kilometres of fibre has already been rolled out," Angus Hay, executive head of technology said in a statement. The Durban route was about one third complete and the work on the Cape Town route would start soon. The network is a joint venture between Neotel, MTN and Vodacom. Neotel had added roughly 1000 km of fibre in the three main metros where it operated - Gauteng, Cape Town and Durban. It now had around 4000 km of fibre in the ground in these areas. Hay said the company had created more ... |
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26
Nov 2009 |
Telkom CEO's cup doth overfloweth with optimism.
Telkom's top executives have shown their confidence in the company's future by buying up thousands of shares. Group CEO Reuben September and CFO Peter Nelson yesterday each spent close to three-quarters of a million rand buying up shares in the embattled telecommunications company. The purchase came two days after Telkom released its mid-year results, which were "disappointing". Telkom was reporting for the first time since unbundling Vodacom. Its operating revenue was R18.7 billion, compared to a year... |
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26
Nov 2009 |
No wonder the bigwigs snapped up shares!
"Employees' contracts expire in March and April 2010, but contracts have ended abruptly," said Solidarity's spokeman Jaco Kleynhans in a statement. The trade union has urged Telkom to halt the unfair retrenchment of the temporary and contract workers. "Telkom failed to follow the correct process of retrenchment as contained in the Labour Relations Act. "Although, by right, a complete Section 189 retrenchment process, including a consultation process with the relevant trade unions, should have been follow... |
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25
Nov 2009 |
Banking on ICASA showing them favour, no doubt.
Telkom group CEO Reuben September and group CFO Peter Nelson have bought shares in the telecommunications giant worth nearly R1.5m on the open market. The company announced in a regulatory filing on the JSE's Sens service that September and Nelson each bought 19 255 shares at R38.8494 each, worth a total of R748 045. This comes barely two days after the company on Monday released interim results to September 30. According to the annual report, September held 90 815 Telkom shares directly, and 1 820 indir... |
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24
Nov 2009 |
ICASA likely to bend over for Government lapdog.
Telecommunications operator Telkom, which will launch SAs fourth mobile operator next year, will lobby the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) for an asymmetric interconnection fee regime that is skewed in its favour. Telkom group CEO Reuben September, pictured above with Telkom SA MD Pinky Moholi, says it is fair for new entrants to expect asymmetry to give them a leg-up to compete with the incumbent players. Mobile interconnection rates are the fees cellphone operators charge each other... |
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