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9
Nov 2009 |
Lawyers lined up in scene straight out of '300'.
Last week the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) reserved judgment in the legal battle between Telkom and the Competition Commission. Industry sources said that they were hopeful that the judgment would be handed down before the end of term and also that it would help to resolve the controversial issue of the jurisdiction of the competition authorities in telecoms issues. The case before the court concerns the charges of an abuse of dominance by Telkom, which were referred to the Competition Tribunal by the... |
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8
Nov 2009 |
Recoup the money from Government, we say.
Vodacom announces the interim results today for its first full six months after its unbundling from Telkom. Analysts predicted that the mobile operator would take a knock in subscriber numbers and revenue due to Rica, which MTN cited as a contributor to its fall in subscriber numbers. Between June and September MTN lost almost 5%, or 750 000, of its SA subscribers. Spiwe Chireka, ICT analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said Vodacom would shed subscribers "or at best remain stagnant" due to consumers' reluctance... |
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7
Nov 2009 |
"I'm balancing my portfolio, that's all". Fair enough.
A Securities Exchange News Service search shows that on October 7, Dabengwa sold 295000 shares valued at R129 each. Last Sunday, the Sunday Times Rich List, which placed Dabengwa at number 78, listed the worth of his 0.10% investment in MTN as R204-million. Speaking to the Sunday Times yesterday, Dabengwa said he had sold the shares for "personal reasons". "I'm balancing my portfolio, that's all," he said. In August, the Sunday Times revealed how Dabengwa was embroiled in a bitter court battle with Xolisa... |
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5
Nov 2009 |
Fiery politician no fan of Africa-time.
A host of regulations are in the works at the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA), but delays in having these promulgated harms job creation in SA, says a politician. Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille says ICASA is far behindӔ in promulgating regulations that would give proper effect to the Electronic Communications Act (ECA). She says regulatory delays hamper liberalisation of the telecommunications sector, which has a knock-on impact on job creation. Communication can be us... |
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4
Nov 2009 |
♪♫ um bam ba dee.. um bu bu bam da deeee.. under pressure.. ♪♫
Shares in the big three telecommunications companies are expected to remain under the weather as the credit crunch, interconnect concerns and slowing growth take their toll on the groups. Chris Gilmour, an analyst with Absa Investments, says telcos are "under major pressure" to find new sources of revenue, and this is reflecting in their share prices. He points to several issues, such as concerns over what impact an expected cut in interconnect will have, and slowing penetration in markets. Fundamentally... |
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2
Nov 2009 |
Unfortunately probably not the SA consumer.
Will the ridiculously high cost of using a cellphone in South Africa come down or are MTN, Vodacom and Cell C just too big and powerful to be budged? There's a fascinating ding dong battle going on right now with the Minister of Communication telling the Independent Communications Authority to get off their arses and do something. Icasa immediately met with MTN and Vodacom in effort to talk them into reducing their costs and from what I can gather the two cell phone giants told Icasa to get stuffed. Now, ... |
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30
Oct 2009 |
Provider more innocent than a baby lamb.
Telkom believes it is "not guilty of the allegations" made against it by the Competition Commission. It said yesterday that the commission's authorities did not have jurisdiction on telecoms pricing. "We are going to challenge the commission's jurisdiction, as we believe the Independent Communications Authority of SA is our regulator and the appropriate authority on pricing issues in this industry" said Anthony Klopper, the group executive of legal services at Telkom. Klopper was responding to the... |
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29
Oct 2009 |
Why not just take another 10 years, no rush, right?
THE Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) said today that the process to reduce the rates of mobile calls was estimated be finalised by June 2010. This flies in the face of calls from Communications Minister General Siphiwe Nyanda and MPs for mobile and fixed line telephone operators to drop their interconnection rates from the beginning of November to 60 cents a minute during peak times. The communications committee said that interconnection rates in South Africa set at R1.25 per... |
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29
Oct 2009 |
MTN MD makes Bill Clinton look like beacon of truth.
MTN is looking at where other costs can be cut to accommodate the agreement between it and Vodacom, says MTN SA MD Karel Pienaar. MTN's costs to terminate calls on its network are far higher than the proposed 78c blended interconnect fee it has agreed to implement with Vodacom. This is according to MTN SA MD Karel Pienaar, speaking during an interview with ITWeb late yesterday afternoon. While Pienaar would not disclose how much it actually costs MTN to terminate a call on its network, he says the blended... |
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29
Oct 2009 |
MTN MD attempts to justify high interconnect rates in 1164 words or less.
SAs telecommunications operators have come under pressure to cut interconnect fees dramatically by Christmas. However, there could be unintended consequences if drastic cuts are imposed. Interconnect fees are the wholesale fees the telephone companies pay each other to receive calls from each othersҒ networks. Interconnect is merely one of many costs of providing telephony to end users. MTN has agreed to reduce interconnect fees. However, because a sudden dramatic reduction would result in a business... |
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29
Oct 2009 |
ICASA to hand out bitchslaps to all and sundry.
Mobile operators will face a storm of regulations by the middle of next year that could have a dramatic impact on the industry. Speaking during a media briefing yesterday, acting Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) chairman Robert Nkuna said the regulator is finalising other regulations that will complement its plans for lowering interconnect rates. The regulator is following processes to have interconnect regulations published by the end of its financial year, or June 2010. While... |
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28
Oct 2009 |
Stupidity takes a turn for the worse.
Almost R800 million was wiped off Telkom's market capitalisation this afternoon, within minutes of the Competition Commission announcing that it was recommending the fixed line operator be fined 10% of is annual turnover. The finding is a surprise... Telkom would likely appeal as in the past they have successfully declared that the Competition Commission has no jurisdiction over them and they are acting within the telecommunications laws. By 3pm, Telkom's share price had dropped 162c, to R42.49... |
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28
Oct 2009 |
Next step for operators: increase cost so as to not decrease interconnect charges.
The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) is unlikely to force mobile termination rates to cost, even when it finalises its regulations next year June. Speaking in a candid media briefing, acting Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) chairman Robert Nkuna emphasised that the regulator is looking at a cost-based model and not a cost model when it comes to regulating interconnect rates. Nkuna explained that ICASA does not have an ideal rate for interconnect in mind; however, it is ... |
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27
Oct 2009 |
Glass houses, stones and undersea cables.
Undersea fibre optics cable operator Seacom has assured stakeholders of the integrity of its cable, following complaints from Cape Town-based Internet Service Provider (ISP) Cybersmart. In an emailed statement to its customers on Friday, Cybersmart said that it would switch back from procuring bandwidth capacity from the Seacom cable, to once again procure capacity from the Telkom operated SAT-3 cable. Cybersmart further said that unacceptable latency (time delay experienced in the system), and outages of... |
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27
Oct 2009 |
Government makes billions by keeping prices high. Welcome to SA, please hand over your wallet.
The Department of Communications saw a whopping R3 billion increase in revenue over last year, which National Treasury says is off the back of the Vodacom sale. The figure was revealed this afternoon in finance minister Pravin Gordhan's medium term budget, which says the DOC raked in a total of R5.291 billion, whereas last year, the department collected R2.420 billion. "The main revenue increase compared to 2008/9 is due to the sale of Telkom shares in Vodacom," the budget states. Earlier this year, Telkom... |
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