Author: Duncan McLeod

Cell C has moved to justify its decision to terminate its wholesale fixed-LTE offering, saying customers of the service made up just 0.5% of its base but were using 20% of its data network capacity.

Cell C has issued a formal notice to its wholesale partners, including Internet Solutions, stating that it will terminate wholesale fixed-LTE services, potentially leaving thousands of retail customers in the lurch.

In its policy paper published this week, national treasury devoted considerable space to the telecommunications sector. Though many of the proposals make sense, an anachronism stuck out. By Duncan McLeod.

Government’s planned wholesale open-access network should only get a small set-aside of radio frequency spectrum, with the rest auctioned off to commercial operators, national treasury has said.

Mark Taylor will soon step down from the board of Reunert, where he serves as an executive director, ahead of his planned emigration from South Africa next year.

S&P Global Ratings has downgraded Cell C’s debt to “D”, or “default” – its lowest-possible “junk” rating – after the mobile operator “failed to make interest payments on certain bilateral loan facilities” due last month.

The Information Communication Technology Union will lead its members at MultiChoice South Africa out on strike on Friday to protest job cuts at the pay-television operator.

DStv owner, JSE-listed MultiChoice Group, is cutting the price of monthly bouquets in Kenya by as much as 37% as competition from streaming services intensifies.

First National Bank has suspended its decision to require users to type in their usernames and passwords manually for online banking rather than using their browser or password manager to automatically fill in the fields.

Cell C’s largest shareholder, Blue Label Telecoms, will delay publication of its full-year financial results until late September to deal with various issues related to the mobile operator’s recapitalisation and restructuring.