Author: Duncan McLeod

Calvin Collett, MD of Supersonic, the new fibre-to-the-home provider in the MTN South Africa stable, believes there is a big business opportunity to roll out broadband infrastructure in South Africa’s townships.

South African payment service provider PayFast has been sold to Kenya’s DPO Group in a cash and shares deal. PayFast management, including MD Jonathan Smit, will become shareholders in the Nairobi-based company.

Dark Fibre Africa is keen to buy or build tower and data centre assets as it expands beyond the provision of fibre telecommunications infrastructure in South Africa.

On TalkCentral this week, Duncan McLeod and Regardt van der berg talk about government’s spectrum policy direction to communications regulator Icasa.

Released five years after Icasa tried to license access to the spectrum for broadband services, the final policy is not dissimilar to what the communications regulator originally intended.

Communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has asked Icasa to ensure that preferential access to spectrum is given to a new wholesale open-access network while opening the way for spectrum to be released to commercial operators.

MTN Nigeria has published strong maiden results as a listed company, with operating margins expanding significantly on the back of good service revenue growth.

Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko earned total remuneration of R23.2-million in the 2019 financial year, down from R27.2-million in 2018, mainly as a result of fewer shares that vested to him in the period.

City Power, which provides electricity to the City of Johannesburg, has been hit by a ransomware virus that has crippled its systems.

Vodacom reported a 1.2% year-on-year decline in service revenue in South Africa in the three months to end-June, with the company blaming new data regulations from Icasa and a switch in roaming partners.