Author: Duncan McLeod

A Nigerian court is expected to hand down judgment on Tuesday in the ongoing battle between the nation’s attorney-general and MTN, with the AG claiming the group owes $2-billion in unpaid duties and taxes.

On the podcast this week, Duncan McLeod and Regardt van der Berg discuss Takealot’s decision to open a flagship customer collections centre in Midrand and two dozen other pick-up points around the country.

Picture essay | Takealot.com, the online retailer controlled by Naspers, has officially launched its flagship customer collections point on the New Road Bridge in Johannesburg.

The news this week that government has again kicked the spectrum licensing can down the road is further evidence that it isn’t taking the needs of the sector seriously enough.

Communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has dashed hopes for the urgent licensing of new broadband spectrum to mobile operators.

Communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said on Tuesday evening that her department has paid Icasa the first tranche of its annual budget, a day after the communications regulator said it would take her to court to secure the funds.

The Competition Tribunal has approved the acquisition by Remgro’s Community Investment Ventures Holdings of Vumatel, but has attached long-term conditions to the sale.

Icasa on Monday said it has instructed its attorneys to file papers against communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams and her department in a dispute over its funding.

Vodacom said on Monday that “unquestionably the most significant obstacle to reducing input costs and, by extension, data prices is the fact that no new spectrum has been allocated” to operators for the past 14 years.

The ham-fisted way in which Vodacom implemented Icasa’s data regulations damaged the operator’s reputation and drove consumers to threatening to quit the network, according to new research.