Author: Duncan McLeod

We’ve been gone too long, we know. But TechCentral is pleased to announce that its podcast, TalkCentral, is returning from this week with a new voice on the panel, Regardt van der Berg, who joins the editorial team from 1 May. In the first edition of the relaunched show, Van der Berg and co-host Duncan McLeod talk about the snowballing

South Africa’s mobile price war appears to be intensifying, with Vodacom announcing on Friday that it would cut its effective prepaid rate, on a promotional basis, to 50c/minute for customers who buy its new “Chat for 20” product. The new “promotional bundle” offers 20 voice minutes for R10 to call any network

British telecommunications giant BT has named former IBM sub-Saharan Africa GM Oliver Fortuin as its new MD following the resignation of Keith Matthews. Fortuin, who was also a former GM of IBM’s PC Company in Africa, takes the top job at BT with immediate effect. Most recently, Fortuin, who has an MBA from Open University

Vodacom has quietly cut its prepaid call rate to 79c/minute on per-second billing, just weeks after MTN did the same. However, the new Vodacom rate is promotional, and expires on 14 July. If Vodacom makes the new 79c rate permanent – by filing the tariff with communications regulator

Pinnacle Holdings has confirmed weekend newspaper reports that it is being investigated by the Financial Services Board (FSB) because of a possible contravention of the Financial Markets Act related to share trading that took place in March 2014. The FSB is probing possible insider trading, Pinnacle said in a statement to

As South Africa inches slowly towards migrating from analogue to digital terrestrial television, communications regulator Icasa has provisionally granted licences to five new pay-TV operators following an exhaustive hearings process that took place in 2013. The companies and consortia that have bid for the licences

Should we be worried about Cell C? Despite a recent high court ruling that was at least partly in the mobile operator’s favour, noises coming out of the company aren’t exactly painting a rosy picture. There are several reasons for concern, chief among them the ability of the company to engage in a protracted price war while ensuring it

A solar-powered lamp, which doubles as a cellphone charger and as a fully fledged Wi-Fi hotspot, could soon bring safe lighting to poor users in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent. The next model, also due for release soon, will offer wireless broadband. The “solar jar” project is the

MTN has moved to make permanent its 79c/minute prepaid call tariff, greasing the wheels toward a possible price war in South Africa’s mobile industry and piling the pressure on debt-laden Cell C. “MTN South Africa has lodged the required paperwork with [communications regulator] Icasa to permanise [sic] its

A new South African video-on-demand player, Discover Digital, plans to give broadcasters a run for their money by launching both subscription-based and transactional video-on-demand services, as well as content kiosks, aimed at a broad spectrum of consumers. The company says it has developed the infrastructure required to launch its service