Author: Duncan McLeod

Mobile penetration as measured by the number of active Sims in use in sub-Saharan Africa has reached 61% of the population. But this masks the reality that fewer than one in three people in the region actually owns a mobile phone. According to a new research report from

Vodacom has won protracted international arbitration proceedings in its long-running dispute with Congolese Wireless Network, the minority shareholder in its operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Relations between the two companies

Vodacom has come out guns blazing against proposals by its regulator, Icasa, that mobile call termination rates be slashed over the next three years while giving the company’s smaller rivals a leg up through “asymmetry”. Icasa wants the new rates – which operators charge each

Standard Bank has become the second South African bank in a fortnight to announce a transactional banking application in the Windows Phone store, signalling growing interest in the Microsoft smartphone platform. The Standard Bank app for Windows Phone

The effective price per minute of a call on Vodacom’s network fell to 59c/minute in the six months ended 30 September 2013, a decline of 16,9% in the past year, the mobile operator said on Monday. Despite this, prepaid average revenue per user rose by 1,4% to

Communications minister Yunus Carrim demonstrated in parliament this week that government may finally be dealing decisively with the impasse over digital terrestrial television that is undermining efforts to get more South Africans connected to broadband. Carrim’s remarks to

As consumers increasingly turn to WhatsApp, WeChat, BlackBerry Messenger and other free applications for instant messaging, South African operators may finally be gearing up to fight back over SMS volumes they have lost to IM players

Long-serving Datacentrix director Gary Morolo is stepping down as chairman and board member of the JSE-listed technology services company “with immediate effect”. Morolo, who joined Datacentrix 15 years ago and who served as its CEO, is leaving following news at the end of last month that the

Zero. Zip. Nada. That’s how much interference a television white-spaces trial in Cape Town by Google and a number of technology partners has caused since it kicked off in March. News of the success of the project, which involved providing wireless Internet access to 10 schools using

In an effort clearly designed at getting South Africans to try its wireless broadband network, Telkom Mobile is offering what it’s calling “first-time Internet users” the opportunity to get online for a year for a R49 once-off fee. For that price, South Africa’s