Author: Duncan McLeod

Sipho Maseko is Telkom’s new group CEO and will take over from outgoing CEO Nombulelo Moholi next week, TechCentral has been told by three separate sources with ties to the telecommunications operator. An announcement about his appointment may be made as soon as this afternoon

Vodacom has hired a top expert in electronic payments and financial services to head its mobile commerce division. The telecommunications operator has appointed Herman Singh, formerly head of Standard Bank’s innovation arm, Beyond Payments, as its managing executive for mobile commerce. Singh

Zimbabwean-born Democratic Alliance MP and shadow communications minister Marian Shinn is no career politician, having joined parliament only after the last general election in 2009. For most of her life, she was involved in journalism and, later, public relations. Shinn, 62, grew up in

Samsung’s new top-end smartphone, the Android-powered Galaxy S4, has set the benchmark that other manufacturers, especially Asian rivals such as Sony, HTC and Huawei, are going to have to beat in 2013. The S4, launched at a no-expense-spared event in New York two weeks ago, packs the sort of technology into its

Vodacom is taking direct aim at its biggest rival, MTN, announcing a new prepaid tariff plan, Anytime Per Second, on Tuesday that competes head-on with MTN’s One Rate plan. MTN recently cut the price of its One Rate calling plan from R1,75/minute

A family trust controlled by Pinnacle Technology Holdings CEO Arnold Fourie has sold R33m worth of the company’s shares. Pinnacle announced on Tuesday that the Carmen Fourie Family Trust had offloaded 1,5m shares at a price of R22/share. At the end of the

Seacom has restored services for most of its customers across Southern Africa and East Africa, it said on Tuesday. This comes four days after several cable systems, including Seacom’s, were cut in the Mediterranean Sea. The company, whose cable system runs from

Altron and subsidiary Altech both cautioned their shareholders within moments of one another on Friday that they were in talks that could have an impact on the share prices of the two companies. The move has ignited speculation that Altron could have another go at delisting Altech, which

Telkom and the Competition Commission have dropped their separate applications to the competition appeal court related to last year’s decision by the Competition Tribunal to hand down a R449m fine on the telecommunications operator for past anticompetitive abuses. Competition Commission

Vodacom has begun offering fourth-generation (4G) mobile broadband access based on long-term evolution (LTE) technology to its prepaid customers for the first time. Until now, only contract users had access to the operator’s 4G/LTE network. 4G networks offer significantly faster download and upload