Duncan McLeod is founder and managing editor of TechCentral. With more than 30 years of experience in technology journalism, he has worked for and contributed to a range of publications, including the Financial Mail, the Sunday Times and the Financial Times.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is planning to dilute its shareholding in mobile virtual network operator Virgin Mobile SA by selling a portion of its shares to Dubai-based telecommunications company, the Friendi Group. At the same time, Virgin Mobile
Alan Knott-Craig, installed as Cell C’s new CEO on 1 April, is wasting no time in taking the fight to the operator’s bigger rivals, MTN and Vodacom. Just days after cutting the cost of broadband as part of new promotional offers, Cell C has now slashed the cost of
Four months after establishing a local office, Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC is promising to ramp up the marketing and distribution of its products in SA, with a focus on its new One-series range of devices. Jon French, HTC’s vice-president for sales operations
Telkom is inching closer to a deal to sell 20% of its equity to Korea’s KT Corp. Though the foreign direct investment in SA’s economy should be welcomed, there are potential pitfalls government must be careful to avoid. Last week, Telkom announced to
A price war has broken out in SA’s mobile industry. Within minutes of each other on Wednesday, Cell C and Vodacom both announced they were slashing the cost of prepaid call tariffs to 99c/minute. The timing of the announcements suggests at least one of
ZTE Mzanzi has accused its partner, China’s ZTE, of “throwing it under a bus” when it terminated agreements with the local, black-controlled company. It’s also accused it of colluding with competitor Huawei. TechCentral broke the news on Thursday
Relations between Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer ZTE and local partner ZTE Mzanzi appear to have broken down irretrievably. TechCentral has established that ZTE has cancelled its partnership agreement with Mzanzi, in which it has a 40% stake, prompting the latter to file a court papers
First National Bank this week lifted the lid on a new payment mechanism that uses the GPS feature in modern smartphones. It won’t result in the much-hyped cashless society, but it could greatly reduce South Africans’ reliance on cash over time. The new payment feature, which is included in an update to
The African leg of a new submarine telecommunications system that will serve markets in the North and South Atlantic will be ready for service in the first quarter of 2014. The cable will offer high-speed global connectivity to SA, Angola and Nigeria. That’s the word from the Wasace Cable Company, which is building the
Communications minister Dina Pule and shadow minister Marian Shinn clashed in parliament on Tuesday over government policies in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry and a recent department of communications colloquium that discussed
