Author: Staff Reporter

Naspers said on Friday that it will invest R1.4-billion to help South African technology entrepreneurs grow their start-ups and will invest R4.6-billion over the next three years in the local technology sector.

Rain will build a 5G network in South Africa, chairman Paul Harris said at the South Africa Investment Conference on Friday. It will leverage its existing spectrum allocation in the 3.6GHz band to do this, he said.

Just months before Microsoft is due to open two Azure data centres in South Africa, the world’s largest cloud provider, Amazon Web Services, has announced it will also open data centre facilities in the country.

Altron has resumed dividend payments to shareholders, sending the group’s shares higher on the JSE on Thursday. It’s the first time it has paid a dividend since 2016.

Blue Label Telecoms chairman Larry Nestadt has acquired millions of rand worth of shares in the company in recent weeks as its stock price continued to plumb levels last seen a decade ago.

Huawei, which is engaged in a fierce battle for smartphone supremacy with Samsung and Apple, has launched its new high-end smartphone, the Mate 20 Pro, in South Africa, just a week after it was unveiled in London.

Netstar, a subsidiary of JSE-listed Altron, said on Monday that it has signed a joint venture deal with C Ahead Technology to offer insurance and fleet telematics in India.

Vodacom said on Thursday it is working with device manufacturers to introduce enhanced voice services – known as super high-definition voice or HD Voice+, on its network in South Africa.

South Africa’s Echo Service Provider has reached a deal to merge with the Internet service provider operations of Gondwana International Networks in markets across Africa.

The first official South African pricing of Apple’s “cheaper” iPhone model for 2018 has been revealed.