Browsing: In-depth

Kagiso Media, which has previously expressed interest in launching both free-to-air and pay-television services, says digital terrestrial broadcasting may be on the “brink of irrelevance” and the longer the process is delayed, the less likely new players are to be successful. CEO Omar Essack made the comments

Perhaps best known for its foray into ­pornography, TopTV’s anti-climax in the world of broadcasting has resulted in a little-known fact: South Africa has suffered a loss of almost R1,2bn because of this venture, which critics say it should not have flirted with in the first place. Three arms

Whatever happened to cracking open Telkom’s last mile of copper cables into homes and businesses to rival broadband operators? The industry regulator has gone silent on the issue, leaving industry players wondering whether local-loop unbundling has quietly been shelved

Kickstarter project BRCK, the brainchild of Kenyan nonprofit technology outfit Ushahidi, hopes to raise $125 000 to build a communications device that connects users to the Internet using any means possible, even when the power is out. And it’s well on its way to achieving its first objective. In little more

Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S3 was the runaway success in Android smartphones over the past year, selling more than 50m units by mid-March 2013, exceeded only by Apple’s iPhone. So, you’d think the consumer electronics giant would have waited a little longer than it did to release the

China’s digital pay-television company StarTimes walked away the winner on Tuesday in the TopTV takeover saga, although at least one of the losing consortiums is considering challenging the legality of the deal. Government will be the biggest loser with losses over R1bn. The meeting

Three weeks ago, in mid-April, Absa became the last of South Africa’s big banks to launch a mobile transactional banking application for smartphones and tablets, beating at the finish line by First National Bank, Standard Bank, Nedbank and Investec. But Absa, South Africa’s

On 10 April, communications minister Dina Pule stripped her director-general, Rosey Sekese, of a range of key powers. In a letter signed by the minister, which TechCentral today publishes in full, Pule assigned all human resources matters to one of Sekese’s deputies, Gift Buthelezi, just as the the DG returned to

The department of communications (DOC) is in a mess. Minister Dina Pule and director-general Rosey Sekese are no longer on speaking terms and, although Sekese has been back at work for the past two weeks following her recent suspension, she’s reportedly been locked out of her office

Two planets as friendly to life as the Earth have been found. Now, Harvard astronomers have confirmed the existence of life out there is just a matter of time, using an ingenious trick with starlight. In an announcement mostly