The Servant (1963) is one of those films that it is impossible to forget — a merciless dissection of the relationship between a scheming valet (played by Dirk Bogarde) and his dissolute master (James Fox). The valet exploits his master’s weaknesses until he turns the tables: the story ends with a cringing Fox ministering
As electricity prices continue soaring, low-powered LED lighting is fast becoming a hot-button topic in SA. But the subject is highly complex. In a second in a series aimed at helping consumers and businesses understand the technology better, TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod sat down with Osram SA technical manager
MTN Group expects to add more than 20m subscribers in the next 12 months, taking its customer base from 164,5m to 184,8m by the end of the year. In 2011, the JSE-listed mobile group, which has operations in 21 countries across Africa and the Middle East, grew its subscriber base by 16,2% to 164,5m. It expects to
The ruling ANC wants a broad overhaul of policy and regulation in SA’s information and communications technology (ICT) sector to grow the industry and ensure universal access to broadband and other technologies. In a detailed overview of the sector, tabled on Monday
Cellular operator MTN has warned that the Independent Communications Authority of SA’s (Icasa’s) draft proposals for licensing of spectrum in high-demand spectrum bands have the “high risk” of leading to “regulatory failure”. Efficient licensing of spectrum in the two bands in question
Cell C has slammed telecommunications regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), over its invitation to apply for valuable radio frequency spectrum, accusing the authority of opening itself up to legal challenge and of producing a document “so vague so as to not be capable of proper interpretation”
Give thanks, for once, to the law of unintended consequences. Too often, it seems, the secondary effects of policy decisions turn out to be at least perverse, if not downright detrimental. But in the case of last week’s congressional vote to extend America’s emergency payroll tax-cuts, the knock-on effects look
If you worked for five years on one project and had little to show for your efforts, would your boss fire you? The government has been plugging away at the digital terrestrial television migration now for half a decade and the broadcasting sector says the building blocks are still not in place. So what went wrong? And, why
Earlier this week, Blue Label Telecoms, the largest distributor of prepaid vouchers airtime in SA, revealed that 8ta accounts for well under 1% of its airtime revenues. Vodacom, MTN and Cell C contribute 53%, 34% and 10% respectively. There was little doubt 8ta, which was launched in 2010 after Telkom disposed of
DStv rival TopTV has sold 360 000 decoders since its launch two years ago, but of these only about half are actively using the service, the company’s chairman and acting CEO, Eddie Mbalo, has revealed. He tells TechCentral that TopTV, which is owned by On Digital Media (ODM), has between 160 000 and 200 000
