Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, was in SA last week to meet with the software company’s customers and to attend the soccer World Cup final in Johannesburg. TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod sat down with Courtois, who is responsible for all of Microsoft’s operations outside the US, for an exclusive media interview and asked him about life at the company after the departure of Bill Gates, cloud computing and the plans for its Bing search engine.
Brazil has set aside money and expertise to help SA if it ditches its commitment to the European standard for digital terrestrial television and stumps for the standard used in the South American country instead. Andre Barbosa Filho, special advisor to the presidency of Brazil, says that if SA decides to adopt Brazil’s integrated service digital broadcasting terrestrial (ISDB-Tb) standard, it will bring in people to discuss joint ventures for the manufacturing of television sets, mobile television handsets and digital set-top boxes.
Telkom is stuck between a rock and a hard place. If the operator were to try to recover costs fully from its customers of servicing and maintaining fixed lines, it would have to double monthly line rental. But if it did so, it would accelerate the already-steepening decline in the number of fixed lines in service. Yet new regulations and growing competition mean it may be unable to avoid a sharp increase in line-rental charges.
With only a few months to go until Telkom becomes SA’s fourth mobile network operator, the question on many people’s lips is whether the fixed-line incumbent will start a price with Vodacom, MTN and Cell C. Telkom hasn’t yet decided on tariffs for its mobile offering. The company’s MD, Nombulelo “Pinky” Moholi, says these must be still be approved by the board
SA is getting a new fixed-line telecommunications network operator, TechCentral can report exclusively. The company, called Metrofibre Networx, enjoys the backing of several heavy hitters, including former Absa CEO Steve Booysen and Dark Fibre Africa co-founder Malcolm Kirby. Metrofibre Networx, which is led by Kirby, will focus almost exclusively on delivering high-speed fibre connectivity to businesses
New Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) chairman Stephen Mncube will be sworn into office on Friday. However, analysts question…
The cost of communicating on all three of SA’s mobile operators has risen, not fallen, despite the substantial reduction in wholesale mobile termination rates on 1 March, two industry executives have claimed. Howard Sackstein, CEO of telecommunications company Saicom, who has analysed a large range packages – both postpaid and prepaid – offered by
Telkom is facing a long and growing list of legal and regulatory challenges that could cost the JSE-listed telecommunications group billions of rand. Chief financial officer Peter Nelson says Telkom wants to put the problems behind it, but has vowed, where necessary, to fight off legal threats against it in court
The stage is set for a battle of epic proportions at public hearings in Johannesburg next week. That’s when operators will make their arguments for and against proposed cuts in wholesale call termination rates. MTN, for one, has warned of dire consequences for its business and for the entire mobile ecosystem if industry regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), proceeds with its plans to cut wholesale mobile call termination rates to 65c/minute this year. Other operators have also lodged strong objections
Telecommunications group Telkom will leverage its existing customers, offering mobile products to them as it gears up to launch SA’s fourth mobile operator. The company has finally begun to provide some details of its plans in the mobile space, where it is spending R6bn over five years to build a network to rival those operated by Vodacom, MTN
