All the latest technology news from South Africa and around the world.
Vodacom Business has opened a new, 3 000sq m data centre in Midrand as it opens up its focus on providing cloud services to its clients. The data centre, the mobile operator’s eighth such facility, has been built to be energy efficient and to minimise the impact on the environment, a spokesman said. Vodacom Business South Africa
Zimbabwean telecommunications operator Econet has launched an international debit card with Mastercard in a move expected to cut reliance on banknotes in the cash-strapped country. Econet said it expects to issue at least three million debit cards over the next five years, equal to roughly a quarter of Zimbabwe’s
Vinny Lingham, the South African entrepreneur behind online gift card service Gyft, has hit pay dirt. Lingham has agreed to sell the company, which is based in San Francisco, to First Data, a big player in the payment technology space, for a rumoured figure of more than US$54m
JSE-listed retail group Mr Price has become the first South African retailer to launch a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), TechCentral can reveal. It’s only the second company in the country to launch an MVNO after Virgin Mobile. Mr Price says it’s not keen to talk yet about its strategy behind its MVNO, called MRP Mobile
The disciplinary hearing involving suspended Telkom chief financial officer, Jacques Schindehütte will resume on 6 August 2014. The company said in a statement that this follows a long adjournment agreed to by both parties
Free Wi-Fi pioneer and non-profit Project Isizwe has launched the second phase of its wireless Internet access project in the Pretoria area, rolling out 213 new “Free Internet Zones” to schools in Mamelodi, Atteridgeville and Soshanguve
Facebook’s Instagram has launched a new one-to-one visual messaging application for iOS and Android called Bolt – and it’s launched the product first in South Africa, New Zealand and Singapore. The Bolt app, which appears to be a response to the wildly popular Snapchat, lets users “capture and send photos and videos to friends with just
Consumers will see an additional electricity price hike next year after energy regulator Nersa announced on Thursday it had approved the regulatory clearing account for Eskom. “The National Energy Regulator of South Africa
Eskom warned that load shedding may worsen this winter as the power utility battles with electricity outages caused by problems with its ageing infrastructure. Speaking at a joint meeting of parliament’s portfolio committees on energy and public enterprises
Samsung Electronics has announced plans to open a television manufacturing plant at the Dube TradePort north of Durban by the end of the year. The company will invest US$20m (about R210m) in the facility between now and 2018
