Browsing: News

All the latest technology news from South Africa and around the world.

Pay-TV competition? What pay-TV competition? Naspers-owned MultiChoice grew its SA subscriber base by 450 000 to 2,8m homes in the 2010 financial year. And it added 1,1m new subscribers in other African markets. SA consumers, it would appear, weren’t tempted to put off their purchasing decisions until after the May launch of On Digital Media’s TopTV, the first direct competitor to MultiChoice

MTN is not in discussions to acquire a stake in India’s Loop Telecom, the JSE-listed telecommunications group said on Monday. This followed a report in India’s Business Standard newspaper that the two telecoms providers were in talks. The newspaper did not name its sources, merely citing people close to the developments

JSE-listed cellular network operator Vodacom has warned of extensive job losses and damage to SA’s mobile industry if its regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), pushes ahead with plans to cut wholesale mobile termination rates next month. In a presentation at Icasa hearings in Midrand on Monday, it has asked the regulator to implement the first proposed cut in the rates in March 2011, and to extend the end of the glide path period

The most important public hearings to be held by SA’s telecommunications regulator in years kick off today (Monday) in Midrand, north of Johannesburg. The hearings, on wholesale call termination rates, are set to be a legalistic battleground as top regulatory and legal experts from the incumbent operators fight tooth and nail to lessen the reduction in the rates proposed by the Independent Communications Authority of SA

Telkom has hit back at the introduction by MWeb and other Internet service providers of uncapped broadband, accusing rivals of “not delivering on their promise”. In a newsletter sent out to Telkom subscribers with their monthly bills this month, the incumbent fixed-line operator climbs into its competitors without naming

Details have emerged of government’s plan to create a new tariff monitoring structure in an effort to drive down telecommunications prices in SA. Legislation is being amended to create a new tariff advisory council at the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) to help the authority’s councillors and the minister of communications find ways of cutting telecoms

The department of communications has defined broadband as an always-on, multimedia-capable connection able to offer download speeds of more than 256kbit/s. The definition forms a crucial part of government’s final draft broadband policy, approved by cabinet last week. Government describes the policy as “critical for SA to ensure realisation of the goal of an

A plan to auction off valuable radio frequency spectrum that can be used to provide wireless broadband services appeared to be hanging in the balance on Tuesday after communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda raised concerns over the process. The council of the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) is meeting today (Tuesday) to discuss its response to the minister’s concerns. An Icasa insider says there is a possibility that an invitation