South Africans love to complain about Telkom. It’s been a national pastime for years. The customer service problems associated with the fixed-line operator are the stuff of legend – and nightmare. So, when Telkom’s CEO, Sipho Maseko, steps up to the plate and promises to fix these deep-seated
South Africa’s cellular operators have been trying for years to crack the mobile commerce code, but haven’t been able to repeat the successes they’ve had in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. MTN, working with Pick n Pay, may just have found the key to success at
It’s been more than six weeks since the election and nearly a month since President Jacob Zuma stunned the information and communications technology industry by dumping his hardworking communications minister, Yunus Carrim, and splitting the communications portfolio in two. Since then, there has been
Telkom’s share price has risen sharply in the past year on optimism that the new leadership team under CEO Sipho Maseko has what it takes to turn the lumbering telecommunications giant around. Since last June, the share price has gained more than 150%. And since its low point in May last year, it has
In the mid-1990s, there were fewer telephone connections in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa than there were in Manhattan. What a difference two decades has made: by the end of this year, there will be more than 635m active telephone subscriptions on the sub-continent. That number is twice the population of
What was the president thinking? Last Sunday, Jacob Zuma sent shockwaves through South Africa’s technology industry by dumping his hardworking communications minister, Yunus Carrim – arguably the most competent person to fill the portfolio since the 1990s – and splitting the ministry in
This week, remarkable news emerged from an upmarket Johannesburg suburb. The community of Parkhurst, through its residents’ association, announced it had issued a request for proposals from telecommunications service providers to connect all houses and businesses in
Cell C this week signalled it will not back down an inch as the price war between South Africa’s mobile operators intensifies. The mobile operator, South Africa’s third largest after Vodacom and MTN, upped the stakes with its bigger rivals by cutting its prepaid rate from 99c to 66c/minute (billed per second) on a promotional basis
Two weeks ago, Icasa provisionally awarded licences to five new subscription television broadcasters. It hopes the move will help crack open what has become a highly concentrated market that is now thoroughly dominated by one operator, MultiChoice. The communications regulator will be hoping that it is more successful in this
In the days following this week’s general election – the most interesting since 1994 – the focus will shift to who president Jacob Zuma will name to his new cabinet. Whatever shuffling he decides to do, he should leave the communications portfolio in the hands
