Bewilderment. That’s the word that best described the look on the faces of mobile communications industry executives crammed into a courtroom on the 11th floor of the high court in downtown Johannesburg on Monday afternoon as they listened to judge Haseena Mayat hand down her decision in a key industry battle
Browsing: Duncan McLeod
Nearly R1,5bn — that is what was wiped off the market capitalisation of technology group Pinnacle Holdings in just two trading sessions this week after news emerged that one of its directors and biggest shareholders, Takalani Tshivhase, had been arrested on
The war of words that erupted between MultiChoice and communications minister Yunus Carrim this week is extraordinary. It is also, unfortunately, very damaging. It is unusual in South Africa – or most countries, for that matter – for a large company to take on a cabinet minister directly, aggressively and in public like this. One has to
Communications regulator Icasa this week kicked off a high-level formal inquiry into the state of competition in South Africa’s information and communications technology sector. In the coming months, the authority, which regulates the telecommunications, broadcasting and postal services sectors, has promised
While all the focus in the telecommunications industry is on the fight over call termination rates, an even more important battle is looming large, this time over access to radio frequency spectrum. Billions of rand are at stake as South Africa’s big telecommunications operators
South Africa’s telecommunications industry has never been in such a heightened state of flux as it is today. The regulator, Icasa, has managed to enrage the two biggest operators, MTN and Vodacom, which have both now lodged voluminous applications at the high court in an effort to get new call
Nineteen billion dollars. Two hundred and ten billion rand. Nearly R500/user. That’s how much Facebook has agreed to pony up for WhatsApp, the fast-growing but still very much loss-making cross-platform mobile instant messaging platform. It’s a daring – perhaps insane – bet by Facebook’s
Microsoft is at a crossroads. Its new CEO, Satya Nadella – only the third person to lead the company in its 39-year history, after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer – has to decide if the software maker’s future lies exclusively in the business market, where it remains
So, there’s more trouble at Fawlty Towers in Auckland Park. Just two years into her five-year term, SABC group CEO Lulama Mokhobo is stepping down, citing “exhaustion”. It’s a fresh setback for the public broadcaster, which has lurched from one crisis to another for the best part of a decade
Spare a thought for Shameel Joosub and Zunaid Bulbulia. The Vodacom and MTN chief executives must feel like they’re being unfairly picked on for running successful, profitable businesses. This week, telecommunications industry regulator Icasa published final regulations that will