The price war in South Africa’s mobile industry is starting to take its toll, evidenced this week by the declining subscriber numbers at MTN, which conceded that it had been too slow in cutting its rates to match its rivals. But behind the scenes a much more interesting battle is brewing
Browsing: Duncan McLeod
New communications minister Yunus Carrim is set to face his first big test. How he responds will set the tone for his tenure and define his approach to Telkom and to competition in the sector. A decision by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) this week to publish
For the longest time, little much has really happened in South Africa’s broadcasting sector. But big changes are now looming. Barely a week seems to go by now without significant new developments in broadcasting. In recent weeks alone, there’s been news of plans to launch South Africa’s first comprehensive trial of digital
Don’t look now, but something profound is happening at Telkom. The new management team, led by group CEO Sipho Maseko and board chairman Jabu Mabuza, appears to be actively trying to change (well-founded) perceptions that the company is a litigious and rapacious
South Africa is taking concrete steps towards introducing digital radio broadcasts using a standard known as DAB+, with a trial planned for 2014. The move will usher in greater competition in the radio sector, with digital eventually likely to replace the familiar FM and AM dials. Radio broadcasters
So, president Jacob Zuma has finally fired the feckless Dina Pule and South Africa has yet another communications minister, Yunus Carrim, the seventh person to hold the portfolio since 1994. Will he be any better than his predecessors? That’s hard to know. But the fact that he’s a card-carrying member
Once upon a time, Sony was Apple. For decades, the Japanese consumer electronics giant was known for its innovation as much as Apple is today. It commercialised the transistor radio with the TR-63 and popularised the console gaming market with the PlayStation. It pioneered
Spare a thought for Edward Snowden. At the time of writing, the former Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency (NSA) technical contractor, was holed up in a transit lounge in a Moscow airport trying to figure out where in the world he could travel next to avoid arrest and prosecution by US authorities under the Espionage Act
For years, Telkom has been like a frog in slowly warming water. It’s kept broadband prices far too high while watching on puzzled as its subscribers abandoned it in favour of mobile alternatives. It has a high cost structure – mainly because it has too many employees – but consumers don’t care about its challenges. And
Mark Shuttleworth certainly isn’t afraid of taking the proverbial bull by the horns. After selling his South African Internet security business Thawte for US$575m at the height of the dot-com bubble, spending $20m and a year in training to become the first South African in space, and launching an operating system