Browsing: Duncan McLeod

First came the news that Cell C is planning to sell its national network of base stations to a third-party tower operator. Now MTN SA, looking to cut costs, may begin selling space on its towers to competitors. Why, suddenly, is infrastructure sharing all the rage?

SA consumers, used to high prices for telecommunications, must be rubbing their hands in glee. The cost of broadband and voice telephony has begun falling, in some cases dramatically, as competition finally begins to take effect

Television in SA is on the verge of its biggest changes since its introduction in 1976. Two new pay-TV operators will finally launch soon to take on DStv, and the move to digital terrestrial television will change the competitive dynamics of the industry forever.

Operating systems were all the talk last week at Mobile World Congress, the cellphone industry’s annual confab in Barcelona. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Nokia and others are engaged in a battle over whose software will run the next generation of smartphones

Privacy advocates voiced concerns this weekend about Buzz, Google’s new social networking service. Buzz reportedly exposed users’ contacts to others, without consent. That raises a question: how easy would it be to extricate oneself from Google?

Sentech is in trouble. Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda last week outlined the damning findings of a task team appointed to probe ongoing troubles at the state-owned broadcasting company. Here’s one way to fix it.

Microsoft risks ceding the smartphone market. Its apparent decision to delay the release of Windows Mobile 7 could be the final nail in the coffin of its mobile ambitions. Given that computing is going mobile, that’s a big problem for the software maker

Google’s decision to square up to the Chinese government over censorship is extraordinary. It will probably result in the company being forced to pull out of the communist-led country. But if it feels so strongly about it, why did it invest in the first place?