In the past 20 years, Telkom has lost almost every aspect of the absolute monopoly it once held over South African telecommunications. First, it lost its supremacy over voice communication as cellular rivals challenged it for dominance and won. Today, the cellular operators carry the vast majority of
The business logic is clear; only the timing remains to be settled. Everything in telecommunications, including voice, will soon be data. In a world where everything is data, there will be two types of companies. And they will not be mobile operators. There will be content companies and there will be data
South Africa’s mobile operators argue that so-called over-the-top (OTT) service providers, and especially WhatsApp, are skimming their voice revenues. They claim the business model used by these OTT providers – companies such as Google, Facebook and, yes, WhatsApp – is unfair. European
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” So reads the opening line of Leon Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. The novel comes to mind when looking at the prospects that confront mobile money. Success stories have many similarities, but failed efforts fail for their own
Have you heard of the world’s fastest growing language? It was born just 20 years ago, and already hundreds of millions (possibly billions) of people use it to communicate every day. You’ve probably used it today without even thinking. I’m talking about Emoji. These expressive little symbols have slowly
After years of inaction and delay in resolving some of the big policy bottlenecks holding back South Africa’s communications technology industry – a sector that has the potential to underpin economic growth and even to lift
As a techie, when I need something — anything — I turn to the Web. I do a quick search to find a service provider, or before engaging with one, to check out their services online. Often, I do a quick check on a company website
The smartphone industry may produce gleaming marvels of modern technology, but it is also ruled by the law of the jungle. Amazon has learned this the hard way. Its Fire Phone range, unveiled to such fanfare in June, has been completely mauled by
The leafy Johannesburg suburb of Parkhurst, one of the first in South Africa to get high-speed fibre-to-the-home broadband, now looks set to be the scene of a turf war between two competing fixed-line telecommunications providers. It’s a David vs Goliath battle that could also help decide which
Nobody likes to feel like they’re being watched. Societies will tolerate a lot from their governments but few things cause more outrage than the kind of mass surveillance practiced by America’s National Security Agency (NSA) and its cronies. But true to form, the Internet has spontaneously generated
