Tensions are growing in South Africa’s mobile telecommunications industry as the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa gets nearer to publishing final regulations that will govern decreases in wholesale inter-network call charges over the next three years
Unmanned drones don’t have a very good reputation. They’re usually associated with assassinating terrorist leaders or spying on celebrities. But that may change when they start delivering birthday presents. Jeff Bezos, the irrepressible founder and chief executive of Amazon.com
Government should not impose an encryption system based on conditional access in the set-top boxes that taxpayers will subsidise for poorer households to receive digital terrestrial television. When it meets this week, cabinet should reject the idea, which has polarised the broadcasting industry
I always seem to be defending myself when the topic of cellphone or Internet addiction comes up. When it happens, everyone around the table turns to look at me first. Why is it that I have to explain myself? Yes, I have a smartphone and, yes, like many people, I use it a lot. Except
It’s a familiar story: a young computer nerd creates a new online service that attracts nearly a million customers in a couple of years and has earned tens of millions of dollars. Except that the service in this case – Silk Road – was not only secret, it was also illegal. Started in early 2011, Silk Road was designed as a marketplace
Government, well intentioned as might be, could be on the verge of committing a serious blunder in its attempts to sort out South Africa’s poor broadband penetration rates — one that could stunt and distort the telecommunications industry for years to come. Communications
The launch of the Tshwane Municipality’s online wayleaves management system should be welcomed – and emulated – by other local authorities in South Africa. The processes involved in securing permission and the associated bureaucratic bottlenecks
When Roy Amara was president of The Institute for the Future, he famously remarked: “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.” Looking at the current crop of start-ups now hitting their stride, it’s safe to say online
It emerged this week, in an article in the Wall Street Journal, that Snapchat, a Californian start-up that develops a smartphone app of the same name popular among teens, recently spurned a US$3bn-plus all-cash offer from Facebook to buy it out. The offer value was at least three times the already
While there is and likely will always be fundamental disputes amongst economists and policymakers about the best models and policies for economic growth, there is now wide consensus on one thing: increased Internet and broadband access causes increased rates of economic growth
