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
Communications minister Yunus Carrim demonstrated in parliament this week that government may finally be dealing decisively with the impasse over digital terrestrial television that is undermining efforts to get more South Africans connected to broadband. Carrim’s remarks to
Sipho Maseko is a really nice guy – which makes me want to pity him over the challenge he’s taken on at Telkom. Some would say accepting the group CEO position at South Africa’s biggest fixed-line operator is like grabbing a tiger by its tail. Sooner rather than later, you get eaten
A profound and dramatic thing happened in the computer industry last week. And it wasn’t the introduction of the new iPad Air. But it was, not surprisingly, from Apple, which has proved that most important (and brave) of lessons to the rest of the world: cannibalise yourself before someone else does. Though
Chances are, if you’re on a mailing list connected to the media industry, you would have received numerous (digital) links to studies and reports hailing the success of paywalls by various publishers around the world. And in light of the spectacular failure of digital publishing to offer a sustainable business model in its first 20
Mobile phones have never been more ubiquitous. By the end of 2012, nine in 10 people on the planet had one. So why are people in the developed world making fewer phone calls? In 2007, the average US cellphone user spent 826 minutes
