Late last week, the Loeries, South Africa’s most prestigious advertising awards, announced something unprecedented: local agency MetropolitanRepublic would be stripped of all seven of its awards for 2013. The debacle began when MetropolitanRepublic submitted what seemed
With the release of Windows 8.1 this week, Microsoft did an about-turn and brought back the Windows “Start” button, found on Windows computers for 17 years until the company killed it off in 2012 in Windows 8. The Start button has a storied history, having first appeared
For network operators in Africa, the diversity of legal and regulatory systems poses a challenge. As countries’ technology and telecommunications environments mature at different rates, what is legal, acceptable or available in one country may not be so in another. At the recent Capacity
In May 2011, a remarkable thing happened on the Internet in America. It was the month that Netflix, the streaming video service, overtook pirated content as the largest portion of Internet traffic. Until this moment, digital content was being shared mainly via BitTorrent, but it was all pirated from
This may go down as the week that changed everything in South Africa’s telecommunications industry, the one that signalled the start of the end of the duopoly grip held by Vodacom and MTN. It started nine days ago when sector regulator, the Independent Communications
Malawi is not a country that often makes the international news, particularly not in the realm of connectivity. Economically poor and landlocked, it faces significant challenges in achieving affordable access for all. Although both the incumbent telcommunications operator, MTL, and the electricity parastatal
It began in 2006 as a pretty stupid idea: a service that let you post public messages on the Internet but limited them to 140 characters. Seven years later, Twitter has burrowed deep into the fabric of parts of society. Its highly anticipated initial public offering provides a fascinating glimpse
So, Vodacom is in exclusive talks to buy Neotel. There’s no surprise there – that Neotel is for sale is one of the telecommunications industry’s worst-kept secrets. But if the deal goes ahead, which is far from certain, it could spark further, arguably much-needed consolidation in the sector
Newswires, forums and social media have been abuzz since Wednesday, when news broke that notorious online marketplace, the Silk Road, has been shut down and its alleged mastermind, Ross William Ulbricht, or “Dread Pirate Roberts”, arrested. The Road, as patrons
It’s an old joke from the days when the so-called second national operator (SNO) was announced, oh, somewhere in the mists of time around 2003. This fixed-line competitor to Telkom was supposed to provide competition in landlines. The SNO gag appeared in countless headlines
