South Africa’s hard-working new communications minister, Yunus Carrim, is tackling the challenges in his portfolio with such gusto that he appears to have taken many industry players by surprise. I had the opportunity twice this past week to watch Carrim in action
A slew of surveys have shown that many young people do not bother with wristwatches, using their cellphones to keep time instead. When Mintel, an industry analyst, surveyed Britons in 2010, it found 28% of 15 to 24-year-olds had no use for a wristwatch. Another survey, by YouGov, found that
Investors cheered Steve Ballmer’s decision to step down as CEO of Microsoft. The share price leapt higher by more than 7% on the day of the announcement that he would leave within the next 12 months, once a successor had been identified. Most critics said that, at best
Telkom’s new initiative to encourage individuals, companies, universities and others to come up with innovative ways it can increase the uptake of fixed-line broadband sends a peculiar message. On one hand, it shows that Telkom acknowledges the importance of increasing broadband
As technology has continued to evolve, from the dawn of mainframe computers in the 1930s and PCs in the 1960s, to the predominance of smart end-devices and the growth of machine-to-machine technology today, so has the complexity of the networks that enable these computing paradigms
Talk of consolidation in the telecommunications industry is rife, with speculation growing that a number of operators are either in play or may soon be. But how might a flurry of mergers and acquisitions play out? At the centre of current speculation is Neotel. Licensed
The price war in South Africa’s mobile industry is starting to take its toll, evidenced this week by the declining subscriber numbers at MTN, which conceded that it had been too slow in cutting its rates to match its rivals. But behind the scenes a much more interesting battle is brewing
I know sections of the media and the IT industry have reservations about me. Ja, okay, the guy works hard and has been in politics for a while, but what does he really know about ICT, they say. And, of course, the Democratic Alliance and
Rarely are the kings of one era the kings of the next. Just as Nokia and BlackBerry were the kings of the pre-smartphone era, so they were eclipsed by Apple and its fast-follower, Samsung. The same is true of Palm, which reigned in the preceding age of the personal digital assistant
In the wake of another set of poor quarterly results tied to weak consumer demand for its new smartphones, BlackBerry on Monday announced that it was exploring “strategic options”, including the possibility of selling the business. But who would want to buy
