MTN’s South African operation has again borne the brunt of the price war in the mobile industry, with its revenue in the six months to June slumping by 7% and its profit margin, measured before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, sliding by 1,5 percentage points. The poor numbers were exacerbated by steep cuts earlier this
Overall, Vodacom and Telkom Mobile have South Africa’s best post-paid mobile plans, new data from telecommunications research firm Tarifica claims to show. Virgin Mobile scored bottom of the list, coming in in fifth place overall behind Cell C and MTN, but MTN failed to emerge as the winner in even a single category. The Tarifica scores
Vodacom launched the first US$50 smartphone on its network this week and, although the Smart Kicka, which retails for R549, is aimed at the low-end of the market that until now hasn’t been able to afford anything beyond a basic feature phone, it’s a surprisingly good device. The Smart Kicka may not look like much at first. But for
Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) was one of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s grand gestures. Sweeping to power in 2007, he quickly set to fixing that country’s problems in education, health and productivity. Although it was clear that he only ever understood technology superficially, he nevertheless saw it as the answer to all of
Debates on the privatisation of Eskom were misguided as cabinet has not discussed privatisation of the power utility, said public enterprises minister Lynne Brown. “I want to indicate that there is a portfolio of options for the inter-ministerial task team to consider. To my knowledge, cabinet has not discussed the matter of privatisation
Telkom, for many years shunned by both institutional and retail investors, appears to have shed its poor image in the investment community, with the market rushing to snap up its shares on the expectation of a significant turnaround in its fortunes. The share price was trading up by more than 6% in lunchtime trading on the JSE on Tuesday
South African start-up WhichBroadband will go live on Monday, showcasing consumers’ broadband choices in an effort to take the complexity out of making a buying decision. The concept was developed as early as 2007 when Clinton Bemont, a metallurgy lecturer at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, was looking for a comparison of all broadband
Satellite-based personal navigation devices have lost significant market share to smartphones in recent years. Devices that were once an important part of many drivers’ lives have become all but obsolete in an era where Google, Apple, Microsoft and others offer free navigation with arguably more up to date map data. It’s become difficult
If the music industry is to be believed, music piracy is a huge problem. So far, however, very little has been done to stop it. But we are starting to get an idea of what motivates people to do it. If record labels want to survive, they should start looking at the growing body of evidence about why music lovers continue to refuse to pay. Although there is some scepticism
In five years, there will be more than 930m mobile subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa. As mobile coverage across the region expands, the opportunities for better logistics management are vast. “There is a huge focus on mobility in transportation fleets in Africa,” says MiX Telematics director Steven Sutherland. Drivers can use their smartphones
