JSE-listed Blue Label Telecoms says a controversial contract signed with Telkom’s ailing Nigerian operation, Multi-Links, is being reviewed. Blue Label co-CEO Mark Levy says the contract has reached its annual review time, and the company is willing to make some concessions to help save the troubled Multi-Links.
Browsing: Top
The SABC board has moved to suspend CEO Solly Mokoetle, it emerged on Tuesday. The news was revealed soon after the Western Cape high court overruled attempts by parliament to hold a briefing on the latest trouble at the public broadcaster behind closed doors. “They have served him with a legal letter with the intention to suspend him and he has been given an ‘x’ number of days — exactly how many days I don’t know — to respond to the letter to explain why he should not be suspended,” said Ismail Vadi, chairman of parliament’s portfolio committee on communications.
Telkom has resumed its high-profile anti-Neotel taunts on Gauteng billboards, this time erecting a giant sign just metres in front of its rival’s new head office in Midrand, north of Johannesburg. In a clear reference to Neotel’s orange corporate branding, the Telkom hoarding says: “Remember, exercise caution when you see orange.”
MWeb’s uncapped broadband products have hammered the margins of many local Internet service providers, says BMI-TechKnowledge director of research Brian Neilson. And some might not survive. Speaking at a BMI-T telecommunications briefing in Johannesburg on Tuesday morning, Neilson said the uncapped model, and the price war it sparked had turned broadband provision into a volumes game.
Cell C has signed a €240m (R2,2bn) loan agreement with China Development Bank, according to a statement issued by an SA government delegation, led by President Jacob Zuma, that is visiting China this week. The loan comes just months after Cell C shareholders agreed to restructure the mobile operator’s debt by converting billions of rand of debt into equity.
Ousted communications department director-general Mamodupi Mohlala looks set for a court date his week after she spurned a second offer from President Jacob Zuma to settle the matter amicably. Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda fired Mohlala a month ago, saying trust between the two had “broken down irretrievably”.
Broadband Infraco, the state-owned infrastructure provider that is expected to launch commercially within the next few weeks, pumped R407m into its network in the 2010 financial year, up from R373m in 2009.
The increase is mainly due to the cost of network operations, maintenance and repairs, the company says in its latest annual report.
State-owned telecommunications infrastructure provider Broadband Infraco has used its latest annual report to criticise a decision not to grant it a service licence under the Electronic Communications Act. It says the decision, taken by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) and backed by communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda, undermines financially its investment in a new undersea cable system.
The seventh episode of SA’s business technology podcast, TalkCentral, is now available for download. This week, your hosts Duncan McLeod and Candice Jones talk about the significant flow of news around MTN’s interim financial results presentation, including plans by its SA subsidiary to build a rural broadband network. We also talk about Cell C’s problems trying to trademark its new logo, communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda’s press conference on digital terrestrial television, Vodacom in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Super 5 Media’s letter to Icasa.
Crystal Dynamics may have made a conscious choice not to sell the new downloadable Lara Croft game under the Tomb Raider brand name, but don’t be fooled. Lara Croft & the Guardian of Light is the best Tomb Raider game that this console generation has given us. The game eschews the third-person camera of traditional Tomb Raider games in favour of an isometric view on the action. Despite the change in perspective, this is a Tomb Raider game in every way that matters, from the devious environmental puzzles to the treacherous traps and precarious platforming.