Year: 2012

The National Planning Commission’s revised National Development Plan, handed over to President Jacob Zuma by planning minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday, has raised the idea of separating Telkom structurally into two businesses, one focused on

Embattled national consumer commissioner Mamodupi Mohlala-Mulaudzi urged trade & industry minister Rob Davies on Wednesday to extend her employment contract. “I believe I have worked very hard. I have excelled,” she told the National Press Club in Pretoria. “I have gone beyond my call of duty

Mauritius-based DotConnectAfrica is laying claim to the .africa generic top-level domain (gTLD) for which SA’s ZA Central Registry is the African Union’s endorsed bidder. This is in spite of the fact that DotConnectAfrica inadvertently applied for the wrong domain, at a cost of US$185 000, and is unlikely to succeed in

Mxit Money, a partnership between Standard Bank and mobile social network Mxit, has been launched and allows Mxit users to send money to one another for free, transact with that money, and even withdraw it. Users can also send money to other mobile phone users for a nominal fee. Mxit CEO

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) will hold public hearings concerning the revised set of draft digital terrestrial television regulations it released last month for public comment. The decision comes after Icasa said it would take written submissions up until 31 July but wouldn’t hold

With hype building once again ahead of the launch of the next iPhone, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the world doesn’t revolve around the fruity company in California. The new iPhone — or whatever it’s eventually called — is guaranteed saturation coverage in the next few weeks leading up to a rumoured 12 September

A number of Altech Autopage Cellular customers experienced service problems with their mobile devices on Monday after a system error resulted in future-dated transactions, including package changes, contract cancellations and service add-ons, being triggered on Monday morning rather than at their allotted time

The Competition Tribunal last week fined Telkom R449m for abusing its dominance in the telecommunications industry between 1999 and 2004. Assuming Telkom doesn’t appeal against the decision, half of the penalty is to be paid within six months of the tribunal’s decision, with the balance is payable within 12 months

German-based media streaming company Simfy is set to launch a local offering of its music streaming service before the end of the month. Simfy Africa will have more than 18m tracks available for streaming and has secured licensing deals with all of the big international record labels, including Sony Music

Last week Republicans seized on news that David Plouffe, a senior advisor in the White House, had accepted $100 000 from a subsidiary of MTN for two speeches he gave in Nigeria shortly before joining the White House staff in 2010. “Today’s story raises serious questions about [US President] Barack Obama’s senior