New call rates between cellphone networks aimed at stimulating competition resulted from a “half-baked experiment”, the high court in Johannesburg heard on Tuesday. Frank Snyckers SC, for Vodacom, argued that communications regulator Icasa’s 2014 regulations for call rates, set to be introduced next month, should have taken into account the structural

President Jacob Zuma has signed a proclamation ordering the Special Investing Unit to investigate the perennially troubled Universal Service & Access Agency of South Africa (Usaasa), his office said on Tuesday evening. Zuma wants a probe of allegations “in respect of affairs” of the agency, which collects revenue from licensed telecoms

Susan started her new job as a junior attorney at a prestigious law firm today. She was given a company tablet, running Windows 8, to ensure she can work from anywhere. Susan has never worked with Windows 8 before. At university, she would often start an assignment on her personal MacBook, which she didn’t like carrying around

Cellphone network operators MTN and Vodacom took their fight against the introduction of new call termination rates to the high court in Johannesburg on Tuesday. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has conceded there are problems with its proposed model for mobile termination rates. These are the

Naspers-owned comparison shopping site PriceCheck has inked a deal with MTN that will see the release of a co-branded version of the site’s mobile application in South Africa. The two companies claim the deal is the country’s first between a mobile operator and an e-commerce company. The co-branded app will feature

Text messaging may be dying out as a means of communication in many parts of the advanced world, but it may yet prove to be a vital life-saver in flood-prone African villages. An early-warning system that aims to capitalise on the explosive growth of mobile phone

Ethiopia is using foreign technology to spy on citizens suspected of being critical of the government, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on Tuesday. The report accused the government of using Chinese and European technology to survey phone calls

Day 15 of Oscar Pistorius’s murder trial began with a technical explanation of how a police cellphone analyst downloaded data from the paralympic athlete’s cellphone. Captain Francois Moller explained in the high court in Pretoria on Tuesday how he

Tony Howard has been appointed as Independent Newspapers’ deputy executive chairman, the company said on Tuesday. The position of group CEO would fall away immediately as a result of Howard’s appointment, executive chairman Iqbal Survé said in a statement. Howard was the

On the eve of an historic court battle between Icasa and mobile operators MTN and Vodacom, the communications regulator has revealed in papers filed at the high court in Johannesburg that it intends reconsidering its proposed cuts to call termination rates. In an answering affidavit submitted to the high court, Icasa says it has