A plan by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) to cut wholesale call termination rates may be delayed until next year, parties close to the process say. The rates, which were supposed to be cut last month as a first step on a two-year glide path down, are the fees the operators charge each other to carry calls onto their networks.

After years of investment in airport upgrades, and even entirely new international airports, Airports Company SA (Acsa) is turning its spending priorities to technology to make its airports more efficient and extend their lifespan. Acsa will spend R165m in the coming year on top of R187m spent last year.

The apparent collapse of pay-TV operator Super 5 Media is unfortunate. It means less chance of the kind of rivalry that fosters innovation and drives down prices. At the top end of the market, however, competition to DStv may come from a less obvious source. Super 5 Media, formerly known as Telkom Media, was cursed almost from the start. When Telkom, under former CEO Reuben September, decided to end its investment, the writing was already on the wall.

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) has received a written assurance from pay-TV licensee Super 5 Media that it is still in operation. “We received a communiqué from Super 5 Media a week before last clarifying its position in relation to recent press reports,” says Icasa spokesman, Paseka Maleka.

The smartphone market is not for sissies. One moment a manufacturer has a killer product; the next thing you know it’s struggling to remain relevant. That’s the case with Nokia, the Finnish handset manufacturer that for years ruled the roost in the smartphone market with devices such as the E90, the E61 and, in our view, its best business phone ever, the E71.

Our panel this week is massive, including special guests Dustin Diaz, Erin Caton and Basheera Khan, who join Brett Haggard, Duncan McLeod, Ivo Vegter, Toby Shapshak and Simon Dingle to discuss the Tech4Africa conference, technology in Africa and the SA start-up scene, how Telkom went wrong, the Mesh Potato project, and much more

As MTN’s outgoing president and CEO Phuthuma Nhleko prepares to present his final interim results set on Thursday, analysts are hoping the group’s board will announce his successor at the same time. At the beginning of March, MTN made the surprise announcement that Nhleko had decided to step down and would leave the group by March next year.

South Africans once regarded Neotel as having the real potential to offer a competitive alternative to Telkom in residential services. But as the company releases an uninspired prepaid retail offering this month, that dream already appears to have faded.

Outgoing Telkom chief financial officer Peter Nelson has offloaded more of the shares he holds in the JSE-listed telecommunications group. Telkom announced late on Friday that Nelson had sold nearly 40 000 shares worth more than R1,3m. He sold the shares last Thursday.

Episode 6 of SA’s business technology podcast, TalkCentral, is now available for download. This week, your hosts Duncan McLeod and Candice Jones reflect on Gareth Knight’s superb Tech4Africa conference. We also talk about Andile Ngcaba’s fibre network roll-out plan, Steve Song and the Mesh Potato project, Justin Spratt’s appointment as managing partner at Quirk eMarketing, the corruption allegations involving department of home affairs officials and Lefatshe Technology, Neotel’s launch of prepaid services