Vodacom has bought set-top boxes from Altech’s Durban-based UEC subsidiary that are capable of delivering both fixed-line and wireless Internet protocol television (IPTV) services to consumers, apparently as part of an internal trial. Though Vodacom confirms it has bought two decoders for testing, company spokesman Nomsa Thusi says

First National Bank has launched its first hi-tech “dotFNB” store in Johannesburg. The outlet is meant to introduce customers to FNB’s various digital channels and show off technologies like an “interactive surface” that supports both touch interaction and augmented reality and allows customers to interact with the bank and its products and

Vodacom stands accused of using political and diplomatic pressure in its battle with a fixer who recently won a case against it in a Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) court, which ordered the company to pay him US$21m. A lawyer representing Moto Mabanga, the SA-based fixer, has

MTN, the R255bn Johannesburg-listed cellphone giant, is in danger of being whacked with sanctions by the US for its telecommunication activities in Iran and Syria. US President Barack Obama issued an executive order this week that allows American authorities for the first time to impose sanctions on individuals or entities found to have

There is a certain Darwinian poetry in the fact that Cable & Wireless Worldwide, a remnant of a once mighty telecommunications empire based on telegraph wires and established in the 1850s, looks set to be eaten up by Vodafone, a contemporary telecoms industry giant born only in 1985. Even as late as 1999, C&W (CWW’s predecessor

Last week’s national policy colloquium, organised by the department of communications, drew a degree of cynicism from the telecoms industry. The view among many industry players is that it’s the same old rhetoric with no action. Will this time be different? The industry can be forgiven for suffering from “colloquium fatigue”. Politicians

A pilot project to replace identity documents with smart cards will start in about six months, home affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Wednesday. Dlamini-Zuma, who showed off her own smart card to journalists ahead of her budget speech in parliament, said the cards would go a long way towards stamping out corruption in the home affairs

E-tolling in Gauteng is the only viable way to pay for the R20bn spent on improving the province’s freeways, deputy transport minister Jeremy Cronin said on Wednesday. “If we could rewind the clock back to 2007, we would not be embarking on this project [Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project] at all. We have

Puleng Sejanamane has been appointed CEO of the state-owned Broadband Infraco by public enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba. “This is one of the final building blocks being put into place to re-establish the leadership team at Infraco, under the guidance of a revitalised and re-energised board,” Gigaba’s department

Following Telkom’s 30% reduction in the fees it charges Internet service providers to access its broadband digital subscriber line (DSL) access network earlier this month, Dimension Data division Internet Solutions has announced a range of changes to its product portfolio in what amounts to an effective reduction in bandwidth costs for