MTN’s Turkish rival, Turkcell, which is suing the Johannesburg-based cellphone giant for US$4,2bn, is embroiled in a bitter internal battle as shareholders square up for control of the company. Turkcell, listed in New York and Istanbul, has a market capitalisation of $11bn. In court papers filed in the US recently, Turkcell accused

Most companies preparing for a huge stockmarket flotation would try to keep a low profile. Not Facebook. On 9 April, the giant social network stunned the business world by announcing it was buying Instagram, a photo-sharing social network, for US$1bn in cash and stock. This surprising combination, swiftly dubbed “Facestagram”, has

The battle for the soul of the SABC ahead of the ANC’s elective conference in Mangaung has plunged the public broadcaster into yet another crisis over control of its editorial content. After SABC news chief Phil Molefe was this week placed on special leave after refusing to give CEO Lulama Mokhobo a copy of the daily news diary so she could monitor the

Gauteng’s e-toll registration outlets were empty on Thursday with virtually no one registering for e-tags, despite the looming 30 April deadline, when the tolls go live. The bright orange e-toll registration outlets, operated by the SA National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral), are in shopping malls and alongside highways across Gauteng for

A new research study has found that SA has some of the least affordable prepaid mobile tariffs on the continent and is falling behind many of its neighbours because of high wholesale call rates between operators. The findings are contained in a Research ICT Africa policy brief, with research conducted over the past year

Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia on Thursday released its Asha range of handsets in the SA market at fairly aggressive price points. The feature phones — which arguably could be described as entry-level smartphones — could help Nokia regain some of the market share it has lost to entry-level Android

SA will switch on digital terrestrial television services “around” September, starting a period of “dual illumination” of both analogue and digital signals, communications minister Dina Pule said in a statement on Thursday. Pule said Sentech, the state-owned company charged with deploying the broadcasting

MTN has again gone on the attack, accusing rival Turkcell of making “ludicrous” allegations that the SA-based operator influenced SA foreign policy on Iran in order to win an operating licence in the Middle Eastern country. In a statement, MTN Group CEO Sifiso Dabengwa says MTN “did not cause

For many people, satellites are synonymous with television broadcasting. But they’re also gaining popularity as a means of delivering broadband. For emerging markets, like those in Africa, where terrestrial broadband solutions could take years to become ubiquitous, satellite is the only viable option. Ibrahima Guimba-Saidou, GM for Africa

The 14 000km West African Cable System (Wacs), the first new sub-sea telecommunications cable along Africa’s west coast since Sat-3 was launched 11 years ago, will be launched officially in about a month’s time. Angus Hay, co-chair of the Wacs management committee and chief technology officer at Neotel, says