Privacy concerns may have delayed StreetView launch

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The launch of Google’s popular StreetView service in SA, meant to take place last month, was delayed due to what Google has described as the technical complexity of the project. But TechCentral understands from separate sources that the launch was put off by several weeks because, as in other countries, its StreetView vehicles had collected private details about Wi-Fi hotspots, triggering privacy concerns

Icasa to get teeth over telecoms tariffs

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The country’s telecommunications operators will soon have something new to worry about. Government is formulating legislation that will give industry regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), much bigger teeth to tackle the operators over their tariffs

McLeod, Dingle named ICT journalists of the year

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TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod and Finweek technology editor Simon Dingle have been named joint ICT journalists of the year at the inaugural Telkom Classic Business Journalist of the Year Awards. The awards, the ceremony for which was held at Summer Place in Sandton on Thursday, was organised to recognise excellence in

Beware the hammer

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SA is about to auction off a chunk of radio frequency spectrum that can be used to provide wireless broadband services. Let’s hope our operators don’t do what their European counterparts did a decade ago with 3G spectrum. It’s known as the great telecommunications crash of 2001. Mobile operators in the UK and Germany bid ridiculous amounts — cumulatively, hundreds of billions of rand

Icasa gets four new councillors

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Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda has named four new councillors to the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa). They are Ntombizodwa…

Skyrove to take on mobile incumbents

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Skyrove, a specialist wireless hotspot company, plans to launch an audacious bid for national radio frequency spectrum and, if it gets it, it plans to build a network to take on the country’s incumbent mobile operators. The company, run by CEO Henk Kleynhans, plans to participate in an auction for national radio frequency in the 2,6GHz ba