Browsing: Convergence Partners

The governments of Brazil, China, Russia, India and SA have agreed to support a new, R3bn undersea cable that will connect Brazil with SA and Angola, and provide the region with onward connectivity

The launch of the SA-backed US$250m New Dawn satellite has been rescheduled after an aborted first attempt at the end of March. The satellite, which will launch on an Ariane 5 rocket, will take off from a spaceport

The US$250 New Dawn satellite failed to blast off into space last night as scheduled after the launch sequence was shut down automatically. The satellite was meant to be launched last night from French Guiana

Later this year, SA’s telecommunications regulator will hold an auction to sell valuable chunks of radio frequency spectrum that can be used to deliver the next generation of wireless broadband. If done right

Intelsat New Dawn, billed as Africa’s first-ever African-led and private sector-backed communications satellite will blast off into space on 29 March from Arianespace’s launch site

There’s no end to the news flow in SA’s telecommunications industry. The big news this week is the new joint venture between Cell C, Convergence Partners and Dimension Data’s Internet Solutions, FibreCo, which will build a national transmission network at an eventual cost of R5bn.

In a development that could change the dynamics of SA’s telecommunications industry, mobile operator Cell C, Dimension Data division Internet Solutions and Andile Ngcaba’s Convergence Partners have teamed up to build a R5bn, 12 000km national fibre-optic network.

With more than half a dozen SA operators rolling out their own national networks, consolidation in SA’s telecommunications industry looks inevitable. There’s a chance Cell C and Dimension Data could be the ones to kick it off. Didata division Internet Solutions looks a bit like the odd man out these days. The converged service provider, which remains a powerful force in the corporate market, is the only big player in its space that doesn’t have its own significant investment in telecoms infrastructure.