The release last week of Research ICT Africa’s report on mobile phone pricing in Africa has provoked a little controversy. The facts are quite damning. SA has some of the highest mobile costs on the continent. This is odd given the country’s comparative wealth and infrastructural advantages. By rights, SA ought to have the cheapest phone
Just days after MWeb announced it was cutting the price of its uncapped digital subscriber line products to R199/month for both 384kbit/s and 1Mbit/s clients, Afrihost has effectively cut its capped broadband pricing and promised uncapped product pricing will soon be cut, too. Afrihost says some capped users will receive double their bandwidth
Former Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) chairman Paris Mashile has been appointed to the board of ComUnity, a local mobile-phone development company, as chairman. Mashile is also a director at state-owned broadcasting signal distributor Sentech and is programme director for digital multimedia management
The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) has hit back at a recent report by Research ICT Africa, which criticised the authority over higher retail and wholesale mobile call rates, saying the report fails to consider various costs that affect SA operators. “SA’s prices are comparatively high; the authority has no
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
Telkom has agreed to cut the cost of IP Connect, the product Internet service providers have to purchase to get access to Telkom’s fixed-line broadband network, by 30% from Sunday, 1 April, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) said on Friday. ISPs have long complained about the high cost of IP Connect, saying it is one of the
The Independent Communications Authority of SA has been lauded by the Internet Service Providers’ Association (Ispa) for its new regulatory framework governing the licence fees for radio frequency spectrum, which comes into force on 1 April. Ispa regulatory affairs director
Craig Wilson’s opinion piece (“How Icasa has failed us”), in which he reflects on Icasa’s decision to refuse TopTV’s application for authorisation to broadcast three additional channels that will carry adult content is so extreme in its attack on Icasa that it warrants a response. The underlying thrust of Wilson’s argument
So, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) has decided to reject TopTV parent company On Demand Media’s request for permission to air three “adult” channels on its satellite pay-TV platform. In doing so, the regulator hasn’t only overstepped the mark in terms of the degree to which it should be able to interfere
MTN SA has told the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) that a second digital migration may be necessary once the move from analogue to digital television broadcasting has been completed because of the fragmentation of the spectrum that will be freed up when analogue signals are turned off
