Browsing: Sentech

Questions have been raised about the SA telecommunications and IT regulator’s complicity in allowing Global Web Intact (GWI) and Screamer to lease spectrum, apparently illegally, from Sentech. This follows the leaking of internal Sentech

TechCentral on Tuesday reported how Sentech has to spend millions of rand fixing its famous Johannesburg broadcasting tower, which has fallen into a state of disrepair, with concrete flaking off the structure. The iconic tower has a rich history.

One of Johannesburg’s iconic landmarks, the Sentech broadcasting tower near Auckland Park, is literally falling apart. Bits of concrete are flaking off the 237m-tall structure. The tower is in a state of disrepair

Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda says a task team appointed by him in July 2009 had identified “anomalies” and an “illegal operational model” at state-owned Sentech. Though he doesn’t state it explicity, Nyanda is clearly referring to Sentech’s controversial 2007 spectrum deal with Global Web Intact (GWI).

In between another crazy news week and TechCentral deputy editor Candice Jones winging her way off to the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, we’ve managed to squeeze in another episode of TalkCentral, TechCentral’s weekly business technology podcast.

The team this week includes Duncan Mcleod, Jon Tullett and Simon Dingle who gathered a day earlier than usual to record. They discuss Telkom Mobile and the launch of 8ta, Windows Phone 7, Xbox Live, Kindle, Stuxnet, Google TV, Sentech’s broadband plans, and much more

Sentech’s contract that allowed Screamer Telecoms, a wireless Internet access provider, to use the state-owned company’s spectrum to provide WiMax services would not have been unlawful under new draft regulations proposed by the telecommunications regulator.

Altech UEC, a Durban-based manufacturer of digital decoders and set-top boxes, has filed papers in the Pietermaritzburg high court against state-owned broadcast signal distributor Sentech. Sentech has been given until next Thursday

The cash-strapped state-owned signal distributor, Sentech, appears to have cut an illegal deal to sell wireless broadband spectrum that benefited politically connected businessmen, led by Eddie Funde, the controversial former chairman of the SABC who is now South Africa’s ambassador to Germany.

Screamer Telecoms was still using Sentech’s radio frequency spectrum as recently as October 2009, internal Sentech documents leaked to TechCentral have revealed. This is despite the state-owned company cancelling the agreement with Screamer