Browsing: Vodacom

Vodacom has fired a shot across the bow of new mobile entrant, Telkom’s 8ta, in what could be the beginning of what one analyst calls “price skirmishes” between the operators. A full-blown price war looks less likely, analysts say. Vodacom at the weekend announced a R1,40/minute all-day tariff

An argument over whether SA’s telecommunications regulator has jurisdiction to rule in a dispute between Telkom and Vodacom, MTN and Cell C over interconnection fees, could spell bad news for the traditionally fixed-line operator.

The long-awaited regulations that will determine wholesale call termination rates in SA are ready and will be published next Friday. That’s the word from Icasa spokesman Jubie Matlou, who says he is not in a position to provide details of any planned

Mobile operators may be forced to stop subsidising handsets next year when the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) takes effect in March. The department of trade & industry has been working on the legislation for years and it’s expected to change fundamentally the way business is done in SA.

SA’s telecommunications industry has assembled on the battlefield with two players, one new, Telkom’s mobile business 8ta, and one reinvigorated, Cell C, getting ready to take on the giants of industry. Some smaller players are gathering on the flanks and others may yet make an entrance.

Vodacom expects to boost headline earnings per share by between 30% and 40% in its financial results in the six months to 30 September 2010. Impairment charges related to its acquisition of Gateway, which hit basic earnings a year ago, were not repeated during the half year

Cell C CEO Lars Reichelt has used a full-page advertisement in Sunday’s City Press newspaper to apologise for “confusion I may have caused” with the company’s controversial “4Gs” branding. At the same time, he has revealed that the operator will switch on

Telkom has chosen a youthful engineer to lead its new mobile network, 8ta. Amith Maharaj, just 36 years old, joined Telkom from Vodacom in 2008 to spearhead the traditionally fixed-line operator’s move into the mobile market.

Dial-up still dominates as the fixed-line Internet access medium in SA, despite the fact that broadband digital subscriber lines have been available for nearly a decade. If a new research report from PwC (formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers) is to be believed,

State-owned Sentech is reviving plans to build a national broadband network. It wants a second chance and is promising to do things differently this time. However, as much as Sentech’s heart is in the right place, government must not allow it.