Cell C’s R5bn broadband mobile network will be launched in about three weeks, says its CEO, Lars Reichelt. The third-generation (3G) network, which is capable of theoretical download speeds of up to 21Mbit/s, will be launched in phases across six cities.
Browsing: Vodacom
Catching up with the incumbent mobile operators, Cell C will finally begin selling the BlackBerry and its services in a move that will better position SA’s smallest mobile operator in the business market. Until now, the Blackberry devices and the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) have only been available from MTN and Vodacom.
Just days after Naspers subsidiary MultiChoice launched a streaming television service on Vodacom’s network, the cellular network operator has launched a product of its own. The company at the weekend announced it would offer a video-on-demand service for cellphones, taking aim at MultiChoice and its DStv Mobile offering.
Moments after we finished recording this week’s episode of the TalkCentral podcast, in which we speculated about the likely fate of communications department director-general Mamodupi Mohlala, the news came in that minister Siphiwe Nyanda had fired her. Fortunately — or, perhaps, unfortunately? — we weren’t too far off the mark in our pre-announcement speculation.
Vodacom has lost one of its top executives to Kenya’s Safaricom. The JSE-listed cellular group announced after the markets closed on Thursday evening that its chief officer for corporate affairs, Bob Collymore, was leaving to take over as CEO of Safaricom. Collymore, previously a Vodafone executive, will join Safaricom in September. Both Vodacom and Safaricom have significant shareholding from the UK’s Vodafone. Like Vodacom in SA, Safaricom is Kenya’s largest mobile operator.
Vodacom will make a decision about what to do with its troubled business in the Democratic Republic of Congo by the end of this year, says the group’s CEO Pieter Uys. “The company is still running and there is a board meeting coming up soon,” Uys says. He doesn’t say what will be discussed at the meeting.
Mobile operators are appealing to the department of justice to extend the deadline of the Regulation of Interception and Communication Act (Rica), says Vodacom Group CEO Pieter Uys. The act requires that all telecommunications providers and Internet providers register customer details, including their ID numbers and physical addresses. The process has to be completed by January next year, after which unregistered customers have to be cut off from the networks.
In spite of a solid performance in mobile data, SA’s largest telecommunications operator, Vodacom, has reported flat group revenue growth of 3% in the first quarter of its 2011 financial year. The company released its trading statement for the three months ended 30 June 2010 on Thursday, saying that although international markets are stabilising, weaker African currencies and a strong rand hampered growth.
Want to phone someone on Vodacom? Rather than dialling “082”, you may soon have to dial “882” instead. Draft regulations governing the phone numbering scheme SA uses could mean that every phone number in the country will have to change. The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) has released draft numbering plan regulations that could result in South Africans having to learn a raft of new dialling codes if fully implemented.
The fate of valuable broadband spectrum will be decided on Tuesday when the regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of SA, meets to discuss whether to go ahead with a planned auction. Industry insiders say the auction, for radio frequency spectrum in the 2,6GHz and 3,5GHz bands could be canned. The spectrum is ideal for providing the next generation of wireless broadband services.