Last week, Vodafone, the world’s second largest mobile operator, made startling revelations about secret wiretaps that allow government agencies to listen into and record live telephone conversations. These revelations come a year after American whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the extent of US and UK
Welcome to the 100th episode of TalkCentral. Join Duncan McLeod and Regardt van der Berg for this landmark edition of TechCentral’s long-running podcast. In the show this week, Duncan and Regardt chat about the startling revelations from Vodafone this week about the ability of governments in many
South African telecommunications operators will only act on a request for lawful interception of communication across their networks once a court has instructed it. The companies have moved to reassure their clients in this regard following startling revelations on Friday morning by Vodafone that secret
Vodacom in South Africa has sought to play down startling revelations on Friday that its parent, Vodafone, has secret wiretaps that allow government agencies to listen into and record live telephone conversations, a practice that is reportedly commonplace in many of the 29 countries in which the group
Vodacom has become the latest operator to debut a low-cost, own-branded smartphone aimed at getting more South Africans connected to the Internet. Following the launch early this year by MTN of the Steppa smartphone, which costs R499 – read TechCentral’s review of it – Vodacom has announced it will also begin selling a
There appears to be no stopping the rise in Telkom’s share price. The counter added nearly 5% on Thursday, to close near the R40 mark. It’s now flirting with levels last seen in 2010, after it offloaded its 50% stake in Vodacom to Vodafone and to shareholders. The share closed at R39,70, up by 4,1%, after having touched
Mobile money system M-Pesa, a service that originated in Kenya through Safaricom, in which Vodafone has a 40% stake, is making its way to Europe for the first time. The service is be introduced in Romania, reportedly the first time a mainstream mobile money service has made
Tata Communications’ plan to sell its stake in its South African subsidiary Neotel to Vodacom is being held up as communications regulator Icasa mulls whether or not to allow the transfer of radio frequency spectrum to the mobile operator. That’s according a report in The Economic Times on Monday. The Indian newspaper, quoting
Vodacom intends tabling an offer of US$460m (about R5bn) to buy Neotel, according to a report published in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. The newspaper, quoting an unnamed executive at India’s Tata Communications, Neotel’s holding company, said that Vodacom, which is a subsidiary of the UK’s Vodafone, will also take on Neotel’s
Text messaging may be dying out as a means of communication in many parts of the advanced world, but it may yet prove to be a vital life-saver in flood-prone African villages. An early-warning system that aims to capitalise on the explosive growth of mobile phone
