If there’s one group of local companies that doesn’t need help, it’s our telecommunications providers. For decades, this cosy oligopoly has reaped the enormous benefits of rapidly growing new markets, from cellular telephony to data. And yet now they are whining about unfair
South Africa’s largest mobile operator, Vodacom, has told public hearings on competition in South Africa’s technology sector that operators are being “disintermediated” by over-the-top (OTT) providers like WhatsApp. The company was presenting its views to a panel of Icasa councillors and
Telkom has become the second big operator in as many weeks to call on over-the-top (OTT) service providers to contribute a fair share for their use of South Africa’s telecommunications infrastructure. OTT players include
Should South Africa’s mobile operators extend their offerings beyond telecommunications and into a broad range of value-added services such as financial services, media and e-commerce, or should they be low-margin “dumb pipes” over
MTN is not prepared to spend billions of dollars building advanced telecommunications networks just so that “over the top” (OTT) providers can get a “free ride” by competing with the company using that same costly infrastructure. There
Mobile operator Cell C has announced that it will offer free access to WhatsApp, the popular instant-messaging service, to its contract customers as well as some prepaid clients on a promotional basis. Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos describes the move as being part of a need by mobile
A Japanese messaging app called Line has filed for an initial public offering valued at nearly US$10bn. For an app almost unknown outside Japan it’s an audacious move. However, messaging is there simply to suck you into Line’s mobile world, where the real profits are made. Unlike its rivals, it is already
Samsung Electronics has the coolest computer brand and the coolest hi-tech gadget, while repeat winner Vodacom is South Africa’s coolest mobile operator. These are some of the findings of the 2014 Sunday Times Generation Next survey, which polled a sample group of 5 500 South African youngsters
A lot of people think Gareth Cliff is an idiot. I’m not talking about his usual detractors — mother grundies and religious nuts. I’m talking about many of his 2m fans, the listeners of the breakfast show he used to host on 5FM. Why on earth would he leave such a job to start an Internet radio station? Their argument makes sense, at least
MTN plans to spend US$3bn (about R31bn) on its network in Nigeria over the next three years to improve quality of service. The company has previously had quality problems with its network in the West African country. According to website BDlive, the Nigerian Communications Commission banned MTN and two other mobile operators
