Author: Contributor
By Staff Writer Vodacom announced on Wednesday that it has extended its Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) network through signing new lease agreements with third-party network infrastructure providers Link Africa, Octotel, Frogfoot and Waterfall Access Network (WAN). The Vodafone-owned telco said its customers will now have access to its Fibre services through these providers, including Vodacom Fibre Broadband, Vodacom Fibre Fixed Voice and Value-Added Services. “Vodacom continues to seek opportunities to enter into strategic agreements to sell our services through other network infrastructure providers,” Zunaid Mahomed, Group Digital and Fixed Services Officer at Vodacom says. The South African biggest mobile phone operator has…
By News Agency Staff The Internet for All initiative will look at how South Africans can access the internet with affordable data prices, says Telecommunication and Postal Services Deputy Director General Tinyoko Ngobeni. Addressing the Internet for All initiative in Soweto on Tuesday, Ngobeni said government was concerned about the high data prices. “We will also be looking at the availability of smart devices, whilst we also still need to upgrade the infrastructure from 2G to 3G as well as LTE,” Ngobeni said. The South African government, the World Economic Forum (WEF), the private sector and civil society have partnered…
By Staff Writer Nokia today announced the availability of connected consumer health products in the market. The launch completes the transition of products from the Withings brand. Nokia trackers, scales, vital health devices and home products will now be available in-store health.nokia.com and online through top retailers worldwide including Best Buy, Amazon.com, and Bed, Bath & Beyond; coming soon to retailers including CVS, Target, Babies”R” Us and Apple. The Nokia Body: BMI Wi-Fi connected scale makes weight management easy and affordable Nokia Body offers smart weight management for the entire family and provides high accuracy measurements via Position Control…
By Staff Writer JSE and Nasdaq-listed tech firm Datatec announced on Tuesday that its subsidiary Logicalis and its Indonesian partner Metrodata have agreed to buy a majority stake in Packet Systems Indonesia, an ICT systems integrator and service company. The tech firm said in a statement that Logicalis will buy 54% shareholding of Packet Systems Indonesia and Metrodata to acquire a 14% stake. The remaining 32% interest will continue to be held by Packet Systems Indonesia’s management shareholders. Logicalis will pay R88.1 million ($6.8 million) in cash to buy the stake and will be funded from its existing bank facilities.…
By Brett Parker, managing director: SAP Africa With the impending impact of machine learning and robotics on a range of traditional job roles and occupations, and Africa’s on-going digital skills shortage, the matter of skills development is again taking centre stage during Youth Month. Africa’s youth have a great opportunity to shape and influence the digital economy across the continent. With the digital skills shortage weighing heavily on the minds of African business leaders, it is critical that we jointly develop solutions to build the skills capacity that will drive Africa’s economy in the coming years. With so many traditional…
By Kantar Millward Brown Kantar Millward Brown’s Best Liked Ads list celebrates South Africa’s favourite TV commercials. These are the ads that have been rated as the best liked by the South African audience whom we believe to be the most important critic – the person who ultimately chooses to buy your brand or not. Samsung In number one spot is the Samsung ad, Sister. The ad tells a universal story that can connect with viewers from around the world. Instead of leaning into technical jargon to highlight the phone’s innovations, the team from Leo Burnett in Chicago focused on a central narrative…
By Steve Tzikakis, SAP president EMEA South 25 years ago, I went to work for the first time with a hand-held device in my hand: a Casio calculator. I thought I was the man. Today, the new generation of workers turning up for their first day often have a better grasp of technology than senior management. That scares some companies. Me, not so much. I’m excited – because I believe there’s a huge opportunity waiting for companies that start viewing their enterprise technology the way millennials do. Most companies I talk to today either have a strong technology stack, or…
By Staff Writer Huawei is recording impressive sales in South Africa for its flagship P-series devices. The first month of sales of the P10 and P10 Plus have seen a 68% increase as compared to that of the P9. The devices seem to be most popular in Gauteng, with more units sold in this province. In contrast to the latest figures released by the International Data Corporation (IDC) that indicate a 13.6% decline in smartphone shipments in South Africa for Q1 2017, Huawei has recorded an improvement in the sales of its flagship P-series devices. “We have seen four times…
By Staff Writer South Africa’s 35 million plus mobile consumers are set to benefit from a next generation SMS (Short Message Service) service which can replace the two-decade-old USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Data Service) and zero-rate it to boot. Archer Digital’s SMS+ is already in commercial use by one of South Africa’s big four banks and is currently being trialled by a leading multimedia company. “SMS+ has the potential to completely replace USSD. This means over 35 million people needn’t pay 20 cents per 20 seconds to interact with old-style USSD menus. That’s an incredible saving to local consumers who now…
By Reshaad Sha, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Director at DFA For those who are into science fiction, the term ‘machine learning’ immediately conjures up images of computers taking over the world, either to send murderous terminators from the future to our present or to place us all inside the Matrix as living power batteries. Fortunately, the truth about machine learning is not only far more prosaic, but also much more promising for the future of the human race. Basically, machine learning uses algorithms that iteratively learn from data, meaning that it enables computers to find hidden insights without being…