Author: Gugu Lourie
MTN is ranked first among South Africa’s mobile operators with a median download speed of 51.76 Mbps, followed by Vodacom and Telkom, a report by speed test service Ookla revealed on Tuesday. Ookla, which owns and operates the popular speedtest.net Internet speed testing service, has published its latest Speedtest Global Index rankings for South Africa for the first quarter of 2022, showing that Telkom had the lowest latency at 19 ms. Fastest Mobile Providers Speedtest Intelligence reveals MTN was the fastest mobile operator among top providers in South Africa in Q1 2022 with a median download speed of 51.76 Mbps. Latency Calculating…
FIFA is getting into the streaming service business with a soccer version of Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime. The service is free. The first slate of FIFA+ Originals will feature Ronaldinho, Dani Alves, Ronaldo Nazário, Romelu Lukaku, Lucy Bronze and Carli Lloyd, among others. Launching today, FIFA+ will provide access to live football matches from every corner of the world, interactive games, news, tournament information, ground-breaking, unrivalled video content delivering truly global storytelling around the men’s and women’s game and much more. FIFA is the first sports federation ever to offer such an extensive streaming and content experience to its…
Capitec Bank announced today that funeral plan income soared by 39% to R906 million in 2022 versus R650 million in the previous year. The banking group attributed the rise in funeral plan income to the continued success of the funeral product which increased the number of active policies. As of 28 February 2022, the active book was 1.7 million policies in 2022 financial year compared to 1.2 million policies in 2021. Capitec Bank said the average active funeral book for the current year was about 500 000 policies more than the prior year. “The substantial growth in the average active…
Capitec Bank revealed that its retail clients using digital channels swelled by 17% or 1.9 million new customers to 10.5 million for the year to end-February 2022 versus 8.6 million in 2021. “Active digital users of the banking app, USSD channel, internet banking or a combination of digital channels increased by 17% to 10.1 million, the digital bank informed investors today. Capitec added that clients performed 1.4 billion digital transactions for the year, an increase of 27% versus R800 million in 2021. “We encourage our clients to make use of digital channels to manage their banking costs,” said Capitec. The…
Epic Games announced today a $2 billion or R29 billion round of funding to advance the company’s vision to build a place for kids to play in the metaverse. This round includes investments from existing investor Sony Group Corporation as well as KIRKBI, the family-owned holding and investment company behind The LEGO Group, with each party investing $1 billion or R14.5 billion respectively. “As we reimagine the future of entertainment and play we need partners who share our vision. We have found this in our partnership with Sony and KIRKBI,” said Tim Sweeney, CEO and Founder, Epic Games. “This investment…
MTN announced today it has received a final approval licence to operate its mobile money platform in Nigeria, the continent’s biggest market. MTN said in a statement that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted final approval for MoMo Payment Service Bank Limited (MoMo PSB) to commence operations. MTN said it was pleased to announce that MTN Nigeria, as promoter of MoMo PSB, has received a letter dated 8 April 2022 from the CBN addressed to MoMo PSB conveying approval for it to commence the operations. The company said this follows the approval in principle for MoMo PSB dated…
The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies plans to reinvest R4.4 billion proceeds of the high-demand spectrum into South Africa’s telecommunications, Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said yesterday. Ntshavheni made the pronouncement at the Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Digital Talent Programme Launch and ICT Competition Awards Ceremony in Sandton. The communications and digital technologies minister said the country’s long-overdue high-demand radio frequency spectrum auction had netted the national fiscus R14.4 billion. Ntshavheni said her department negotiated with President Cyril Ramaphosa and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to reinvest R4.4 billion in the telecommunications industry. “The eldership [president and finance minister] believed…
Sigma Connected, which offers ‘white label’ customer contact centre services, will set up a state-of-the-art call centre in Cape Flats, Mitchells Plain. The move will see Sigma become the first Global Business Services (GBS) operation in the Western Cape to provide call centre solutions from Mitchells Plain. The company will create up to 1,000 new jobs in local communities. The call centre will support businesses in the telecommunications, retail, insurance, financial services, government and logistics industries. A total of 320 Digicall staff in Johannesburg and Cape Town will also join Sigma Connected South Africa. As a hugely experienced and South African-owned…
Daniel Mminele, a former Absa CEO, was paid R30 million in other payments in 2021 as part of a separation agreement with the banking group. The banking group said other payments included separation payments, contractual notice payments, and leave payments. Mminele’s total fixed remuneration for 2021 stood at R3 million, which consists of R2.9 million basic salary, R51 466 retirement benefits, and R26 247 in other employee benefits. He stepped down as a director on 20 April 2021 and ceased being an employee on 30 April 2021. “The decision by Absa and former Group Chief Executive, Mminele, to part ways in April…
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday said it was going to file a complaint with the Human Rights Commission against the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) for “a racist attack on the appointment of ABSA’s new CEO, Arrie Rautenbach”. “Last week the PIC suggested that Rautenbach is unsuitable to be the CEO of ABSA, not because he lacks expertise and qualifications, but because he is white,” recounted DA Spokesperson Cilliers Brink. “This statement is racist, and its release an abuse of public power. “The Human Rights Commission complaint is an attempt to call the PIC and its management to account.” Brink said the…