Author: Gugu Lourie

There is no more MTN VU or FrontRow. MTN, South Africa’s second biggest mobile phone operator, is shutting down its video on demand (VOD) service, MTN VU signalling a failure to retain and entice customers. VU, previously known as MTN FrontRow, is VoD service that offers TV series, music and movies to stream through your smart devices. On 1 December 2015, MTN FrontRow was rebranded into VU and pronounced “View You”. MTN VU was launched in December 2014. The platform also slashed prices to retain and entice new customers. Data consumed while streaming VU was also zero-rated on the MTN…

SqwidNet, a subsidiary of Dark Fibre Africa and a licensed Sigfox operator, is making inroads with the deployment of its Internet of Things (IoT) network and now provides coverage into eight South African metropolitan areas.Since its launch in November 2016, SqwidNet has successfully deployed its ultra-narrowband IoT radio network in eight metropolitan areas, namely Buffalo City, Nelson Mandela Bay, eThekwini, Mangaung, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, the City of Johannesburg, and the City of Cape Town.This represents around 38% of the South African population today, and the network will grow to cover over 85% of the South African population within the next year.The…

Fast-growing innovator in Internet of Things technology, South African based IoT.nxt, will open its first fully-fledged office in Europe in The Netherlands in July this year. This follows its associate office established in London in January this year and now firmly starts the company’s global expansion.  “The Netherlands has a strong technology focus and was the logical choice,” says Dr Joe Bester, IoT.nxt Marketing Director, who will lead the Dutch office. Techchrunch.com reported in 2015 that the early strengths of the Netherlands’ budding startup scene — software, space, smart energy, financial tech, digital health, sharing technology and 3D printing, among…

The internet is experiencing explosive growth. It is also ever more apparent that it is impacting and changing not only the way information is transmitted and consumed, but also transforming a lot of activities such as banking, health, transportation, education and entertainment. In South Africa, you can see the phenomenal surge and the impact of the internet on the growth of a number of industries such as online radio, digital publishers, online recruiters, app developers, etc. #DataMustFall Despite this growth, in a country like South Africa, at present, the Internet remains an elitist medium. The masses are prevented from enjoying…

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales takes an aim at getting rid of fake news though a launch of an evidence-based media platform. The Wikitribune news platform will bring journalists and a community of volunteers together. The thinking behind Wikitribune is to ensure that you read a fact-based articles that have a real impact on both local and global events. And that story can be easily verified and improved. It will be 100% ad-free. The company says the platform will also not have one’s relying on clicks to appease advertisers; no one’s got a vested interest in anything other than giving you…

MTN, South Africa’s second biggest mobile phone operator, is temporarily shaking its contract plans with a promotion to be known as Twice Your Value. The promotion went live last week Friday and will be valid until 31 May 2017. The new promotion gives MTN customers more data, and doubles the value of their voice and SMS services. New contract customers or those who upgrade their plans on selected packages will also qualify to receive double of their voice, data and SMS value. MTN said in a statement that qualifying customers will receive this 100% value back every month for three…

The number of new startups and big corporates keen on building a flying car has exploded in the past few years. Big and small companies including Airbus, Uber, Cormorant, Kitty Hawk are vying to deliver a safe flying car. The battle for flying cars is on. In October Uber unveiled Uber Elevate, an ambitious program to get cars—or at least Ubers—off the road and into the sky, according to Time.com.  Airbus Group plans to test a prototype for a self-piloted flying car as a way of avoiding gridlock on city roads by the end of the year, according to Reuters.…

Since 2010, predictions for growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) have been staggering, and one thing has become clear: IoT is growing worldwide. However, the true value in IoT is not in the devices, says Sean Laval, Technical Head of IoT at Comsol Networks. “The network, devices, and all of the pieces are there to allow organisations to gain value out of the data the IoT generates. The ‘how’ of IoT is therefore just as important as the ‘what’ of IoT — the data.” He points out that all of the data in the world is useless if it can’t be…

MTN SA, in partnership with Huawei, successfully trialed Africa’s first LTE Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) network at a test site in Pretoria. LTE LAA is an evolution of the LTE-Unlicensed mobile technology, which enables LTE to utilise unlicensed spectrum to significantly enhance network capacity. MTN SA said in a statement that the pilot of the LTE LAA mobile technology demonstrates MTN’s ongoing commitment to overhaul customer experience by improving the quality of its network. The LTE LAA trial was completed by aggregating 15MHz of MTN’s licensed 2100MHz spectrum with 40MHz of spectrum located within the unlicensed 5GHz band. This achieved…

FastMobile, a George based startup has quietly launched online a new smartphone with an aim to bring the benefits of affordable smartphone telephony to the African masses. The South African start-up plans to become the brand of choice for the discerning mobile consumer in a continent which has one of the fastest growth rates in mobile device consumption. FastMobile intends to provide high-end features, value-for-money products at the most cost-effective prices. It also aims to deliver outstanding values, continuous innovation, and an exceptional user experience to its customers. Furthermore, the economic downturn has caused the smartphone market to enter recession…