Author: Gugu Lourie

The country’s communications watchdog, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), has today officially invited telcos such as Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Telkom, etc, to apply for 4G licenses to provide much-needed broadband services. Applicants will be vying to apply for the radio frequency spectrum licenses within the designated range: the 2.6GHz band and the 800 MHz band and the 700MHz band for the purposes of providing national broadband wireless access services. ICASA issued an invitation to apply for the spectrum on Friday morning. The regulator said the main aim of licensing the spectrum was to ensure nationwide broadband…

Humans are terrible at driving. The US Department of Transport estimates that 94% of crashes are due to the driver. By Toby Walsh We drive too fast. We get distracted. We make poor decisions. If history is anything to go by, more than 1,000 people are likely to die on Australian roads in the next year. Each death is a tragedy for the families and friends of those killed. And it’s also a big drain on our economy. Each fatal accident costs around $2 million. The total cost on our economy from all car accidents is more than $17 billion per…

Standard Bank is on a committed journey of rapid digitization across the continent, offering its customers more convenient ways to interact with their personal banking services. By Staff Writer The latest innovation in this digital transformation journey is the expansion of the existing Standard Bank banking app to four additional African markets simultaneously, namely Uganda, Namibia, Ghana and Botswana with  plans to roll it out to Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe by the end of 2016. The Banking App already enjoys high usage amongst Standard Bank’s South African and Offshore customers. Rapid developments in Standard Bank’s drive to enhance its…

The National Department of Health (NDoH) and Vodacom have successfully deployed a custom-built mobile app in 3126 clinics across South Africa, to monitor drug stock levels and reduce drug stock-outs. By Staff Writer The Stock Visibility Solution (SVS), a mobile platform developed by Vodacom through its long-standing partnership with NDoH, is now used in all urban and rural South African clinics across eight provinces. These clinics now have the fully deployed and functional SVS. “The Department of Health is using the latest technology to improve health care service delivery and patient outcomes in South Africa. The Stock Visibility Solution enables…

Following months of protracted negotiations, MTN and the Communications Workers Union (CWU) have signed a new salary agreement that paves the way for more stability at the workplace. The signing of this agreement comes in the backdrop of a recognition agreement that both parties signed last year. Says Mteto Nyati, MTN SA Chief Executive Officer: “MTN is pleased and satisfied that it has reached an agreement with the CWU on many issues including minimum wage and pay for performance. The signing of this agreement is a clear sign that a strong and stable MTN is in the interest of both…

In a historic move, the #Freedom2Learn campaign which will see a range of affordable ‘Freedom’ smart devices hit South Africa markets, promoting Madiba’s legacy and the spread of education was launched in Soweto on Thursday. By AG Mobile The Nelson Mandela the #Freedom2Learn campaign was launched by AG Mobile, MediaTek and the Nelson Mandela Long Walk to Freedom Education Project. As a proudly South African brand, AG was chosen by the Long Walk to Freedom Education Project to be its exclusive partner to roll out its mobile strategy, to support their vision of “Easy Access to Education via Technology for…

Australia is known to be a nation of drinkers with almost 18% having a drink on a daily basis at a level that is considered risky. By Omar Mubin But the ill-effects of such behaviour extend to binge drinking, impacts on health and well-being, assaults drink driving with resulting car accidents and many others. Various governments and organisations have launched campaigns and policies to combat problem drinking, such as Danny Green’s Coward Punch Campaign and the lock out laws in New South Wales and Queensland. Lock out laws have met with some success in reducing alcohol-related serious injuries in some regions.…

Social media has changed. After 10 years of popular use, the information in our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter profiles is no longer just about the current moment or instant connections. Instead of simply broadcasting our thoughts and actions as they happen, these platforms have become a biographical archive of our lives, storing our photos and recording where we went and who we were with. The result of this archiving is that social media is taking on a new role in the way that we remember. By David Beer Even the most ephemeral social media platform, Snapchat, has now joined in this…

“I need to pee.” “My phone is dying.” They’re such familiar phrases — everyday mini-crises of modern life, and that makes them a perfect match. It’s one made not in heaven but in a British laboratory. And what a beautiful scientific marriage it is, reported Credit.com Using ‘pee power’, scientists have been able to provide three hours of phone calls for every six hours of charge time, all from 600ml of urine, according to Engineering and Technology Magazine. A miniature fuel cell that costs less than £2 (R38.00) and can generate electricity from a single visit to the toilet has recharged…

While the term land grab has negative association, in the telecommunications space it means good news. South Africans pay a lot more than other countries for broadband and the move this week by MTN to slash fibre broadband bodes well for consumers. By Warren Bonheim As fibre networks started rolling out it was inevitable that broadband prices would start bottoming out, as evidenced by MTN’s announcement on Tuesday to slash fibre broadband costs for consumers. Land grab in the context of the telecoms industry is a strategy large networks have of offering last mile fibre with pricing at breakeven levels,…

Technology often needs a “killer app” to gain mass market appeal. For the touch screen, it was the iPhone; for wearables, the Fitbit. Augmented reality games have been around for more than a decade, so what was it about Pokémon GO that allowed it to become a global phenomenon? By Thuong Hoang and Steven Baker We believe it can be attributed to three core social components of the game: the blending of the virtual and the real, geo-location and the success of existing Pokémon culture. Smile for the camera The first time we heard about Pokémon GO was via a few Facebook…

Telecoms provider Broadlink has launched a big last mile fibre access network which will ultimately have national coverage across South Africa. By Staff Writer Broadlink, which is a subsidiary of WBS Holdings, who were recently acquired by Multisource, says that adding fibre solutions was a natural extension of its services, and in response to a growing demand in the business market for fibre-based Internet access. The current shareholders of MultiSource include consortiums led by Phumlani Moholi, former CTO of MTN, and the family interests of Paul Harris and Michael Jordaan, together with management. Broadlink have extended its radio network to include:…

Sales of the BMW i3 in the German home market have increased significantly since the German government decided this spring to offer a $4,400 incentive to buyers of electric cars. Previously, Germany was one of the few countries that lacked any EV incentives at all, reported Gas2 Citing company sources, weekly German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS)  said that orders for the new i3 with a longer range battery, for deliveries from mid-July onwards, had risen “many times over” levels following the introduction of the car’s initial version in 2013, said Reuters. Total orders for the new version had risen…

New York-based Codecademy has secured a $30 million (R431 million) Series C investment led by Naspers through its Naspers Ventures division. By Staff Writer Codecademy’s existing investors, including Union Square Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners, Index Ventures and Sir Richard Branson contributed to the round. The new funds will allow the digital skills education firm to grow its team to accommodate further international growth, extend the capabilities of its innovative platform, build its mobile presence and develop additional course content to even better serve its users. “Since we founded Codecademy in 2011, we have seen an explosion of interest in learning…

Self-driving cars are not some futuristic auto technology; in fact there are already cars with self-driving features on the road such as BMW, Mercedes and Tesla. But Jaguar Land Rover is taking the self-driving cars off-road. By Staff Writer The British carmaker has developed a range of innovative research technologies that allow a future autonomous car to drive itself over any surface or terrain. The carmaker said in a statement that it aims to make the self-driving car viable in the widest range of real life, on and off-road driving environments and weather conditions, ensuring future highly automated and fully…

Vodacom’s YeboYethu BBBEE (Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment) scheme is to move its over-the-counter stock to the JSE’s black economic empowerment (BEE) board. By Staff Writer The company said the YeboYethu shares are likely to be traded on the JSE BEE board from 11 August 2016. The Vodacom YeboYethu empowewrment scheme was established in 2008 and allowed black people to purchase Vodacom SA shares at a discount. YeboYethu does not own nor have any beneficial interests in nor rights to Vodacom Group shares. Since YeboYethu’s incorporation, over 100 000 black people have been able to hold, through investing in YeboYethu shares. YeboYethu…

The financial services industry is awash with disruptive technologies and banks across the world are clamouring to embrace these in order to ensure they remain relevant and competitive. One such disruption is blockchain – a distributed ledger technology that many believe has the potential to change financial services as profoundly as the internet changed media and entertainment. Among the local front-runners who are experimenting with blockchain on a significant scale is Absa, a member of the Barclays Africa. Today it became the first African banking group to join the global R3 blockchain consortium – a financial innovation firm that has…

MTN has reduced the prices of its Supersonic fibre data bundles by 50%, to boost the competitiveness of its propositions and ensure that customers can access its high-speed fibre network cost effectively. Customers who sign up for an MTN Supersonic 24 month contract before 1 October 2016 will not only enjoy a seamless experience from using MTN’s high-speed network, but will also receive free installation, a free router and bonus data bundles that are the equivalent of the bundle option. In addition, they will also be provisioned with twice the amount of night bundle data to utilise between 00h00 and…

German entrepreneur Kim Dotcom is planning to relaunch file-sharing website Megaupload in January 2017, five years after the U.S. government took down the site accusing it of piracy, Reuters reported. Megaupload had boasted of having more than 150 million registered users and 50 million daily visitors. The news agency said Dotcom, who announced his plans in a series of tweets on Friday, said most of the Megaupload users would get their accounts reinstated with premium privileges. Did you miss Megaupload? It’s coming back my friends. Bigger and better than ever.https://t.co/9zhpm0ZuTF — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) July 7, 2016 Reuters said Dotcom also…

When someone types your name into Google, suppose the first link points to a newspaper article about you going bankrupt 15 years ago, or to a YouTube video of you smoking cigarettes 20 years ago, or simply a webpage that includes personal information such as your current home address, your birth date, or your Social Security number. What can you do – besides cry? By Keith W. Ross Unlike those living the United States, Europeans actually have some recourse. The European Union’s “right to be forgotten” (RTBF) law allows EU residents to fill out an online form requesting that a search…

Pick n Pay is launching its next big giveaway campaign that could be even better than the much-loved Stikeez, which had South Africans gripped in a collectors’ frenzy last year. For every R150 spent at any Pick n Pay, you will get a free pack of four collectible Super Animal cards that can be scanned, using Pick n Pay’s free downloadable app, to bring the animal on the card to life. There are 108 cards to collect in nine categories: Fastest, Toughest, Deadliest, Smartest, Fiercest, Weirdest, Sneakiest, Loudest and Showiest. Each card has a barcode that can be read by…

Cell C’s mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) platform, which has enabled company’s such as FNB Connect to connect its customers, announced on Monday that it has has brought in over one million customers. By Gugu Lourie An MVNO is a mobile virtual network operator. It uses the mobile network infrastructure provided by a mobile network operator like Cell C, but offers its own products and services, including billing and fulfilment; on top of that network. Cell C is currently the only mobile network operator in South Africa, who has opened their network to MVNO partner. The Cell C’s platform connects clients of…

The urge to go online the moment they  reach foreign soil sees a high proportion of people connecting to unsecured Wi-Fi networks, putting their personal data at risk, according to a study by Kaspersky Lab. The research, which polled 11,850 people from across the world, found that cybercrime is commonplace when abroad. However, as ever more essential travel information – from maps and hotel confirmations to check-in details and boarding passes – is stored online, international travelers often have no choice but to connect upon arrival. Many will be keen to use Wi-Fi rather than risk incurring roaming charges, despite…

Tammah has launched a Kickstarter campaign for its free online video platform in a bid to compete with other giants. By Gugu Lourie The web-based online video platform wants to focus on independent African content and more. The start-up is planning to launch in October 31, 2016 after it has completed its Kickstarter campaign to raise capital. Tammah will compete directly with big players, who are trying to capture the African market for video services such as YouTube, Facebook, BuniTV, iReportersTV, Comeseesumting, NdaniTV, IrokoTV, ZeraTV, and other platforms like ChannelsTV, SaharaTV, The Africa Channel, Notjustok and Afrinolly. But Tammah would…

BMW navigation system business, ConnectedDrive and real time traffic information to become standard equipment on all BMW models produced in South Africa from this month (July 2016). By Staff Writer The German carmaker said the specifications will strengthen its product offering within the premium segment and deliver more sheer driving pleasure to customers. Navigation System Business The BMW Navigation System Business has a built-in 6,5″ black-panel colour monitor with a high resolution colour display, dynamic route guidance with automatic alternative routes available presented in the cockpit or on the BMW Head-Up Display, 2D map or combined arrow and map display.…