Author: Gugu Lourie

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s capital market participants, such as brokers, traders, market data providers and the carriers can finally enjoy high speed connectivity after Dark Fibre installed direct fibre links to Teraco’s data centre in Sando, Johannesburg. By Gugu Lourie. The route, which spans 32 km, enables the Teraco community to provide capital market participants with solutions for high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity. In real terms, this link offers a sub-500 microsecond round trip and is a virtual extension of the JSE’s ‘meet me room’ into Teraco. Jan Hnizdo, chief financial officer, Teraco, says that the new route is significant for all…

The country’s communications watchdog, Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA), is getting ready to auction the country’s much-needed spectrum for broadband deployment. Icasa is favouring auction process used by Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and the Czech Republic. The process is likely to be a messy affair as every operator is keen on putting their hands on this scarce national resource.  By Gugu Lourie. Icasa on Monday issued an Information Memorandum that provides guidance to prospective applicants regarding the process and criteria to be applied by the Authority in the licensing of the much-needed spectrum. Applicants will be vying…

IT spending in South Africa is forecast to reach $26.6 billion in 2016, an increase of 5.1 percent from 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. While the IT market is on pace to pick up in 2016, 2015 is proving to be a difficult year for many market segments in South Africa. By Staff Writer  “South Africa has suffered currency effects, as did many developing markets this year,” said Will Hahn, principal research analyst at Gartner. “There were also impacts on communications service providers (the largest IT market segment in terms of spending), as they faced regulations that imposed decreased…

WD, a Western Digital company and leader in hard drives, has announced the expansion of its  WD Black line of performance hard drives up to 6 TB capacity. The 3.5-inch, 7200 RPM drive is the perfect solution for gamers and professionals in need of high-performance desktop systems and workstations. By Staff Writer WD Black hard drives combine 7200 Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) spin speed, 128 MB cache, dual stage actuator technology, SATA 6 Gigabits per second (Gb/s) interface, and an integrated dual processor to deliver ultimate performance in a maximum-capacity drive. The WD Black 6 TB is up to 29% faster…

Vodacom Business Africa enjoys good traction on adoption of cloud and hosting services in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and most populous country. By Gugu Lourie They say the early bird catches the worm – this is true of Vodacom, which is ripping the benefits of moving early into Nigeria, where it is providing much needed services. The South African-based enterprise arm of Vodacom, a cellphone operator owned by British mobile giant Vodafone, was the first telco to launch cloud and hosting services in West Africa from a certified TierIII approved data centre. In 2013, Vodacom Business partnered with Jagal Group…

Vodacom, South Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator, has launched a new ad and this time is using soccer legends Lucas Radebe, Mark Fish, Edward “Magents” Motale, Eric Tinkler and Cyril Nzama to introduce the “Game Changers” ad. By Gugu Lourie This ad, which also features ex-Isidingo actor Leslie Fong, is a follow-up to “Change The Game” ad that featured seasoned performer and comedian Tumi Morake. Watch the new Vodacom #GameChangers #TrevorTT advert below: Email TechFinancials.co.za at [email protected]

Two American firms – Apple and Massmart – are teaming-up to conquer the smart device market in South Africa, which is presently dominated by three top brands: Nokia, Samsung and Blackberry. By Gugu Lourie Although Nokia and BlackBerry’s share of the global mobile market is diminishing, these brands remain popular in South Africa. This was also confirmed in the Mobile Africa 2015 study conducted recently by GeoPoll and World Wide Worx, which surveyed 3 500 mobile phone users in five of Africa’s major markets, namely South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda. According to the study, 36% of participants…

Total South Africa has ramped up its convenience service offering to include free Wi-Fi at its services stations. By Staff Writer All Total service stations with a branded food offering are now equipped with the free Wi Fi service offering! Pulling up at a Total service station to fill up with fuel, have a quick car wash, or grab a snack, Total customers can now conveniently check email messages even find directions to the next stop by accessing its free Wi-Fi service. In partnership with Telkom, Total has expanded its customer experience and now offers its customers 30mins…

Sipho Maseko, Telkom’s boss, appears to be stepping up the tempo as competition intensifies in the telecoms space. By Gugu Lourie Telkom – South Africa’s biggest fixed-line telephone group valued at R33 billion – is reinventing itself as a competitive entity as part of its turnaround strategy. Telkom CEO Maseko and his team have so far done a sterling job to deal with internal challenges that were negatively impacting on the performance of the telco. However, Telkom, which is pursuing its turnaround strategy, has done little work in attending to external challenges that are hampering the business from growing. This is…

Naspers, South Africa’s media and ecommerce group, has rejigged management to help position the company ahead of competition for video entertainment in South Africa and other markets. By Staff Writer The firm, which is valued at more than R699 billion, said on Friday it has promoted Imtiaz Patel to the CEO of Video Entertainment. He is replacing Jim Volkwyn, who will remain a director of MultiChopice. The company didn’t specify when will Patel assume his new role. He is currently the CEO of MultiChoice South Africa. Naspers said a search for a new Group CEO for the MultiChoice South Africa…