Author: Gugu Lourie

Cell C is adding a R5 WhatsApp bundle to its portfolio of products, giving its customers access to a month’s access to WhatsApp to a fair usage of 1GB. By Staff Writer “For close to a year, Cell C has offered Free WhatsApp to customers and now that the promotion is coming to an end, we really wanted to give customers the best possible value on this service,” says Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos. The bundle will be available to customers from 1 September. For a R5 access fee customers will be able to send pictures, voice messages, videos…

In a move to diversify revenue streams, Massmart has clinched a deal with Apple to transform some of its DionWired shops into Apple White Stores. By Gugu Lourie Retail giant Massmart, which owns Game, Makro and Builders’ Warehouse, on Thursday announced that some of its DionWired stores will become Apple White Stores. “We are excited that nine stores (DionWired) have been selected recently to become Apple White Stores,” Massmart CEO Guy Hawyard, inform investors via the JSE. The retailer, which is owned by US Walmart, said on Thursday that DionWired’s total sales growth was 7.9% and the online offering…

MTN has signed an agreement with Liquid Telecom triggering speculation that the boss of Africa’s largest mobile phone operator Sifiso Dabengwa was finally ready to spend some of the group’s R31 billion cash pile.  Dabengwa has the option of spending a small fraction of it to buy an operator with a much-needed fixed-line network footprint across the region. He could also go for the parent company. By Gugu Lourie Africa’s mobile phone powerhouse, MTN seems ready to tackle the continent’s market’s next frontier – fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), fibre-to-the-business (FTTB) and fibre-to-the-kerb (FTTx). The mobile operator, which is losing market share in…

Having faced nasty bill shocks at month end, or struggled to get out of onerous mobile contracts, many consumers have long since made the switch to prepaid SIM cards. From high-powered executives to cash strapped students, prepaid has proved a popular option for anyone wanting to monitor their phone spend and budget accordingly. And as the cost of voice and data continues to decrease (and equals out for both contract and prepaid customers), more consumers are recognising the inherent benefits that prepaid SIMs present. By Hein Koen, cofounder of Flickswitch. Unsurprisingly, local businesses are also beginning to recognise that…

­ Apple is about to open a new front in the ongoing war against online advertising. The new version of its mobile operating system, iOS 9, will support ad blocking by Safari, its mobile web browser. By David Glance A study by Adobe and pro-advertising company PageFair finds that the popularity of ad blocking extensions in desktop web browsers is responsible for US$22 billion in lost revenue to the websites that host ads. They estimate that there are now 198 million users worldwide actively blocking ads. Amongst 400 users surveyed by the report’s authors, the main reasons cited for using ad…

The latest furore to emerge in the world of Bitcoin concerns a fork. Forking – where two distinct block chains briefly co-exist – may take on two forms: an accidental fork (typically caused by a bug) or, as in this case, a hard fork, when cryptocurrency developers decide that changes must be made to the programming of the coin that will create incompatibilities between the older and newer versions. By Windsor Holden The hard fork that is currently the cause of sound and fury in Bitcoin forums is known as the Bitcoin XT Fork. Essentially, the fork has been created…

Webfluential, the online platform – which already has a cumulative site reach of more than 80-million people across the globe designed to provide influencers on social platforms with a means of quantifying their influence so that they can generate a new revenue stream off the media that they have created – is targeting growth in East and West Africa. By Gugu Lourie Webfluential announced on Wednesday that it is investing in its growth in Africa by introducing an agency partner programme and Cape Town based office. It added that the agency partner programme is in the process of being rolled-out…

Are you frustrated by data that depletes faster? Is your smartphone emptying your wallet and you can’t account for depleted data bundles which you don’t recall using? By MTN Despair no more, the depleting data could be explained by the settings you have on your shiny new handset. LTE compliant handsets Many modern smartphones are configured for heavy data usage and are compliant with new generation networks such as Long Term Evolution, otherwise known as LTE or 4G. This super-fast network is capable of high download speeds and heavy data consumption which ensures that users can seamlessly undertake a…

All shareholders of Welkom Yizani, the black economic empowerment (BEE) shares of Media24, will be receiving a net special dividend of 18c/share for the 2015 financial year to benefit from the listing of Novus Holdings. By Gugu Lourie Welkom Yizani holds 15% stake in Media24, a print media dominated operation within the Naspers stable. The board of Media24 will recommend that a R100 million special dividend be pay to shareholders, including Welkom Yizani, of the media firm at the annual general meeting to be held on Monday. Welkom Yizani investors will receive a dividend of R3 million, resulting in each…

ERP is for most, a daunting and overwhelming consideration – more so for the mid-market or medium sized organisation. By Heath Huxtable, head of consulting and software integration at Vox Telecom The reality is that it is difficult to get right and unless you are dealing with experienced consultants, it is not only a costly undertaking, but brings a layer of complexity that is often grossly under-estimated. The complexity of an ERP deployment and implementation is due largely to the fact that you’re dealing with the entire business operation – sales, procurement, marketing, stock management and everything in between. …