Author: Gugu Lourie
Staff Writer BMW Group SA announced today its first BMW i3 customer, Nicky Oppenheimer, one of South Africa’s leading philanthropists and businessmen. The BMW i3 battery electric vehicle (BEV) offers a range of up to 160 kilometres, while the BMW i3 with the REX offers a range of up to 300 kilometres. The BMW maker handed over the keys of a Solar Orange BMW i3 with a range extender (REX) to Oppenheimer at BMW Group SA’s Head Office in Midrand. Oppenheimer, who describes himself as a technology enthusiast, says the BMW i3‘s originality and technological advancements are what appealed to…
The South African cabinet has ordered the country to proceed into the digital television era with set top boxes (STBs) that have a control mechanism. Details are scanty but yesterday’s announcement signals that the disagreement over the design of STBs has been resolved. The disagreement as to whether the STBs must have a control mechanism or not has delayed South Africa’s process of migrating into digital terrestrial television (DTT) by about three years. Cabinet announced yesterday that it has “approved the Broadcasting Digital Migration Amendment Policy with the inclusion of the control system in the STB, which will be clearly…
By Staff writer UCS Technology Services (UCS TS), which offers the supply, installation and support of solutions to over 1 450 service stations in Southern Africa, announced on Friday it has bought 100% of the shares of Joint Venture Pumps Services (JVPS), effective 1 March 2015. UCS TS is a wholly owned subsidiary Business Connexion, which is being bought by Telkom. “This merger provides us with a unique opportunity to extend the value that we can offer to fuel retailers. We can now deliver an end-to-end service from the fuel tank, through to Head Office,” said Saul Gorin, CEO of…
By Staff writer Saudi Oger Telecom may sell its strategic stake in South Africa’s third-biggest cellular opertaor, Cell C, the chairman of the Middle Eastern firm told Reuters on Thursday in an interview in Dubai. “All options are open. If we get a good price, we will sell,” Hariri said, adding it had been approached by several interested parties but no firm decisions had been made. He declined to name the parties. For us, if we get a proper value, we’d rather not continue. If the termination rates were honoured as original, we would have stayed easily,” Mohammed Hariri, Chairman…
By Staff writer Telkom, which is undergoing a series of interventions to fix the ailing business, is turning to outsourcing to cut fat in the company as part of its turnaround strategy and on Thursday named its partners to take over the running of the non-core assets. They include Barloworld Logistics, Bidvest and WNS. The company has been engaging with organised labour on the outsourcing of various business elements, as announced in February. Telkom revealed on Thursday that it has identified a series of actions to unlock further cost efficiencies and improve customer service, in line with the company’s multi-year…
By Gugu Lourie If you have ever wish that you can have a wallet that you will never lose. Help is on its way. A Kickstarter project called Woolet is planning to create a smart wallet that protects your valuable cash and cards in every situation. Woolet is a next generation wallet that keeps your cash and cards safe. Ultra slim, bluetooth-powered, self-charging and handcrafted to perfection. Woolet acts as your smart wallet sidekick. It looks out for your valuables so you can worry less, and focus on the important things instead. The Kickstarter project was started early in February…
By Gugu Lourie Zazoo, a new division of the JSE and Nasdaq-listed company Net1 UEPS Technologies Inc, has teamed up with UBER, the innovative smartphone technology that connects riders with drivers, in SA. Zazoo’s VCpayTM mobile application enables people who do not own credit cards to create virtual MasterCards that can be used to pay for the UBER service. VCpayTM is a mobile application that utilizes Net1’s patented Mobile Virtual Card (“MVC”) technology, which enables mobile devices to generate virtual MasterCard payment cards completely offline and without access to a mobile phone network. Users can activate VCpayTM by following a…
By Gugu Lourie MTN, Africa and Middle East’s largest mobile operator, overcame stiff competition and sharp decline in the oil price that impacted its large assets to post a 8.9% rise in 2014 full-year headline earnings per share (South Africa’s main profit gauge), boosted by a surge in mobile data growth. The company, which is valued at more than R385 billion, said headline earnings per share rose 8.9% to 1 536 cents per share in the year to end-December 2014. “The group continued to benefit from encouraging growth in non-voice revenue, driven by various data initiatives (including the Mobile Money…
By Gugu Lourie What a festive season quarter has it been for MTN SA’s performance? The second half of the year, which includes the busy festive months, was stronger, pushing MTN’s fourth quarter up 28.1% quarter on quarter. The company, which has been facing stiff competition and regulatory pressure, claims it has finally turn the corner despite revenues dropping by 3.9%. The company said it ‘delivered clear evidence of a turnaround’ in the second half of 2014. As a result, MTN today announced that it has activated 2.7m new customers on its network in the second half of 2014 versus…
By Gugu Lourie MTN announced its 2014 full year earnings today and revealed that smartphones in its network rose by 17.8% to 5.9m in the period. MTN, SA’s second largest mobile phone operator, added that the number of data customers jumped 201% to 17.1m. “To drive long-term sustainable growth across the Group, we will increase data revenue by encouraging uptake through increased smartphone penetration, competitive pricing, bundled services and increased speeds,” the company said on Wednesday. MTN and Vodacom are bringing out their own-branded devices, including tablets and smartphones, as part of their ambitious plans to accelerate Internet uptake in…