Author: Gugu Lourie

Vodacom on Monday disclosed how much it paid to buy Altech Autopage Cellular customers from JSE-listed firm Altron Group. By Gugu Lourie South Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator informed investors on the JSE on Monday that it paid R717 million to acquire Autopage subscribers. Effective 16 March 2016, Vodacom bought its Altech Autopage mobile customer base from Autopage for a consideration of R717 million. “Of this total consideration, R144 million represents deferred consideration which was outstanding as at 31 March 2016. The fair value of the net identifiable assets acquired amounted to R349 million. The goodwill of R368 million represents…

Vodacom, South Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator, on Monday posted a 5.2% rise in revenue to R62 billion for the year to end-March 2016 and also added 2.1 million new customers on its network. By Gugu Lourie The company’s total customers rose to 34.2 million, reflecting a 6.4% rise compared to the same period in 2014. Vodacom, which is majority owned by British giant Vodafone, said prepaid customers rose 7.6% to 29.3 million while contract subscribers were flat at 4.9 million users. The telco added that its data revenue was up 27.7% to R17.3 billion, driven by improved access to more…

There are plenty of smartphone apps that can help map your movements as you are driving, cycling, running or just out for a good walk. Many of these apps encourage you to share your route publicly on websites or with friends on social media. By Farhad Farokhi Some people even go to extreme lengths to pre-plan their routes to produce maps with entertaining shapes. What many people don’t realise is that by using such apps, you could be giving away information that could be abused by others. For example, in the UK last year, police in Hull revealed how a spate…

The Deputy Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services Hlengiwe Mkhize and the Vice Minister of Cyber Space Administration of the People’s Republic of China Wang Xiujun concluded a successful South Africa – China Internet Roundtable in Durban, eThekwini. Delegates included representatives of government departments, State-Owned Companies, the private sector, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Small, Micro and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMMEs), industry associations, advisory bodies and other government agencies. The roundtable took the form of a series of public meetings between the delegations wherein they explored possible areas of cooperation and partnerships. Opportunities to incubate ICT SMMEs were also explored. The…

A recent New York Times article highlighted the growing integration of technologies and textiles, displaying a photograph of a delicate golden nest of optical fiber. The article reported that this new “functional fabric” has the added quality that it “acts as an optical bar code to identify who is wearing it.” By Daniel N. Rockmore Is this a feature or a bug? This smart material would certainly be a new milestone in the march of technology and the marketplace to erode personal privacy. Would a suit made of this material need to come with a warning label? Just because we have…

The new optical fibre cable manufacturing facility in South Africa is potentially set to become the largest in the country. The company will supply optical fibre cable and FTTH solutions to the local telecommunications market, including industry players, such as Telkom, Neotel, Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Vumatel and Link Africa, amongst others. “We are targeting both the public and private sectors, with the aim of significantly bringing down the cost of optical fibre cable in the country,” said Pieter Viljoen, CEO of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company (YOFC), which has partnered with JSE-listed Mustek as its…

ShowMax has officially launched internet TV services to 36 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. The company originally launched in August 2015 with the largest subscription video on demand catalogue on the continent. The sub-Saharan service costs US$ 7.99 per month for unlimited viewing. The catalogue includes approximately fifteen thousand TV show episodes and movies, totaling almost ten thousand hours of viewing. The service includes a Kiswahili language section and a Nollywood section, as well as an African Film section that pulls together classic movies from across the continent. Barron Ernst, Chief Product Officer for ShowMax commented: “The speed and cost of connectivity…

Mpho Sefalafala, the dude who conquered prime space within the fraternity of entrepreneurial innovation, wants to become ‘King of Mobility’. By Ujuh Reporter Johannesburg, the metropolitan city of 7 million people, is set to become his launching palace in what could become a global kingdom of mobility. Mobility is big business in the era of smart cities. Think Uber, Lyft, Curb, Sidecar, Locomute, Phuza Patrol etc. Think the power of software behind these operations and you would have figured Sefalafala’s path. Working together with a team of students from the Centre for Entrepreneurship at the Wits Business School, Sefalafala took on…

Vodacom Business’ massive investment in innovative mobile health solutions to enhance healthcare for people living in the Eastern Cape. As the first network to provide an array of mobile health solutions, Vodacom Business is scaling up the country and province’s capacity to provide primary healthcare at a more affordable rate to more citizens using mobile phones, apps and devices all powered by Vodacom‘s fixed and mobile infrastructure. Speaking at the MEC’s Healthcare Summit and Excellence Awards, Vodacom Business chief officer, Vuyani Jarana said, “The use of technology by healthcare professionals is still fairly limited in the province. By building out…

LetGo and Wallapop has merged their US operations to compete with bigger rivals Craigslist and eBay to tackle the fastest growing mobile marketplace for second hand goods. “With this partnership in place, no one is better positioned than letgo to capitalize on the immense opportunity for growth in U.S. classifieds,” said Martin Scheepbouwer, CEO of Naspers Classifieds. As part of the transaction, Wallapop U.S. operations will be absorbed into LetGo. The combined entity will be majority owned and managed by letgo and will operate under the LetGo brand on the l LetGo platform. Existing shareholders will also be injecting $100…