Author: Gugu Lourie
By Casper Mabona Telkom faces “revolt” over outsourcing process as its call centres workers engage in illegal strikes in the form of “go-slows”, with incidents of staff intimidation and walk-outs reported. But the telephone company is unfazed and announced on Monday that it is going ahead with the automatic transfer of staff from its call centre, supply chain and IT environments to new employers on 31 March. Telkom said the unions failed to secure a majority consensus on an additional offer from the company. “Our service levels have been under severe pressure for a number of weeks. We would like…
By Ron Steinfeld When checking your email over a secure connection, or making a purchase from an online retailer, have you ever wondered how your private information or credit card data is kept secure? Our information is kept away from prying eyes thanks to cryptographic algorithms, which scramble the message so no-one else can read it but its intended recipient. But what are these algorithms, how did they come to be widely used, and how secure really are they? Coded messages The first cryptographic methods actually go back thousands of years to the time of ancient Greece. Indeed, the word…
By staff writer OPENTENDERS, SA’s business social network connecting entrepreneurs with procurement opportunities, has reacted positively to the prospective launch of Government’s e-tender portal, as stated in the Budget Speech last month. During his speech Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene announced that Government would implement a central tender portal from April this year. Minister Nene said: “It will be compulsory that all (public) tenders be advertised on this portal, and all tender documents will be freely available there. Tender advertisements in newspapers and the government gazette will be phased out.” “We are excited about this new Government portal as it makes…
By Marian Shinn The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on the Minister of Communications, Faith Muthambi, to appear before Parliament to account for the dubious last minute substantive edits to the Broadcast Digital Migration (BDM) policy that was gazetted last night and is markedly different from the BDM policy that was approved by Cabinet in 2013. The DA is concerned about the revisions in definitions by Minister Muthambi at the eleventh hour. Her ill-intentioned decision will stifle competition in the free-to-air market and has the potential to put eTV out of business while entrenching MultiChoice’s monopoly in the pay TV market…
By Tony De Sousa As more and more citizens gain access to mobile internet and embrace digitalization, citizens are also expecting government to follow suit. As in the private sector, government also need to deliver digital services and enable access to such services anytime anywhere to its customers – citizens. This requires government to shift the focus from implementing systems, processes and policies for its own ends, to that of a “citizen centric” approach. In most instances, government departmental systems are designed to serve a specific department’s needs and often in isolation of other departments, which results in disparate systems…
By Casper Mabona The Lonehill Residents Association (LRA) is working in collaboration with MTN to deploy fibre to the home (FTTH) and fibre to the business (FTTB) to more than 3000 homes in the northern Johannesburg suburb. The connections will be done in a phased approach and will be funded by MTN. John Siddall, Chairman of the LRA, says the high speed will have immense benefits for the residents and businesses in Lonehill. “Fibre to the home will transform how we work and play. This fibre network will ensure that businesses can improve their efficiency and optimally use technologies such…
By Vula Mthimkhulu My soft spot for drones can be taken care at any time from this moment by a product called Sky Walker offered by Drone Force. Tagged as the world’s smallest quadcopter, Sky Walker could be just what I needed to join the fascinating drone world. The price of R395.00 means that nothing stands between me and the drone purchase. But then the miser in me is delaying the click of the buy button with a question: What’s the catch. A part of me says this might not be the real thing. If the Sky Walker can fit…
By Michael Cowling Nary a week goes by that doesn’t see a new mainstream media story on the dangers of technology use. Just the other day I spotted one talking about how smartphones are making us dumber. Yet the original study cited in the news story is actually more about how mobile phones help us to be more intuitive than analytical, and stop us from “overthinking”. But it’s particularly interesting that this study, like many others, gets framed up as a “fear of technology”. It makes me wonder why many people appear to be so afraid of technology? To answer…
The share price of Welkom Yizani, the black economic empowerment (BEE) shares of Media24, has shot up over the past few days to hit a high of R25.00 per share. The share has since eased back somewhat to trade around R19.50 but is still far above the R10.00 level at which it was trapped for a long time. By Ujuh The upward movement will be a huge relieve to the multitudes of initial investors in the BEE scheme. However many had already lost patience and exited the investment at a loss. Welkom Yizani shares had been trapped at R10.00 per share…
In a meeting held on Wednesday 11 March to hear employees’ grievances around the payment of 2014 performance bonuses, MTN SA undertook to provide feedback to employees on their bonus proposals. The MTN SA leadership team met with employees today as promised. MTN SA confirms that there will be no additional performance bonus payments to employees for the 2014 financial year. This decision follows a request by general and supervisory level employees for the company to consider granting them an ex gratia payment or higher bonus payment, as they deem the payment of 4% of their annual pensionable salary…
By Gugu Lourie Under the leadership of Sipho Maseko Telkom’s turnaround strategy is finally showing positive signs as the fixed-line company cuts costs and enters into partnerships to outsource the things it does not want to manage itself, leaving it to focus on its customers. Earlier this month Telkom announced new partners to manage its non-core activities that include call centre operations and staff, as well as certain legacy IT billing systems, an internal printing division as well as the network and operations, and retail supply chain units. Majority-owned by government and valued at more than R38bn, Telkom has identified…
By Gugu Lourie The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) regulator have given green light on Telkom’s proposed R2.7bn acquisition of Business Connexion (BCX), although the South African fixed-line telephone group is still waiting for approval from the local regulators. “We wish to inform shareholders that the COMESA Competition Commission has unconditionally approved the proposed transaction,” Telkom and BCX said in a statement on Monday. However, the transaction is till awaiting approval from South Africa’s regulators – Competition Authorities; the Independent Communication Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and the issue of a compliance certificate by the Takeover Regulation…
By Staff Writer “CarFi will be available in South Africa before the end of this year. It is compatible with all car models from leading automobile manufacturers that feature a cigarette lighter or in-car charger outlet.” Huawei unveiled its in-car 4G LTE mobile WiFi device, Huawei CarFi, which converts vehicles into WiFi hotspots on wheels for added convenience in daily life. Delivering download speeds of up to 150 Mbps and connectivity for up to 10 devices, Huawei CarFi can be easily transferred from one vehicle to another. “At Huawei, we aim to be one step ahead in providing great technology…
By Siyabonga Cwele, Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services Speech delivered at the Inaugural Conference of the Wi-Fi Forum of South Africa “I urge the Wifi Forum of South Africa to work towards ensuring that Wi-Fi as a delivery medium for broadband supports job creation and economic development by contributing to the growth of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME’s) which operate within the ICT environment.” I am pleased to address you this morning at what I am told is the first ever conference of the Wifi Forum of SA. President Jacob Zuma in his 2015 State of the Nation Address declared this year as the “Year…
By Gugu Lourie Even though South African subscription-based video-on-demand (SVoD) services have failed to attract the expected millions of subscribers, the technology is developing at an unbelievable speed with new players trying to attract subscribers. Unlike the local mobile cellphone sector, which managed to attract millions of subscribers when it launched 20 years ago, SVoD, which is in its infancy, seems not to be doing that well. The delivery of video content is shifting towards subscription-based SVoD and consumption habits are fast changing – a development that provides hope for revenue streams diversification for all players involved. Already Vidi, an…
Delivering smartphone essentials, apps and the best of Microsoft services at an incredible price. Microsoft today announced the availability of the Lumia 435 in SA retailing from R1 149. The Lumia 435 is the first 400 series Lumia, and the most affordable Lumia yet. With core smartphone features, the best Windows Phone experiences and access to the latest apps, it opens up the Lumia to even more people. “It is clear by the unprecedented adoption of smartphones across South Africa that people want a phone that is capable of performing more than just basic tasks, at an affordable price. The…
By Gugu Lourie “One of the top activities for smartphone owners is watching video content, and one of the fastest growing video streaming apps aimed at Africans is Tuluntulu,” says van der Hoven. Tuluntulu – a mobile streaming platform app that enables its users to watch TV anywhere and anytime – continues to grow despite mobile operators and media firms with big pockets launching video-on-demand (VOD) services across the African continent. Tuluntulu is enjoying positive traction with significant milestones being reached since marketing commenced in August 2014. The Tuluntulu app has now been downloaded over 110,000 times in 154 countries,…
By Gugu Lourie MTN has a bold plan to tap into the digital space in Africa and Middle East by diversifying revenue streams away from voice to suit its customers’ modern digital lifestyles. However, MTN – Africa and Middle-East’s biggest mobile phone operator – is not likely to challenge Naspers – the multinational group of e-commerce platforms that owns stakes in China’s Tencent, India’s Flipkart and Russia’s Mail.ru. But MTN might encroach on Naspers’ territory and pose a threat to other smaller players in the e-commerce and e-tailing industry. That said, MTN obviously sees opportunities to tap into the digital…
By Staff writer Video-on-demand (VOD) service VIDI has weighed into the current uncapped mobile broadband debate saying that the dearth of wholesale mobile broadband offerings is holding back the country’s entertainment industry. The conversation around true uncapped mobile broadband has again been brought to the fore following a statement last week by the Internet Service Providers’ Association of SA (ISPA). The Association called for SA telcos to take bold action to bring down the costs of mobile broadband by introducing wholesale mobile data products. ISPA reasons that the absence of a wholesale mobile data offering is an obstacle to deepening…
By Ujuh MTN Zakhele shares seem to be destined to list on the black economic empowerment (BEE) platform of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) alongside the Sasol Inzalo shares. This emerges from a statement released early on Tuesday by MTN Zakhele chairperson Thulani Gcabashe. The statement said MTN Zakhele has applied for a listing on the BEE platform of the JSE. MTN is engaging with the JSE to enable its shareholders to continue to securely trade their shares, said the statement. The statement comes after the Financial Services Board (FSB) ordered all over the counter (OTC) trading platforms to apply…
By Anthony Rodriguez Data is all around us. Some might even argue that there is too much of it which is simply adding to the information overload many people are experiencing. However, when used in conjunction with analytics, data has the potential to unlock more effective and accurate decision-making. In recent years, using the phrase big data has been a way of illustrating the amount and complexity of the data that consumers and businesses have at their disposal. Throw in terms such as structured versus unstructured data, then it is easy to understand why people tend to lose interest in…
By Andrew McStay Final details of Apple’s new smartwatch have finally arrived at the firm’s glitzy Spring Forward event. But while the hype machine steps up another notch, there are other issues regarding health and self-tracking and, possibly even more important, over wearable tech companies’ interest in our emotional lives. Apple’s Watch records exercise, tracks our movements throughout the day, assesses the amount of time we are stood up and reminds us to get up and move around if we have been sat for too long – let’s not forget Tim Cook’s “sitting is the new cancer” line. It achieves…
By Gugu Lourie First National Bank (FNB) on Tuesday reported a 17% rise in pre-tax profit to R8.5bn in the six months to end-December 2014, boosted by strong growth in both non-interest revenue (NIR) and net interest income (NII) and a decrease in local bad debts, particularly in residential mortgages and personal loans. The bank said NIR rose 10% year-on-year with continued strong growth of 12% in overall transactional volumes with electronic transactional volumes up 14%. It added that its customers continue to migrate to electronic channels with ADT deposits increasing 11%, whilst branch-based deposits decreased 18%. “The success of…
By Gugu Lourie In a move signaling its commitment to South Africa, SAP SA, a unit of German-based enterprise software firm SAP, is strengthening its Broad-Based-Black-Economic-Empowerment (BBBEE) credentials by concluding another empowerment transaction. SAP South Africa will issue 19.5% shares to The SAP South Africa Empowerment Trust, the beneficiaries of which are previously disadvantaged black students. These beneficiaries will use the dividends received from SAP South Africa to pay for studies facilitated by the Maharishi Institute. This move will enable SAP to achieve a 30% ownership target in the BBBEE codes applicable to all South African IT companies. Currently, SAP…
Apple today unveiled the all-new MacBook, a new line of notebooks reinvented in every way to deliver the thinnest and lightest Macs ever. Every component of the new MacBook has been meticulously redesigned to create a Mac that weighs just two pounds and is 13.1 mm thin. The new MacBook features a stunning 12-inch Retina display that is the thinnest ever on a Mac, an Apple-designed full-size keyboard which is dramatically thinner and highly responsive, the all-new Force Touch trackpad that brings a new dimension of interactivity to the Mac, an incredibly compact USB-C port for data transfer, video out…