Author: Gugu Lourie
South Africa’s Telkom and the state-owned entity Broadband Infraco are in talks over possible collaboration as part of the government’s restructuring of state-owned entities to remove duplication between the two entities, according to a media report. By Staff Writer Business Day newspaper reported on Wednesday that this will be part of a rationalisation process of state owned entities by the Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services. Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services Siyabonga Cwele told Business Day in an interview that ‘as part of a rationalisation process, Telkom and Infraco were looking at how they could co-operate on infrastructure projects’. Infraco,…
Local mobile operator MTN plans to compensate some of its one million customers who were hit by a network outage this week. By Gareth van Zyl, NewsAgency MTN said on Monday that it was experiencing connectivity issues that affected approximately one million voice, SMS and data customers. The connectivity issues started on Sunday, MTN’s executive for group corporate affairs Chris Maroleng told Fin24. Customers, for example, who bought a data, SMS or airtime bundle on Sunday that they couldn’t use over a 24 hour period could qualify for the reimbursement, explained Maroleng. “We need to establish of those one million, how…
During the State of the Nation Address debate on Tuesday afternoon, DA leader Mmusi Maimane cited the Star Wars prologue, saying President Jacob Zuma lived in a galaxy far, far away, on “Planet Zuma”. By Mpho Raborife, NewsAgency Following the debate in the National Assembly, South Africans uploaded creative memes on Twitter, poking fun at Maimane’s comments, accompanied by tweets with their views. Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula said Maimane was probably on a PlanetFitness Treadmill. He was probably on a PlanetFitness Treadmill doing cardio when he thought of this “planet Zuma”. What a joke — RSA Min of Sport (@MbalulaFikile) February…
Mobile operator MTN said in a statement late on Tuesday that some of its customers were still experiencing intermittent connection, despite announcing earlier that it has remedied the network problems. “The intermittent connection issue is still under investigation. MTN’s engineers implemented a solution yesterday evening which alleviated some of the problems and restored services. However, some of the subscribers are still experiencing connectivity challenges,” the mobile phone operator said in a statement. The South African-based telco explains: “We are continuing our investigations with the support of all the parties in order to fully restore services. Our engineers are currently working…
INX-ZA announced on Tuesday that Durban has become the first South African city to get a multi-site Internet exchange point. This has been achieved following a public private partnership between INX-ZA and Ethekwini Municipality (Durban Municipality). By contributing resources from its Ethekwini Fibre Metro project, the City of Durban has been able to work towards its socio economic goals to promote the local economy. Having multiple site Internet Exchanges, lowers the operating costs for local Internet Service Providers based in Durban, increases the quality of the experience for Durban users, especially when accessing websites hosted locally in Durban. Internet exchange points enable Internet…
MTN, in partnership with the MTN Solution Space and Jumia, on Tuesday announced the launch of the MTN Entrepreneurship Challenge powered by Jumia. The Pan-African competition, will be the first of its kind in Africa, bringing together over 1000 entrepreneurs, students and investors, to collaborate on ways to amplify and consolidate the continent’s entrepreneurs. Targeting more than 60 universities in 13 countries across Africa, the competition will challenge students to develop a unique digital application or smart solution that will solve a tangible problem faced on the continent. “We are incredibly excited to partner with Jumia to launch the entrepreneurship challenge.…
Mobile operator MTN has remedied the network problem that saw a million subscribers affected by intermittent outages of SMS and data. By Duncan Alfreds, NewsAgency “Our engineers worked around the clock to resolve the connections issues. Everything is back to normal, we are monitoring and shall revert if any changes during the day,” MTN SA told Fin24. Late on Monday intermittent network problems related to SMS, data and voice caused about a million subscribers to have limited access to the network. “MTN experienced network intermittent connection issues affecting approximately one million voice, SMS and data customers throughout the country yesterday (Monday).…
One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity, which described how gravity warps and distorts space-time. While this theory triggered a revolution in our understanding of the universe, it made one prediction that even Einstein doubted could be confirmed: the existence of gravitational waves. Today, a century later, we have that confirmation, with the detection of gravitational waves by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (aLIGO) detectors. Here we collect reactions and analysis from some of the leading astronomers and astrophysicists from around the world. By Keith Riles, Alan Duffy, Amanda Weltman, Daniel Kennefick, David Parkinson, Maria…
South African-based distributor of personal computers and electronic equipment Rectron said on Friday it planned to sell its 100% shareholding in Rectron Australia. By Gugu Lourie The firm, which is part of the JSE-listed ICT distributor Mustek, said the Australian unit will be sold for more than AUD 1 million to IG3 Education Ltd. The deal is effective from 1 October 2015. Rectron added that the deal was part of its drive to dispose of non-performing and non core assets. It will utilise the proceeds from the sale to reduce its debt. The net asset value of Rectron Australia…
Absa Bank, a division of the Barclays Africa, has piloted a new predictive alert service that not only notifies customers of potential shortfalls in their bank accounts, but which also offers personalised options to make it easier for customers to manage their finances. By using the latest in big data and open source technologies, Absa’s smart personal alert enables customers to effectively manage their monthly payment obligations and avoid unexpected surprises. To date, it has been piloted to more than 50 000 customers in South Africa, according to Yasaman Hadjibashi, Chief Data Officer for Barclays Africa. “The alert works…