ICT News and Developments

[Lydon]

Originally Posted by nixon73

I bought my new iPhone through them 2 days before xmas (though online and not via callcenter). It was delivered within 24 hours. I was so shocked at how smoothly it went that I even wrote a positive review of them on hellopeter!

Sorry to tell you Lydon. It must be you.

They finally approved me today and asked me give them a call. I did so 4 times...the first time I was transferred to another department, who told me to call another number. The second and third time the consultants transferred me back to the menu because they didn't know what to do. The fourth time the consultant told me the person who originally filled in my application would need to call me back. Eventually they did.

Now I've got to wait 1-2 weeks for the phone to arrive, but they can't give any guarantees because iPhone 4S stock is severely limited in SA at the moment

[Lydon]

100Mbps broadband for everyone: Helen Zille

Cape Town metro residents can look forward to high speed broadband access within the next 8 years

At her state of the province address held in Cape Town today (17 February 2012), Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille, announced plans to connect every citizen in the Cape Town metropolitan area at network speeds in excess of 100Mbps by 2020.

In line with government’s plans to have broadband for all by 2020, Zille added that they also plan to connect all citizens in towns and villages in the province to a broadband network by the same time.

Zille said that in the Western Cape, they have put together a “game-changing infrastructure agenda.”

This includes the creation of a Special Purpose Vehicle or Public Private Partnership to bring broadband access to everyone in the province, and drive down the cost of access for business.

By 2014, Zille said the aim is to have connected every school and 70% of government facilities in the province to the broadband network, and also ensure that there is at least one public ICT access facility in every ward.

According to Zille, 20 provincial government buildings, around 50 City of Cape Town buildings, and 50 municipal sites are connected at speeds of 100Mbps or more.

“Within the next two years, as part of a pilot project, we aim to create the largest mesh network in the world that will have connected all households in Khayelitsha, Mitchell’s Plain and Saldanha Bay, including the Industrial Development Zone footprint,” Zille said.

She added that their broadband strategy will involve partnerships with a number of potential stakeholders, including licensed telecom service providers, commercial banks, the IDC and the DBSA, local businesses as well as local and national government.

“All of this constitutes a huge investment in growth-creating infrastructure,” Zille said, “most of which will be used as a powerful magnet for further investment from other spheres of government and from the private sector.”

Source: MyBroadband

[ToxicBunny]

This is absolutely awesome to hear....

Granted plans and reality are not always the same thing.. but at least the DA seem to be aiming at the right kind of level... unlike the DoC.

[waltjie]

No Fibre In Ekurhuleni

iafrica.com

The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality has placed a moratorium on all fibre deployments.

"This is a gross violation of the rights of ECNS licensees and in complete violation of the Electronic Communications Act," says Juanita Clark, CEO of the FTTH Council Africa.

The organisation has given the municipality until Friday to respond, saying they would get a court order afterward.

Fibre infrastructure is used to provide next-generation high-speed internet connectivity, however, it can also be used for multimedia services.

South Africa's broadband penetration is second slowest on the continent, growing at 13 percent per annum, just ahead of Zimbabwe that is showing a growth of 12 percent, FTTH Council Africa said.

Telecommunications prices are at average 120 percent more expensive than those of other BRICS countries. The deployment of new networks will stimulate competition and drive access and prices down.

FTTH Council Africa said that fibre will also provide the country with higher bandwidth speeds to what is currently available, with SA currently ranked sixth in Africa.

"We have also asked for intervention from the Department of Communication in this regard. The worst is that no reasons were given, and companies were just told to fill up trenches and get out of Ekurhuleni," Clark elaborated.

"This has resulted in approximately 4570 job losses – and these are not even the final numbers as we are still waiting for some operators to inform us of their losses. As a country we cannot afford this, and as a democracy it is unacceptable.

"We welcome open communication and have always supported private and public sector equally and we welcome open dialogue with the Municipality, however we have demanded that the moratorium be lifted with immediate effect or seek relief elsewhere. We have great faith in the Department to rectify the issue successfully."

[Lydon]

Completely backwards and idiotic. What on earth?

[waltjie]

Originally Posted by Lydon

Completely backwards and idiotic. What on earth?

Eish.The ancestors must've warned against it or something.

[MafTownBoy]

Zille promises 100Mbps broadband for the cape town residents by 2020 and this numb-nut bans it for his city....

[RYebreAD]

New sub-sea cable Wacs to launch in SA in one month

The 14 000km West African Sea Cable (Wacs) the first sub-sea cable along Africa’s west coast since the Sat-3 cable launched 11 years go, will officially be launched in South Africa in about one month’s time.

Angus Hay, co-chair of the Wacs management committee and chief technology officer at Neotel, has said that the testing of Wacs has progressed well and the system is “essentially ready” for commercial service.

An official launch event for the new cable will take place next month at Yzerfontein north of Cape Town, the site of the cable’s South Africa landing. Commercial traffic should begin flowing across the system at the same time or shortly after, which promises to put further downward pressure on broadband prices in SA.



While Hay cannot comment on how Internet service providers are likely to react to the new cable in terms of pricing he does believe that as with the launch of other cable systems in recent years, it will improve competition. He adds that many service providers have already begun working Wacs into their business models and their future plans.

The cable, which has a design capacity of 5,1Tbit/s and which has cost almost R5 billion to build, will probably have in the region of 400Gbit/s of capacity “lit” when it becomes available for commercial service. This is more than the total design capacity of the Sat-3 cable at 340Gbit/s.

Hay reveals that the Wacs management committee is in the process of accepting the cable from the supplier, Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks.

Neotel has been commissioned to run the primary network operating centre for Wacs which will be based at Neotel’s data centre in Johannesburg. Telkom, Neotel and Dark Fibre Africa are among the range of companies that will provide the backhaul connections from Wacs into national networks.

In November last year, The Wasace Cable Company Worldwide launched a project to construct a new high-capacity submarine telecommunications cable to serve the African continent. The Wasace cable will be connecting Africa with South America, North America and Europe. eFive Telecommunications, is also leading a rival project to build the SAex cable that will connect Angola and South Africa to Brazil (see green cable in the image above).

Source: Tech Central

[romanSA]

Increase in SA Internet users
Fri, 11 May 2012 15:17

A new study from research company World Wide Worx and online portal howzit MSN shows that Internet use in South Africa has grown by 25% in the past year because of the impact of smartphones and mobile phones.

According to the study, Internet penetration is now approaching 20% with the number of Internet users jumping from 6.8 million at the end of 2010 to 8.5 million at the end of 2011. It is expected to increase to more than 10 million by the end of 2012.

Among South African Internet users, 7.9 million accessed the Internet with their smartphones and mobile phones while 2.48 million did not have access to computers.

(Source: SAPA on News24)


http://www.screenafrica.com/page/new...Internet-users

[ToxicBunny]

Yes I'm somewhat biased, but this just sounds like another one of Goldstucks prattlings.. he has to release one every so often so that people don't forget he exists.

I would hardly call smartphone usage, ACTUAL internet penetration... its massively limited.

[romanSA]

29 May, 2012 07:11

Paul Vecchiatto

Cellular price war benefits customers

For the first time since its introduction, prepaid cellular customers are now paying less than corporates and contract customers for calls, according to an analysis of bills by telecommunications expense management firm DataRoom.

The analysis also shows that cellular retail charges have not followed the drop in the wholesale price, or mobile termination rates (MTRs), which is what one operator levies against another for carrying a call over its network.

MTRs have been cited as a major factor in the high cost of the country’s cellular calls and resulted in Parliamentary hearings in 2009, after which telecommunications regulator Icasa (Independent Communications Authority of SA) published regulations thereon the following year.

The result of the hearings was that operators had to institute a “glide path” reduction in the MTRs until 2013.

The Icasa regulations allowed for the operators to reduce their interconnection fees to 73c and an off-peak rate of 65c from March 1 2011 to February 28 2012.

The fees would then fall to 56c and 52c for on- and off-peak charges respectively, and from March 1 2013 the MTRs would fall to a standard charge of 40c.

MPs brought up the issue of prepaid customers in the hearings saying that it was “unfair” that they paid the highest prices yet they paid their bills in advance.

About 90% of SA’s estimated 42 million cellphone users are on prepaid packages.

In May network operator Cell C introduced its “99 cents for real” package that effectively lopped 37 cents off the bills per minute for prepaid users. The move was expected to trigger a cellular price war with Vodacom immediately offering a similar package, however, it is not yet clear if the regulator has approved the Vodacom pricing.

DataRoom, which bases its findings on analysing the cellular bills of companies and how they compare to the contract terms and conditions that have been signed, described Cell C’s move as brave and one that had shaken up the market.

Heidi Gouws, DataRoom analyst said: “Cell C have done the unprecedented - for the first time ever a prepaid tariff is cheaper than a contract tariff, the comparison we provided is for the most cost-effective high-end packages, actual rates, and not averages.”

Gouws said Cell C’s rate was the cheapest DataRoom had seen.

“It’s simple and honest and 43% cheaper than the next-best prepaid per-second rate. The Vodacom equivalent, ’promotional’ is misleading, to say the least,” she said.

She added that it was about time prices came down.

“Even though mobile termination interconnect rates have come down by over 37% since 2010, there has been no change at all in published prepaid tariffs,” Gouws said.

Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig agreed with the analysis describing it as “broadly correct”.

Knott-Craig said that Cell C’s reduction in prices was with an eye on the 40 cents MTR target and that this could be reduced further.

“The big problem with the MTR regulations was that they were not directly linked with a reduction in retail prices,” he said.

Knott-Craig said that Cell C would on Tuesday announce further reductions on other packages.

“So far our new pricing has worked well and our resellers are connecting about 200,000 people a week,” he said.

Vodacom spokesperson Richard Boorman criticised the analysis and said that it did not compare “apples with apples”.

“This analysis is superficial and unhelpful. There’s a danger when doing simple tariff comparisons of missing the real picture. Every one of these comparisons failed to take into account the fact that our promotion comes with ’Nightshift’, which gives seven hours of free calls per week between midnight and 05:00,” he said.

Boorman said township residents get up early to start their commute, and shift workers were also very active at night.

“Interestingly, 4am is actually the highest traffic time on our network, clearly disproving the view that customers do not value free calls at night,” he said.

MTN had not replied to I-Net Bridge’s queries by deadline.

An Icasa spokesperson said the regulator was convinced that the network operators had been following the MTR regulations and that they had resulted in the reduction of retail rates, but offered no examples.

Democratic Alliance communications spokesperson Marian Shinn said: “It is time for Icasa to stretch the envelope in favour of cellphone users and insist that the operational cost benefits of the reduction in mobile termination interconnect rates are passed on to the consumers. Consumers need a transparent and straightforward way to compare costs from cellphone providers, not obfuscating marketing promotions.”

Shinn said that she would be requesting that Parliament’s communications committee holds hearings with Icasa and the network operators about the state of play.

Communications committee chairperson Eric Kholwane (ANC) was not available for comment.

In April Research ICT Africa issued a policy brief which said that among the 46 African countries surveyed, SA ranked 30th in terms of mobile pricing overall and 32nd when it came to prepaid calls.

According to the report, the cost of mobile services in countries such as Kenya, Mauritius, Egypt and Namibia — which was once on a par with SA — were a “fraction of even the lowest priced services in SA”.


http://www.businesslive.co.za/southa...fits-customers

[romanSA]

SA internet access lagging
2012-05-29 20:18

Johannesburg - Internet penetration is low compared to other leading economies in Africa due to high broadband cost and a lack of infrastructure, a study said on on Tuesday.

According to the study commissioned by Google South Africa, the country had 8.5 million internet users in 2011, compared to 6.8 million people in 2010.

"This growth brings internet penetration in South Africa to approximately 17%," said the report.

"Despite rapid growth, however, it lags significantly behind the biggest internet user bases in Africa".

Oil-rich Nigeria, which is also Africa's most populous nation, has the highest internet penetration at 29%, followed by Egypt, Morocco and Kenya.

Growth in South Africa, the continent's largest economy was attributed to the propagation of smartphones to access the internet, which took off in 2008.

"It should also be borne in mind that access and cost remains the biggest obstacle to internet connectivity, particularly in less developed areas," said Luke Mckend, Google SA country manager.

This year's arrival of an undersea fibre-optic cable, which connects large parts of Africa with the world was expected to improve broadband connectivity across the continent.

The cable has landing points in 10 other countries along Africa's western coast and its arrival promises an internet boost for Africa, where only 9.6% of people are web users, compared to 65% of Europeans.


- SAPA

http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/S...gging-20120529

[Prythen]

Originally Posted by romanSA

Oil-rich Nigeria, which is also Africa's most populous nation, has the highest internet penetration at 29%, followed by Egypt, Morocco and Kenya.

This sentence is wrong : http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm

[Lydon]

Cape Town and Johannesburg now have live traffic info on Google Maps

It seems to be working well:

image hosted on flickr



More Info

[kulani]

Originally Posted by ToxicBunny

Yes I'm somewhat biased, but this just sounds like another one of Goldstucks prattlings.. he has to release one every so often so that people don't forget he exists.

I would hardly call smartphone usage, ACTUAL internet penetration... its massively limited.

Its arguable whether internet access on smartphones represents internet penetration. But it seems the industry has began to recognize this form of internet access as we move towards a world of tablets and smartphones. As an example, most of the blackberry and other smartphones have facebook and e-mail access which are classified as internet applications. The mobile browsers on these phones are powerful enough and can support regular viewing of websites although in a screen that has limitations in terms of size. I would tend to agree with Goldstuck in this case.

[romanSA]

Vodacom's revenue grows, reaches 50m customers

19 Jul 2012 13:19 - Reuters

Vodacom, the South African unit of British mobile operator Vodafone, has reported a 9.3% rise in first-quarter revenue.

Vodacom said on Thursday revenue totalled just over R17-billion in the quarter to end-June buoyed by growth in data and customers.

Vodacom, which has operations in South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Mozambique and Lesotho, said its customer numbers totalled 50-million at the end of June, compared with 47.8-million at the end of March.

"I am particularly pleased with the sustained high growth delivered by the international operations. Data demand in this segment is accelerating, with active data customers increasing 152% and data revenue up 150%," chief executive Pieter Uys said.

Group data revenue was up almost 17%.

Although Vodacom has the largest subscriber base in South Africa, it is dwarfed on the continent by MTN Group.

Vodacom and its rivals are fighting to extract more revenue from data as the market for mobile voice usage stagnates.

The company said this month that Uys would step down in March, to be replaced by Shameel Joosub, a Vodacom veteran who is currently head of Vodafone's Spanish unit.

Vodacom shares are up 2% this year, compared with a 4% rise in the benchmark Top-40 index. – Reuters


http://mg.co.za/article/2012-07-19-v...-50m-customers

[Lydon]

Because they continue to rob us blind and respond to competition instead of creating it and actually innovating once in a while.

Useless lot.

[JohanSA]

New satellite launches for DStv

By: Thinus Ferreira

17 minutes ago

Cape Town – When the main rocket lifted off at 22:53 on Thursday from Arianespace's French Guiana's Space Centre, a new chapter started for MultiChoice, finally getting more direct-to-home (DTH) satellite pay TV capacity with the successful launch of Intelsat 20.

The main rocket, with the DStv logo and the South African flag proudly on the side, lifted off as scheduled from the Guiana's Space Centre in South America, taking the geostationary communications satellite Intelsat 20, or IS-20, to orbit – and with it the promise of more TV channels, more high definition (HD) TV channels, and more sound and video services for South African TV viewers in the near future.

Most powerful satellite

"Everything's normal," announced ground control at Guiana Space Centre after the successful launch of IS-20, although everything about this new communications satellite is actually extraordinary.

Not only is Intelsat 20 in fact Intelsat's most powerful satellite ever, the IS-20 is also Africa's largest DTH platform ever.

The IS-20 has also been built to serve and be operational for 24 years – a record period. Its deployment brings a much-needed, and previously secured, capacity boost for MultiChoice which has run out of available satellite broadband capacity.

As the most powerful satellite in the Intelsat fleet, all of MultiChoice's existing services - with the pay TV platform currently using Intelsat 10 and Intelsat 7 for DStv – will be migrated to the IS-20.

Besides moving over the existing services, there's also more capacity.

New bandwidth capacity

The successful launch of the IS-20 comes just in time for MultiChoice, which has been running low on available satellite bandwidth.

High definition channel roll-out had to be slow for the pay TV operator, just as the possibility, application and demand for interactive services and more TV channels are mushrooming - together with the fast growth and uptake of DStv by pay TV consumers in South Africa and across the continent who want, and are willing to pay, for more and better television.

Enhancing its offering

With the increased capacity DStv subscribers can expect a better alignment of the service, in time, to more closely emulate the operations and services of satellite pay TV operators in comparable countries and markets such as Australia and Britain.

MultiChoice has done well in the way the pay TV platform has utilised its existing capacity up until now in terms of content-mix and pacing; new capacity will allow it to enhance its offering even further.

At the subscriber-end in terms of consumer interface a new "channel shuffle" or regrouping and realignment of TV channels available on DStv should take place to create new "space" and wider number blocks before new channels and simulcast high definition channels are added.

After the addition of Discovery HD Showcase MultiChoice will not again add another permanent HD bespoke channel and will concentrate on populating its new available channel realm with "upgraded" concurrently-run HD versions of existing channels.
* Channel24

[JohanSA]

At last

[ToxicBunny]

Quite happy that MC isn't looking to add new "bespoke" HD channels, but rather concurrent HD stuff....