South Africa’s telecommunications regulator has been roundly criticised by stakeholders for backpedalling on regulations aimed at bringing exorbitant ADSL pricing in line. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s ADSL regulations released recently have been described as "watered down" and "disappointing" by stakeholders.
The government and anti-smoking lobby groups have South Africa’s tobacco companies in their sights as they launch an offensive against the flouting of tight regulations that outlaw the marketing of tobacco. According to anti-smoking lobby groups, tobacco companies are illegally giving away free tobacco products at luxurious secret parties.
If the government gets its way a new giant could soon be stalking the telecommunications sector. The new player, which would own significant telecommunications infrastructure, would be an alliance between the government, the major shareholder, and Tata subsidiary VSNL.
The exploitation and damage done to human beings by apartheid is clearly documented, but the long-term damage wrought on the environment is not as readily recognised. For over 40 years the Orange river estuary, home to a unique wetlands system, was degraded by the effects of upstream farming and a road built by mining companies.
South African broadband consumer activist website MyADSL pays more than R10 000 a month to host its website locally when it could host it overseas for a mere R700. These exorbitant local hosting costs are causing South Africa’s ICT sector to fall behind international standards as content developers are prevented from using multimedia delivery.
<b>CDS OF THE WEEK:</b> Take a song and make it your own by not respecting the original too much and breathing new life into it, and you will succeed, writes Lloyd Gedye.
<b>CDS OF THE WEEK:</b> Lloyd Gedye reviews some albums that will have you moping around your bedroom.
Elder statesman Neil Young has produced a blistering assault on George Bush with his new album titled <i>Living with War</i>, writes Lloyd Gedye.
In a move to slash bandwidth prices, the government has instructed the communications regulator to nationalise the landing station for the undersea SAT-3 submarine cable and to declare it an essential facility. At present, as SAT-3’s largest investor, Telkom has monopoly rights on access to and pricing of international bandwidth on the undersea cable.
No longer content to pump out mediocre pop acts such as Ace of Base and Roxette, Sweden has been responsible for some of the more interesting albums of late, writes Lloyd Gedye.
Customers who have a fixed line pay a rental of just under R100 for the copper line that delivers their voice service. Telkom then performs a slight upgrade to this line estimated to cost under R40 in order to allow the customer to receive broadband through the existing copper line.
South African cellphone users can finally start getting used to paying for the actual airtime they use now that the leading players are offering per-second billing on some (Vodacom, MTN and Cell-C) or all (Virgin) of their packages. But this is only for cellphone calls to other cellphones or landlines.
<b>CD OF THE WEEK</b>: Radiohead’s Thom Yorke has just done a Bob Dylan, taking the music to the masses with his new electronic protest album, <i>The Eraser</i>, writes Lloyd Gedye.
<b>CD OF THE WEEK:</b> Lloyd Gedye reviews one of the most blindingly brilliant albums you may ever hear, The Flaming Lips’ <i>At War With the Mystics</i>.
Lloyd Gedye speaks to British band Gomez about their new album, <i>How We Operate</i>
South Africa’s cellphone giants have fired their own shots in the price war triggered by Virgin Mobile, but despite price reductions and simplified packages, the incumbents have still to go a long way to catch Virgin, which leads by far in the money-for-value stakes.
South Africa’s liquid fuels industry could face serious reform and possible windfall taxes, according to a discussion document released this week by a Treasury task team. The report, which suggests that Sasol generates "supernormal profits" at the consumer’s expense, will be followed by a public hearing before recommendations are forwarded to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel.
What do Tony Leon, Jo’burg rockabilly band the Slashdogs and Pastor Mark Taylor from Zimbabwe have in common? The answer is all three have embraced the new digital fad that is podcasting. A podcast is an audio file that can be downloaded by multiple users and listened to on a portable music player or a computer.
With the competition authorities rejecting a tie-up between privately owned Sasol and Engen, owned by Malaysia’s Petronas, there are signs that the state-owned PetroSA may be getting ready to grow muscles in the domestic market. Senior PetroSA and government officials met Petronas in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last month.
United Kingdom-headquartered cellphone giant Vodafone, is dangling a R60-billion carrot that would represent the country’s largest foreign investment to date, dwarfing the R33-billion Barclays invested for a controlling stake in Absa.
Josh Cunningham, the guitarist from the Australian folk/blues band The Waifs, was recently in South Africa. Lloyd Gedye caught up with him to chat about the band’s future plans.
Australian jazz and pop sensation Missy Higgins is on tour in South Africa. Lloyd Gedye caught up with her to chat about her meteoric rise to fame
The good news is house prices are up 14% on last year. The bad news is this is the slowest growth in prices in four-and-a-half years. While lower transfer fees — after lower transfer fees were announced by Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel in the Budget — were expected to bring resilience to the sector of the market up to R1-million, the cooling down in prices is across all sectors.
Fed up with England’s weather and traffic, the new CEO for Virgin Mobile in South Africa, Sajeed Sacranie, decided three years ago to return to the continent of his birth. Not to Malawi where he was born, but to Johannesburg. Sacranie says help is on the way for consumers who are fed up with South Africa’s existing cellphone operators.
Fresh conflict is boiling between the council and management of South Africa’s communications regu-lator, as the regulator pushes ahead with disciplinary action against its suspended CEO. Icasa suspended Manche on November 24 last year after the disappearance of cash from an Icasa safe and a dispute over vehicle purchases.
Lloyd Gedye talks to My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James about ditching Kentucky for the Big Apple.
With warm tropical waters, white beaches, bright shirts, snorkelling, cocktails and surfing, Hawaii seems to be the perfect escape from one of the hottest seats in South African business. It’s no wonder that Telkom CEO Papi Molotsane raves about the place. "It is relaxing and serene and the people are fantastic," says Molotsane.
Cell C says, "We’ve got you covered." True, says an irritated Richtersveld community — but only if you’re standing on tiptoe. The tiny Richtersveld community of Kuboes complains bitterly that while a Cell C advertisement uses footage of their town to vaunt its extensive geographical coverage, their community has to make do with poor reception from the cellphone operator.
The Internet is starting to deliver its real potential in South Africa with monopolist Telkom now facing competition as a major domestic company, MWeb, offers cheaper phone calls using computer technology. MWeb’s Broadband Talk offers national phone calls from computer to landline at just 50c a minute compared to Telkom’s 99c.
<b>CDs OF THE WEEK:</b> Lloyd Gedye takes a listen to two debut albums from the new crop of South African rock.
South Africa’s telecommunication industry is so poorly structured that an industry worth several billion has sprung up in its shadows, offering cut-price calls. The LCR or least-cost routing industry is saving businesses up to 40%, through implementing savings on the cellphone portion of their Telkom bill.
The SABC is fumbling nervously through its Unauthorised documentary series, which critics charge is anything but "unauthorised". Following last week’s controversial last-minute canning of the documentary on President Thabo Mbeki, sources have told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> that SABC management has interfered with other films in the series.