Browsing: Opinion

SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng has a delightful proposal for journalists: we should all be licensed. Apparently he thinks we should be treated like doctors and lawyers: proper professionals with a licence to practice, framed certificates on the wall and everything. Motsoeneng, we’re flattered

Samsung warned this week that its earnings in its most recent financial quarter were likely to have tumbled by as much as 26,5% – the third straight quarter of decline – in part because of a glut of unsold smartphones and growing competition from Chinese manufacturers. These must be troubling times for the

Which is more important to you, your right to freedom of speech or your right to privacy? Would you rather have the ability to control what is said about you or the ability to speak openly about contentious subjects? A fascinating collision between these rights is currently under way in the European Union

South Africans love to complain about Telkom. It’s been a national pastime for years. The customer service problems associated with the fixed-line operator are the stuff of legend – and nightmare. So, when Telkom’s CEO, Sipho Maseko, steps up to the plate and promises to fix these deep-seated

Balancing Act Africa research counts 73 video-on-demand platforms operating in Africa — on the Internet, via satellite or through mobile applications. Mostly, these are “over the top” services with the vast majority set up by independent providers. Although they may have operating alliances with mobile

On 25 May, President Jacob Zuma announced the cabinet for his second term. In a surprise movement, the announcement included significant changes in the role of the department of communications and the creation of a new ministry of telecommunications and postal services. This has resulted in enormous

In the main, Africa’s universal service agencies have not covered themselves in glory. Although money has been collected from operators, it has largely sat in the bank gathering interest. Even in countries such as Kenya, which have expended large amounts of energy and resources on putting in place broadband

South Africa’s cellular operators have been trying for years to crack the mobile commerce code, but haven’t been able to repeat the successes they’ve had in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. MTN, working with Pick n Pay, may just have found the key to success at

Global mobile data traffic grew by 81% in 2013, according to a recent report by Cisco (the Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update). Last year’s mobile data traffic was nearly 18 times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000. Smartphones and tablets are driving this traffic explosion. A typical

On Friday, Nest Labs – which was acquired by Google in January for US$3,2bn – said it was buying Dropcam, a San Francisco-based company specialising in home-monitoring cameras for US$555m. Things are hotting up in the smart home market and consumers may soon be exposed to hundreds of new hardware devices and