Knott-Craig drops price bomb on rivals
Alan Knott-Craig, installed as Cell C’s new CEO on 1 April, is wasting no time in taking the fight to the operator’s bigger rivals, MTN and Vodacom. Just days after cutting the cost of broadband as part of new promotional offers, Cell C has now slashed the cost of
HTC promises increased focus on SA
Four months after establishing a local office, Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC is promising to ramp up the marketing and distribution of its products in SA, with a focus on its new One-series range of devices. Jon French, HTC’s vice-president for sales operations
Telkom and KT: proceed with caution
Telkom is inching closer to a deal to sell 20% of its equity to Korea’s KT Corp. Though the foreign direct investment in SA’s economy should be welcomed, there are potential pitfalls government must be careful to avoid. Last week, Telkom announced to
8ta extends low-cost data offerings
SA’s fourth mobile operator, Telkom’s 8ta, has announced it is extending its 10GB, 3GB and 120GB data promotions until the end of March 2013. The prices of the promotions will remain the same throughout the extension period. The products only work on 8ta’s own network and do not extend to the network of its roaming partner
8ta struggling in a competitive market
Telkom’s mobile arm, 8ta, hit the ground running in the months after its launch in 2010, offering compelling products and spending a small fortune plastering its brand across billboards and newspapers. But industry insiders say the mobile operator hasn’t managed to capitalise on its early
Blewett leaves 8ta
Mobile operator 8ta is in the market for a new marketing and sales executive. Stephen Blewett, who had filled this role until last week, has resigned. Blewett joined 8ta, which is the mobile arm of Telkom and SA’s fourth cellphone network operator, in 2009 as a contractor for an initial one-year term. The contract
SA mobile prices among the highest in Africa
A new research study has found that SA has some of the least affordable prepaid mobile tariffs on the continent and is falling behind many of its neighbours because of high wholesale call rates between operators. The findings are contained in a Research ICT Africa policy brief, with research conducted over the past year
Don’t hang up on Telkom
Telkom has embarked on a multibillion-rand refresh of its access network into homes and businesses. Investors will probably decry the cost of taking fibre-optic infrastructure closer to and even into homes, but group CEO Nombulelo Moholi is at least leading the fixed-line operator in the right direction
Telkom expects R2,2bn loss at 8ta
Telkom’s start-up mobile unit continues to bleed red ink across the telecommunications group’s income statement. The unit, which operates under the 8ta branding in the consumer market,will turn in a R2,2bn loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the year to end-March 2012. The operator expects basic earnings
Holdsworth defends incumbents over 4G spectrum
John Holdsworth is known for giving SA’s mobile operators a hard time. As former CEO of ECN Telecommunications (now Nashua ECN), he was the biggest proponent of and lobbyist for the lowering of the wholesale fees the operators charge each other to carry calls between their networks. But now Holdsworth has come
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