Telkom wins broadband tender battle
Telkom’s fixed-line broadband expansion plans can now continue unhindered after the telecommunications operator won a crucial battle at the supreme court of appeal in Bloemfontein. The supreme court on Monday dismissed an application brought by ZTE Mzanzi, a black-owned telecommunications company
Smile to pump big money into 4G
Smile Telecommunications, the telecommunications operator started five years ago by former MTN executive Irene Charnley, has signed a deal that will see it investing hundreds of millions of dollars to build fourth-generation (4G) broadband networks in Uganda, Tanzania
SA must choose its own broadband path
Lord Stephen Carter has enjoyed a storied career. He was the founding CEO of Ofcom, the powerful British media, telecoms and broadcasting regulator. He also served as the Downing Street chief of staff under former prime minister Gordon Brown and is now president and MD for Europe, the Middle East & Africa at
Tanzania beats SA to LTE
Mobile operator Smile Telecoms has launched a long-term evolution (LTE) network in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, beating SA to the punch to roll out the next-generation mobile technology on a commercial basis. LTE, sometimes referred to as 4G, offers
IPTV could make home fibre feasible
Telkom has begun a multibillion-rand network upgrade to improve the performance of broadband infrastructure and even to support fibre to the home eventually, but with fears uptake might be slow, could streaming video services provide the impetus to drive demand? Gabrielle Gauthey, executive vice-president of public affairs
ZTE ‘threw us under a bus’
ZTE Mzanzi has accused its partner, China’s ZTE, of “throwing it under a bus” when it terminated agreements with the local, black-controlled company. It’s also accused it of colluding with competitor Huawei. TechCentral broke the news on Thursday
Legal drama as ZTE pulls plug on partner
Relations between Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer ZTE and local partner ZTE Mzanzi appear to have broken down irretrievably. TechCentral has established that ZTE has cancelled its partnership agreement with Mzanzi, in which it has a 40% stake, prompting the latter to file a court papers
ZTE takes partner to court over Telkom interdict
Chinese networking equipment manufacturer ZTE is taking ZTE Mzanzi, an SA company in which it has a minority equity stake, to the high court in Pretoria in an effort to have an interdict the latter company won against Telkom overturned. ZTE Mzanzi, led by Tumi Magasa, won the interim court interdict at the end of March, preventing
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 ‘failed to follow its own procedures’
Telkom’s management team failed to follow internal tender procedures and is to blame for a court interdict on Friday that prevents it from continuing with work to improve its access network into homes and businesses. This is the allegation levelled against the operator by networking equipment vendor ZTE Mzanzi, a joint venture between China’s ZTE and local black empowerment