You too, Telkom
The decision last week by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) to reduce mobile termination rates was not unexpected. What the industry didn’t expect was for the regulator to move as quickly as it has to reduce fixed-line rates
Riding the ICT tsunami
The latest edition of the magazine, African Communications, carries a feature article by Arthur Goldstuck on the key trends in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector since last year. In it, he states
Parliament summons Sentech to answer questions
Parliament’s portfolio committee on communications will interrogate senior management at state-owned signal distributor Sentech on two weeks’ time. The committee wants Sentech to answer questions about business decisions it has made. According to Business Day newspaper, the committee, which is chaired by ANC MP Ismail Vadi (pictured), wants answers on a range of issues, including [...]
Vadi joins Nyanda in slamming mobile operators
It appears that SA politicians are getting increasingly fed-up with the country’s mobile operators. ANC MP Ismail Vadi, chairman of parliament’s portfolio committee on communications, has joined communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda and Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille in criticising Vodacom, MTN and Cell C for their apparent attempt to impose cellular interconnection rates for [...]
Parliament’s Vadi vows to get tough in 2010
In 2007, when the ANC asked Ismail Vadi to become chairman of the important parliamentary portfolio committee on communications, he was stunned. “I knew absolutely nothing about communications,” he says. But since assuming the role just over two years ago, Vadi has taken to the job like a duck to water. Under his direction, the [...]
TechCentral’s ICT Newsmakers of the Year (part 1)
SA’s technology industry grabbed more public attention in 2009 than it has in years. In spite of the recession, the news flow has been constant, and not all of it has been bad. Undoubtedly, the biggest story of the year on the business front was Telkom’s sale and unbundling of its 50% stake in cellular [...]
Interconnection hearings kick off in parliament
The debate over cellphone interconnection rates is only about how much they would be reduced and over what time period, national assembly communications committee chairman Ismail Vadi said on Tuesday. Speaking at the start of two-days of public hearings on the issue, Vadi said by holding the hearings the committee was taking “an extraordinary step [...]
Icasa comes under heavy fire in parliament
The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) has come under fire in parliament for the time it has taken it to craft regulations needed to bring down high mobile interconnection rates. Responding to a question from Congress of the People MP Julie Kilian over why it has taken the authority more than three years to [...]
Icasa councillors under fire in parliament
Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) councillors came in for some sharp criticism in the national assembly on Tuesday afternoon. “I must point out that the committee is not satisfied with the overall performance of Icasa councillors,” ANC MP Ismail Vadi, who chairs the communications portfolio committee, told members of parliament. But this did not [...]
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