South Africa-based technology conglomerate Naspers reported that its first-half profits had risen 11 per cent helped by the company’s major stakes in Chinese internet giant Tencent (in which Naspers indirectly owns a 29 per cent stake). Naspers is Africa’s biggest company by market capitalisation but last year spun off its international businesses to an Amsterdam-based […]

South Africa’s communications regulator ICASA was due to face a slew of court actions starting November 15th over spectrum allocations. The actions were cancelled. The legal actions had started and included Telkom, Rain, Vodacom and MTN. The softening comes about because ICASA has now licensed “provisional” spectrum in place of temporary allocations which have been […]

African pay-TV operation MultiChoice Group has reported its interim numbers seeing a 5 per cent improvement in subscribers YoY, but its growth in its home South African market was lower at 2 per cent. The broadcaster said that its subscriber count (subscrobers active within 90 days) was 21.1 million (split 12.2 million in the rest […]

APO Group, the Pan-African communications consultancy and press release distribution service, has announced a multi-year strategic partnership with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), providing the public broadcaster with sports content from the whole of Africa. SABC is South Africa’s national broadcaster. It broadcasts across 19 radio stations (AM/FM) and six television channels, and is […]

South African cellular operator Vodacom has joined telco Telkom in confronting regulator ICASA over its decision to take back “temporary” spectrum. It means that South Africa’s three largest telcos (including MTN) are all now pursuing ICASA through the Pretoria High Court and arguing that ICASA’s timing is not right. The spectrum was made available in […]

South African telco Telkom is arguing that an upcoming withdrawal of cellular spectrum would cause significant disruption as people are still forced to work from home, and the move would harm the provision of services for those users. Telkom has applied to the South African High Court in Pretoria and asking for a review of […]

South Africa’s telco Telkom is suing the broadcasting and communications regulator ICASA over the withdrawal of the temporary spectrum that’s coming to an end in November. The spectrum was made available in April 2020 to help cope with extra demand from home working and the pressures from Covid. The government extended the emergency spectrum access […]

South Africa, after almost a dozen false starts, will switch off its analogue TV transmissions by March 2022. The adoption of digital TV is some 10 years late and, while digital broadcasting is already a reality in some parts of the nation, it is far from nationwide. South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa, following a cabinet […]

South Africa suffers regular electricity load shedding, where local power supplies are cut during heavy demand. Now the country’s business leaders are arguing with regulator ICASA that much the same risks apply to spectrum bandwidth. Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) head Busi Mavuso said that if ICASA proceeds with its plan to take back temporarily […]

South Africa’s Openserve, currently a subsidiary of telco Telkom, and which looks after the operator’s wholesale business division, is to be given a listing on the Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE). This move is additional to the separate JSE listing of the spinning off of its Swiftnet masts and towers division – and a likely 20 […]