Thursday, June 30, 2011

RICA causing problems on the cell phone networks ?

What are the chances of Vodacom / MTN and CellC all having network related issues on the last day before the big RICA cut-off? My partner Joanne has been experiencing problems in Rome this afternoon, so the problem is fairly wide spread.

Whilst MTN has admitted their problems were RICA related, Vodacom is quoted on MyBroadband as not knowing the cause, but when their PR resources were phoned for comment they denied the RICA aspect completely.

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/cellular/27891-vodacom-network-problems-2
http://www.businesslive.co.za/southafrica/sa_companies/2011/06/30/vodacom-tweets-difficulties-on-rica-d-day


Hope Nashua did my RICA application properly and my SIM doesn’t switch off tonight, on seconds thoughts a 5 day weekend would go down just great.

Peter Walsh
30th June 2011
Cape Town

Monday, June 27, 2011

Non-RICAed SIMs after 30 June: what to expect « Cellular « MyBroadband Tech and IT News


Rudolph Muller
June 27, 2011




If you have not RICAed your SIM by 30 June, you will face a locked SIM and de-activated service
Over the last year there have been numerous prominent campaigns to encourage consumers to ‘RICA’ their SIMs through providing operators with proof of address and identification.

Registration is required in terms of the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-related Information Act to help the police to locate criminals using cellphones for illegal activities.

Recent information suggests that more than 90 percent of South Africa’s phone users have registered their SIM cards in terms of RICA, but that still means that there are millions on non-RICAed SIMs in the country.
This begs the question: what will happen to non-RICAed SIMs after the June 30 deadline?

Non-RICAed SIMs after 30 June

Virgin Mobile’s Vanda Harries explains that they will not cut off non-RICAed subscribers completely after 30 June, just suspend their ability to make and receive calls and SMSs or use data.

“They will still be able to call our call centre for help on 123 so as to assist them to RICA as soon as possible – at which time their full service will be restored on their same number,” said Harries.

“If they decline to RICA for an extended period, normal churn rules will apply and we will eventually disconnect them. We would therefore encourage customers to RICA in order to avoid the inconvenience of having their cellular service suspended,” said Harries.

Portia Maurice, Vodacom’s Chief Officer of Corporate Affairs, explained that SIMs that are not registered (RICAed) will be locked as of 1 July. “If the SIM is locked the user will not be able to make a call, send an SMS or access the internet,” said Maurice.

“It’s important that people understand that all SIMs must be registered – including those in things like computer modems and burglar alarms. This is probably our biggest area of concern,” said Maurice.
Maurice added that contract customers who haven’t registered will still remain liable to pay their contract, even if the SIM is locked.

If a SIM hasn’t been registered after six months it will be permanently deleted from Vodacom’s system and the number will be recycled.

“The good news is that the process to unlock SIMs is simple – all the customer has to do is register the SIM, but it can take 24-48 hours to reactivate the service,” Maurice pointed out.
MTN also confirmed that non-RICAed customers will be deactivated from the network on 1 July.
“Prepaid customers will still retain their numbers, and non-complying postpaid customers will still be liable for their bills as per their commercial agreement,” explained to Eddie Moyce, Customer Services Executive at MTN SA.

“Depending on the expiry date, prepaid customers airtime will still be available once they RICA. Deactivated subscribers will be reactivated if they bring along proof of residence and their ID to any MTN dealer and participating retailer. Customers must please bear in mind it might take between 2 hours and 24 hours to reconnect,” said Moyce.

Cell C explained that customers who do not RICA will be cut-off from the Cell C network after 30 June 2011. “This is in accordance with the RICA legislation,” said Cell C.

“Those who are not registered by 1 July will remain cut-off. No form of communication (incoming and outgoing calls and incoming and outgoing SMS’s) can be carried out on that SIM card until the necessary RICA registration process is followed. Should a customer attempt to make a phone call, a recorded message will play informing the customer to register their number before they can make a connection,” said Cell C.
Cell C explained that customers who have not registered their numbers by te cut-off date can still re-register their SIM cards after 1 July.

“Cell C customers can check their RICA status, by dialing *133*7422# (or *133*RICA#) or SMS “RICA” to 14579,” the company said. “Some of our stores will be open until late to accommodate customers to RICA.”

Friday, June 24, 2011

Telkom giveth and Telkom taketh away | TechCentral

Duncan McLeod, TechCentral

Telkom is cutting the line rental cost of its mid-tier, 1Mbit/s fixed-line broadband product by 11,3% to R289/month on 1 July, from R326/month previously. Broadband line rental for 384kbit/s and 4Mbit/s users remains unchanged, the company says.

At the same time, Telkom is hiking its basic line rental — which broadband users also have to pay — by 5% from 1 August. Telkom residential customers now have to fork out R139,97/month and business customers R191,84/month per line. This means that, apart from users on the 1Mbit/s service, fixed-line broadband subscribers will have to fork out slightly more for the service.

Telkom filed its annual tariff adjustment with the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), which must approve the proposed new tariffs before they can be implemented. Because they fall within what’s allowed, Icasa is expected to rubberstamp the changes.

Friday’s filing also shows that Telkom is passing on some, but by no means all, of the benefits of the 1 March reduction in wholesale mobile call termination rates — the fees mobile operators charge other players to carry calls onto their networks. The rate was reduced in peak times from R1,47/minute to R1,40; in off-peak, the rate has declined from R1,17 to R1,12/minute.

At the beginning of March, peak-time mobile termination rates for mobile calls fell from 89c/minute to 73c/minute, with off-peak rates coming down to 65c/minute from 77c/minute.

Telkom is reducing tariffs for all long-distance calls as well as standard-time call charges for local calls. It hasn’t specified by how much local call charges are being reduced by and a Telkom spokesman wasn’t immediately able to provide the quantum of the reduction. The local, per-minute call charge during off-peak times remains unchanged.

In broadband, the company is not changing the monthly subscription fees for its Do Broadband bundles. From 1 September, customers who subscribe to Do Broadband 2 and 3 bundles will receive an additional 1GB of bandwidth for the same price. It’s also introducing a new bundle costing R395/month and offering a 1Mbit/s line and 5GB of monthly data.

In the case of its Closer calling plans, Closer 1 will increase from R150 to R158/month and Closer 2 from R170 to R177/month. Closer 3 remains unchanged at R333.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

8ta ‘Project Hulk’ data special « Broadband « MyBroadband Tech and IT News

June 23, 2011

8ta today announced the launch of a 10GB data bundle at R199 per month and 10GB + 10GB data special at R299 per month

8ta today (23 June 2011) launched a data promotion which significantly undercuts any other mobile broadband offering currently available on the SA market.

8ta launched two data products, a 10GB data bundle priced at R199 per month and a 10GB + 10GB Midnight Surfer service priced at R299 per month. Both services are available on 24 month contracts.

8ta’s 10GB + 10GB service offers subscribers 10GB of data per month, with another 10GB of data from
00:00 to 05:00.

8ta’s new pricing is significantly more aggressive than Vodacom, Cell C and MTN’s 2GB promotions priced at R149 per month. It also undercuts Cell C’s 5GB per month data offering priced at R299 per month on contract.

8ta’s new promotion is jokingly referred to as the ‘Project Hulk’ special because of the aggressive pricing.
The following table provides an overview of the most prominent mobile broadband promotions available today.

Mobile Data Contracts

Standard data After hours data Price Basic Cost/MB Lowest Cost/MB
8ta 10GB + 10GB 10GB 10GB R299 R0.019 R0.014
8ta 10GB 10GB R199 R0.019 R0.019
Vodacom 2GB + 2GB (modem inc) 2GB 2GB R149 R0.073 R0.036
Cell C (modem inc) 5GB R299 R0.058 R0.058
Cell C 2GB (modem inc) 2GB R149 R0.073 R0.073
MTN 2GB (modem inc) 2GB R149 R0.073 R0.073

The new 8ta promotion is a data-only special where subscribers have the option of either using their own modem or purchasing a modem from 8ta. 8ta’s price for a 7.2Mbps modem is R349 while a 21Mbps costs R699.

Out of bundle data is priced at 30c per MB.

Users should note that this offer is only available on the 8ta network, and not on MTN roaming.

The promotion kicks off on Sunday, 26 June 2011, and will only be available for a limited period.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

LG Optimus Black review: dark horse of smartphones | TechCentral

Craig Wilson, TechCentral


Korea’s LG Electronics has long had to play second fiddle to rival and country mate Samsung, but with its new range of smartphones the company is displaying its mettle and making it clear it can create products that not only stand up to the opposition’s offerings in terms of functionality, but beat many of them in terms of pricing.

The Optimus Black (soon to be followed by the dual-core Optimus 2X and the Nintendo 3DS-like Optimus 3D) is a whole lot of smartphone in a diminutive package, with an equally diminutive price. At only R3 999, for the budget- and feature-conscious user it’s a compelling proposition.

With its 4-inch, 480×800-pixel display, the Optimus Black offers a pleasing browsing experience. LG calls its Nova, and claims it’s both more energy efficient, and brighter than the Amoled screens favoured by Samsung.

We can’t tell if its claims are true, but in terms of colour, contrast and viewing angle the display certainly keeps up with its peers.

Not only is the Optimus a great tool for playing videos, but the auto-brightness setting is suitably responsive and the screen is as good in bright daylight as it is in darker conditions.

Boasting a 1GHz processor running Android 2.2 Froyo (upgradeable to 2.3 via a software update), the Optimus Black has less raw processing power than the soon-to-be-released 2X or the bevy of dual-core processor handsets that are either out or coming soon.

Nevertheless, it handles multiple applications without fuss. There is, however, an inexplicable lag between pushing the unlock button and the screen coming to life. In practice, though, that’s fairly minor.

Using the onboard sensors and accelerometer, the Optimus Black offers a range of gesture functions, but in practice we found them more annoying than helpful. Some are also great in principle, but less so in reality. For example, the gesture button can be used to activate the camera when the phone is locked (by holding it down and shaking the handset), but curiously it can’t be used to actually take a picture, which means users have to revert to the touch interface which results in far less stability when actually taking pictures.

Like the bulk of its competitors, the Optimus Black includes two cameras, a front-facing 2-megapixel camera and a 5-mepapixel version with an LED flash on its rear. Though the front-facing camera is of higher resolution than many competitors’ offerings, both cameras suffer from noticeable lag – image quality in optimum conditions is good, in anything less it’s poor.

Video recording is also poor, which is a pity considering how good video playback is on the device. The Optimus Black supports DivX, XVid, H.264, WMV, MPEG4, H263, and the camera supports geo-tagging via onboard GPS.

Connectivity options are as expected and include Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth and GPS. The handset can be used as a Wi-Fi hotspot, and supports Wi-Fi Direct, which is essentially a speedier Bluetooth alternative. Understandably, this functionality is only available when pairing the Optimus Black with another Wi-Fi Direct-enabled device.

The built-in e-mail client is good, but if you’re a Gmail user you’ll never need it. As with most Android devices, Gmail integration on the Optimus Black is superb. After signing in to a Google account for the first time, the Gmail mailbox is populated, along with your Google Talk, Google Calendar and other Google-related applications. Also, all sharing features thankfully include the option to e-mail via Gmail rather than defaulting to the built-in client.

As per other Android devices, synchronising contacts from Gmail, Facebook, Twitter and even Myspace is fully supported and intuitive. However, the applications for Facebook and Twitter supplied by LG aren’t quite up to the standards of the standalone applications available in the Android Market, but that is easily remedied.

Android users will find the home screen layout and interface familiar. The Optimus Black offers seven fully customisable home screens, all of which can be displayed as thumbnails with a pinch, moved between in full screen with a swipe, and the applications and widgets they contain are edited by means of a long tap.
The most noticeable interface update is the enhancements that have been made to the notifications menu. As with other Android devices, swiping from the top of the screen into it opens the notifications menu, but LG has improved the functionality by including both music player and connectivity controls. This makes toggling things like 3G connectivity and Wi-Fi on and off a breeze without the need to download additional widgets or delve into settings menus.

On the whole, the touch screen is fairly responsive, but when typing messages the spacebar can be a problem. It feels less responsive, but that may just be the size of it. Fortunately, the already sufficient keyboard can be further improved by means of browsing the Android Market for keyboard applications.

Though the Optimus Black supports Google Talk out the box, there is no built-in instant messaging application. Again, though, the Android Market offers plenty to choose from, so that’s hardly a black mark against it. What is annoying, however, is that LG saw fit to only supply a 2GB microSD card with the device. Considering its fantastic media functionality, 4GB or 8GB would’ve been appreciated.

The onboard music player supports MP3, AAC (and its variants), WAV and MIDI, and all media can be streamed to compatible devices by means of LG’s built-in SmartShare DLNA application. The onboard browser also supports Flash, which means there’s no need to download a third-party browser – although some users will doubtless still prefer to use Opera or Firefox.

Being an Android phone, the device also supports Google’s recently implemented voice search in addition to supporting support for voice commands itself. A nifty implementation of voice functionality is the “car mode” option that presents the user with large buttons for frequently performed tasks such as “navigate”, “keypad” and “contacts” and supports voice commands.

In theory, it’s possible to dictate and send an SMS or e-mail using voice commands, along with making calls and launching apps, but we found the hits-to-misses ratio too high to make it a function we’d often use. With further refinement, however, it’s certainly a feature that could prove popular, particularly for those who spend a great deal of time commuting.


Unfortunately, as with most smartphones, the Optimus Black’s battery life isn’t exactly stellar. If you turn off all connectivity options when not in use you can eke out a little over two days of battery life, but if you’re using 3G and Wi-Fi frequently you’ll have to charge it daily.

At a millimeter thinner than the iPhone 4 and weighing in at a paltry 109g, the Optimus Black is slim and lightweight. It doesn’t feel as sturdy as some of its competitors, particularly with its plastic back, but it doesn’t feel cheap either. Its shape and size mean that it does resemble a black iPhone rather closely, and considering its impressive specifications the comparison isn’t entirely unreasonable.

Considering its feature set, the Optimus Black is very well priced and is certainly a viable option for those looking for a smartphone, but disinclined to spend a fortune in the process.

The LG Optimus Black will be available in SA in early July.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

How to Make Virtual Conferencing Work: 10 Steps | BNET

By Wayne Turmel | March 14, 2011

For years, we have been hearing about how the next logical step in virtual communication is the “virtual conference”. Some people love the idea, some hate it. While the technology has taken great leaps in the last few years, it’s still not very common.

I look at virtual conferencing the way I look at the flying car or owning a boat. The idea sounds cool, I daydream about it, but the cold hard realities make it impractical. Recently, I saw an article on the Hypergrid Business blog that was written by someone at the 3D, Virtual Conferencing company Altadyn. They identified 10 concerns that need to be addressed by the industry for widespread adoption in the enterprise space.
Let’s hear what you think. I believe that they’re all valid, and some of them represent much bigger barriers to entry than they’re copping to. That’s natural enough; if your marketing folks aren’t optimists they need to find another gig.

The listed concerns are theirs, the smart-aleck editorial is all me.
  1. The software download issue- IT continues to struggle as an industry with whether to allow people to download plug-ins and software to allow meetings, particularly with people outside the company.
  2. Firewall Issues When are we going to get past “we have all the communication tools we need, as long as we don’t have to talk to customers, vendors or anyone who doesn’t work here”?
  3. Bandwidth- Anything involving video is going to suck up a lot of webspace and bandwidth. This is not only on the connection but whatever computer you’re using. If you’ve ever seen what your kid’s version of the SIMS does to your computer performance you see the issue. Actually, at the rate bandwidth and ease of use is expanding, this will be one of the first barriers to fall.
  4. Support for multiple platforms. This is more than just the “PC vs. Mac” debate. As people learn to work on the go, fewer are using true “computers” and going to tablets, smart phones and lord only knows what we’re going to have next. I (for the moment) discount the rumors that Google is looking at an implanted chip.
  5. User generated content. One of the advantages of these tools is the ability to integrate all kinds of content (documents, video, applications) and show it to lots of people at the same time. The current problem is that you can’t just drag and drop existing content into most platforms… it’s a hassle.
  6. Scalability- If you use one tool for small meetings and then another for big events, you’ll always have problems getting people comfortable and up to speed.
  7. Learning Curve- Now we’re hitting the big barrier. These tools still take time to learn, and most of us have better things to do than spend half an hour learning to use a tool we’ll only use for one event. I’m not saying we shouldn’t, I’m saying most of us (including me) won’t. If it’s something I’m going to use every day, that’s one thing. If I’m going to spend time being frustrated so I can attend a virtual event that used to get me out of the house to Orlando every year I’m even less motivated–and I’m not even that crazy about Orlando.
  8. Simple Avatars- Why does it take so long to set up an online persona that bears no likeness to who I am. Proponents of these tools like to point out how we can interract with other avatars and that’s great, if everyone on your team is a vaguely-30s, annoyingly thin, clean-cut white (or darned near) person. The only time an online persona that’s better looking and more impressive than the real person would be useful is on sites HR won’t let past the firewall. Or so I’ve heard.
  9. Walking and turning-Unless you spend a lot of time on video games(and I haven’t) navigating the virtual conference hall is still annoying. Why does it take 3 buttons and carpal tunnel syndrome to get to the content I want to see. More than that, I don’t see the fun or the business application in flying from place to place. (Seriously, how good would a conference session have to be that you wished you could literally fly to it?) It’s not fun to me, and it’s time consuming and annoying to a lot of people.
  10. Virtual behavior- It’s interesting that one of the concerns vendors have is people getting rambunctious and acting inappropriately in these sessions. Seriously? Most of us can’t get our team involved enough to stop answering email. I think this shows how little the people who passionately love this technology relate to those of us who want to use just enough to get our work done.
You’ll notice that the first six challenges are technical. I have no doubt they’ll be solved quickly (at the current rate maybe by the time you read this article). The last four have to do with human motivation and behavior…and I suspect Google will have that implant long before some of these challenges are properly addressed and overcome.

5 Things That Make Virtual Meetings Work (Or Not) | BNET

By Wayne Turmel | April 18, 2011

Virtual meetings are a fact of life for most of us, at least occasionally. Most of them are modestly successful. They accomplish the bare minimum–information is shared, decisions get made and that’s about it. What makes a good webmeeting work when others don’t?

Recently INC. magazine ran an article on the 5 factors that make a good virtual meeting. The full article is a decent, if way too basic, introduction to the topic. Here are the five factors they identified:
  • Prepare for the meeting. Really. The fact is that running a meeting at the best of times is hard work, but much of it comes naturally to us out of habit. Online, you need to make sure people can connect early, make the best use of the time you share and stay engaged. An agenda with easy links and instructions for the technical end of things is a must. One good tip the article mentions is to use a co-facilitator to handle the technology while you run the meeting. That’s a great idea.
  • Use the right technical tools and technology. The best advice here is to think small- use only the amount of technology necessary to accomplish the desired meeting outcome. You don’t need high-tech video conferencing to solve some problems, and the phone won’t be as powerful as true collaboration tools. Form follows function.
  • Stay focused. This advice is for both the audience and the presenter. Among the tips is the most obvious but also the most abused- single topic, short meetings are far more effective online than long rambling ones. People have a limited capacity to maintain attention and there area lot of distractions out there. Make it easy on each other by controlling background noise using the mute function on the phone. One small quibble I had with the advice is that it said to mute all phones and use the chat feature instead. That’s often a good compromise, especially with large groups, but the vocal/audio component of communication is important. With a little practice and willing participants you can facilitate discussion by call on folks and letting people unmute their phones when they want to participate.
  • Use good meeting etiquette. Virtual meetings have different dynamics than live meetings. For one thing it’s easier to let yourself start answering email and do other tasks that you’d never do if you knew the meeting leader and other participants could see you multitasking.
  • Engage your participants. If you held a meeting in the conference room and said, “Okay, I want you not to talk to each other or to me. Sit there quietly and hold all questions until the end while I club you to death with this PowerPoint presentation”, how well would that go over. (If that sounds like your regular meetings you have larger problems to be dealt with another day). Yet that’s how many presenters run virtual meetings. In the name of managing time they restrict their ability to truly interact and leverage the participation of attendees.
One thing that’s not listed in the article, but absolutely needs to be mentioned is the necessity for people leading virtual meetings to learn the ABCs of the tools before they attempt to solve problems or lead important discussions . 

As I point out in “10 Steps to Successful Virtual Presentations”, fewer than 25% of people who are asked to lead virtual meetings and presentations ever receive any practice or coaching with the tools–The first time they use them is with innocent victims on the line, and then people are surprised that the meetings don’t go smoothly. You can’t run a decent meeting if you’re worried about which button to push. It’s not fair to the presenter or the participants. All meeting leaders should know the basics of good web presenting before they’re expected to run high-stakes presentations and meetings.

Do You Need a Webinar, Webcast or Videoconference? | BNET


By | June 20, 2011

You’re going to talk to your team or your whole company with PowerPoint, video, maybe there’s a handout. Should you use a webinar? Webcast? Virtual event? Or videconference?  Choosing the right tool can be overwhelming.

First, there is no consistent language.

What is one person’s “virtual event”, might be someone else’s webinar. Companies marketing these services use different terms, often just because they’re eager to drive up their rankings in Google. Or maybe because no one organization oversees the naming of these tools.

What is a Webex?

Whatever the reason, you get some interesting contradictions. For example, web presentations are now known generically as “Webexes”. Webex is the industry leader, to be sure (although the last competitive analysis I saw listed 127 webinar presentation platforms). But using WebEx to describe any web meeting or presentation is like using Kleenex to describe a tissue. While all Kleenexes are tissues, not all tissues are Kleenex. Same with web presentations. I’m sure Cisco’s marketing department doesn’t mind the confusion but there is a difference. Clear yet?

Okay, let’s try to find some common language. Here are some of the most common terms and the differences between them:
  • Webinar- the earliest mention of this word is around 1994, and it comes from a combination of web (as in online through the computer) and seminar (it started as a lecture/training format). This means that a webinar is primarily an education tool (although they also serve a useful marketing purpose), and uses 2-way communication. In working with my clients it usually means that it is live, rather than recorded because that interaction is important. This includes functionality such as sharing of computer desktops, applications, PowerPoint, chat and polling to create interactivity and get audience feedback. There are plenty of smaller players like LiveConferencepro, Dimdim and more.
  • Webcast- a presentation delivered over the web that is more “broadcast” (one-way to the audience) than interactive. This difference from webinars matters because webcasts can be to larger audiences and can be recorded and replayed. Some tools like Nextwebinars actually encourage you to prerecord your presentations before sending them out into the world. These often contain the same basic functions as webinars but tend to be less interactive so rely less on audience feedback. Companies like Netbriefings and Telenect specialize in this, especially if you want to incorporate video into your presentation. Other lowtech options include Brighttalk and ReadyTalk.
  • Webmeetings (or  web meetings, no one can really decide) are simply meetings held on the web using collaborative communication and 2-way audio (and sometimes video). They use webinar type technology but tend to be smaller, interactive and rely on two-way communication to be truly effective for brainstorming,sharing critical team information and training. These also include collaboration tools that capture notes, share documents and allow input from multiple people at the same time.  You can certainly use the big players, WebEx, GoToMeeting, LiveMeeting, or you can use collaboration tools like Via3,
  • Videoconferencing- as the name implies, these tools rely on visual contact between the presenter and the audience. They can range from the high end,high-definition Cisco Telepresence and other tools to low-tech Skype, IMeet and others using simple webcams. These tools are best used for small meetings where looking each other in the eye is important.
  • Teleconferences- used to be known as conference calls. They are decidedly low-tech since it’s just a telephone and the information is all audio. Visual references, documents etc need to be handled individually if everyone is to follow along. Sometimes, this is all you need.
  • Virtual conferencing: is becoming more and more common. If you haven’t checked it out, you should, although it won’t be right for everyone. This type of presentation, currently used mostly for large events because of its learning curve and up-front investment, combines elements of all of the other tools. Participants are given an avatar and can move throughout the room interacting by chat, voice, view recordings and live presentations. Protosphere, Digitell, On24 and Second Life are examples.
By defining our terms, we can choose the right tool for our teams. Do we need rich, multi-media communication? Does it need to integrate with our other communication tools or can it stand alone? Is it worth the cost and hassle? Are you andyour IT person talking about the same thing?

Making smart decisions about what we use , and how well, is part of our role as leaders in the modern workplace.

What do you use? How is it working for you?

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Track your cellphone « General « MyBroadband Tech and IT News

We’re all so reliant on our cellphones that losing one is a tragedy. Use some of these tools to keep tabs on your mobile line.

It’s everyone’s worst nightmare: a stolen or lost cellphone.

Not only is it a pain in the neck (and potentially expensive) to replace, but it is also a massive inconvenience. Even when you do get a replacement piece of hardware it has none of your applications on it, it hasn’t been customised like your old one and, most importantly, it doesn’t have your data; all those numbers, important messages and top game scores – just gone.

Hopefully you’ve backed up your numbers somewhere but even then it can take ages to restore them all and they’re bound to be a complete mess when you’re finished.

Losing a cellphone is one of the easiest things to do. If you’re quick though, you might just be able to get your prized hardware back before it’s picked up by some passer-by, or before it has been stolen, erased and sold on in the black market.

Today there are dozens of applications that can be used to track stolen and lost cellphones. Here is a list of some of the ways to achieve this.

Most mobile phones today have built-in GPSes and most hardware makers offer services to locate your missing phone. Many HTC phones for example, include HTCSense, a service that both syncs your mobile data as well as helps you find your phone when it is lost. It’s worth checking out your phone maker’s website for similar tools that may already be available before you install third party applications.

Android users could also use something like MobileDefense which is available in the Android market and allows you to track a phone, lock it remotely or even wipe the data on the phone from afar.

Apple iPhone users that already subscribe to Apple’s MobileMe can use that to find their missing phone. Like most tools, if you can’t find your phone or you know it has definitely been stolen, you can remote kill the phone. MobileMe isn’t free but it does include many other services

Another, cheaper, option for Apple users is to use something like iHound which can locate a phone, sound an alarm on the phone, wipe the data remotely and much more. iHound is also available for Android devices.
Blackberry users can achieve the same effect using tools such as SmrtGuard or BuddyGuard, both of which will locate and wipe a lost or stolen phone.

Users with mobile phones that are using Windows can use Microsoft’s My Phone software. It’s free, and besides allowing users to synchronise and backup data, it can also be used to locate a lost phone. It provides the user with the location of the phone when it was last synchronised. My Phone can also be used to reset the phone to its default factory settings remotely which effectively wipes the phone clean. My Phone can be downloaded on most Windows-based phones and is included in Windows Phone 7.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

BBC News - Cloud computing after Amazon and Sony: ready for primetime?



Rackspace data centre  
Cloud computing is more secure than on-premise solutions, say its fans

Cloud computing may be the hottest thing in corporate computing right now, but two IT disasters - at Amazon and Sony - beg the question: Is cloud computing ready for primetime business?

It's a nightmare moment. You are under pressure - to meet customer orders, finish a project, execute a deal - and nothing. Your computers, servers or network are down. If you are lucky, a few nail biting hours and a reboot or three later, you and your IT team have restored services.

But what if your IT infrastructure goes down and there's nothing you can do because your computing power sits in the cloud, provided over the internet by another company? When a key part of Amazon's EC2 cloud service collapsed, many of the firm's customers were reduced to publishing apologies on their websites, and click "refresh" on Amazon's service health dashboard.

Two of Sony's online gaming services, meanwhile, were hacked, compromising confidential data of more than 100 million customers.
The twin worries of cloud computing, security and resilience, are back, just as the promise of huge cost savings persuaded many companies to make the jump. 2011, experts said, would be the year when companies would get their business ready for the cloud.

According to a new global study by IBM, more than 60% of organisations plan to "embrace cloud computing over the next five years" to boost their "competitive advantage."

Marc Benioff, chief executive of Salesforce.com and one of the pioneers of cloud computing, speaks of a "fundamental shift, the move of computing resources into the cloud [that] gives small and large companies access to the same resources."

Jay Heiser at technology consultancy Gartner lists the benefits: easily obtained and highly reliable services, delivered quickly, conveniently and at a relatively low cost.

Until something goes wrong, of course.

Time for a rethink?

"A cloud is not a cloud is not a cloud," says John Engates, chief technology officer at cloud services provider Rackspace. Every kind of cloud service requires a different risk assessment.

There are cloud services for consumers holding masses of customer data. Sony had to take its service offline for four weeks. A nasty bump for the global consumer electronics giant, potentially lethal had it happened to a smaller business.

Then there are infrastructure and platform services for companies that provide cheap storage, raw computing power, or software as a service. When a software upgrade at Amazon's data centre in North Virginia went wrong, many companies using the service disappeared from the face of the online world for a full four days.

"How long does it take to reboot a cloud," asks Mr Heiser and argues that many companies focus too much on the operational process of integrating the cloud into their business, but do not pay enough "attention to architectural and build issues" of their cloud strategy.

So is it time for chief information officers and chief technology officers to rethink the cloud?

'No computer is perfect'

Not so, cloud fans protest.
"Most companies have had major outages, that's the nature of computing" argues Marc Benioff. The cloud just makes these problems more visible - and less frequent.

"Traditionally, companies were running both their own business and an IT business," says Mr Benioff. Going into the cloud shifts the computing to the experts "who do this for a living".

"No computer is perfect, but if you look at the history of cloud computing, it's more secure and reliable than traditional on-premise computing," insists Mr Benioff.

Rackspace's John Engates believes that cloud outages can actually be beneficial. "(They) make us better, they force us to repair and bolster the service, they even help competitors to see the challenges that other folks faced," he said.

Stuck with one provider?

Customers have to sharpen up, though.

Cloud computing may be cheap, but robust back-up solutions cost money. Cloud users will have to re-examine how many copies of their data they need, and where to keep them, says Mr Engates.

"If you build a robust infrastructure across geographies, you can sustain an outage," he says and points to video-on-demand provider Netflix, one of the Amazon customers that dodged the outage without obvious problems.

Companies have to make a risk assessment: Do they need parallel infrastructures, multiple cloud service providers, even a hybrid cloud where the data is shared and synced between the cloud and the company's own servers?

"People will want to bulk up their cloud strategy," says Paul Maritz, chief executive of virtualisation software company VMware. "It's unlikely that they will want to depend on a single [cloud] provider."

While companies may be able to switch suppliers or spread the risk, consumers may find themselves stuck.

Once you have settled on a cloud-based service - whether it is Flickr, Playstation Network, Facebook, Gmail or Hotmail - it is tricky to switch, unless you are prepared to sacrifice your content and social network.

Security questions

"Yes, the cloud is a concentration of risk," says Mr Engates, but people are attacking the customer, not the cloud. "It is easier to defend the cloud, because it has more resources and bandwidth".
Kurt DelBene, in charge of Microsoft's Business division, says Amazon's and Sony's problems "haven't dampened the enthusiasm of our customers for the cloud." The advantages - both cost savings and the ease of integrating diverse systems, for example after mergers and acquisitions - are just too great, he says.

And anyway, says Mr Benioff, Sony's massive data loss "is not a cloud computing issue, it's a cybersecurity issue."

Indeed, Verizon's 2011 Data Breach Investigations Report found that cloud computing played no role in security breaches: "We are often asked whether 'the Cloud' factors into many of the breaches we investigate.

The easy answer is 'No - not really.' It's more about giving up control of our assets and data (and not controlling the associated risk) than any technology specific to the Cloud."

Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at internet security firm F-Secure, warns both consumers and companies that when they "move into the cloud, you get lots of benefits, but at the same time you lose control of your data... you have to blindly trust the vendor."

Consumers can help by playing it safe. When answering security questions "don't use your mother's real maiden name; don't give out your real birthday; answer with a number, or a street name or deliberately misspell."

Keeping online email accounts safe is key to cloud security, says Mr Hypponen, because it's here that criminals will find all the registration emails for financial services, it's here that they intercept requests for a password reset.

"Whether we like it or not, cloud is here to stay, because the benefits are clearly larger than the risks," says Mr Hypponen. "During the first years of this major shift [to the cloud] we will see more problems, but we will also learn, and the systems will get more secure."

Back to IT basics

When cloud services fail, the data is likely to get lost, and recovery is slow at best.
After Google's cloud-based email service crashed, says Joe Heiser, "it took Google four days to restore [the data of] 0.02% of the users of a single service."

"What is not in the least bit clear is the relative ability of any cloud service provider to restore your data into their services," Mr Heiser warnings cloud customers.

"We do not believe that the cloud is ready for everything yet," admits Rackspace's John Engates, but believes that cloud services can be part of the solution.

Companies that had a mail server outage can take "days and weeks to recover data from back-up tapes," he says. Putting the back-up into the cloud, with a different provider in a different locations, could speed up recovery.

It's back to IT basics: One concept "that should never be lost in the cloud," says Mr Heiser, "is the need for contingency planning."

BBC News - Consumerisation driving IT policy, says SAP information chief

Oliver Bussman of SAP  
Oliver Bussman of SAP says his biggest technology problem is the consumerisation of IT.

Each week we ask high-profile technology decision-makers three questions. This week it is Oliver Bussman, chief information officer (CIO) of SAP AG.

SAP aims to help companies of all sizes and industries run better through the use of its enterprise application software.

The German company has more than 170,000 customers globally using the company's applications and services, and had revenue of 12.5bn euros in 2010. SAP employs nearly 54,000 people in 50 countries.

What's your biggest technology problem right now?

In my opinion it is the consumerisation of IT.

By this I mean that technology trends are driving technology adoption, I tend to say "lifestyle is becoming work style", end-user demands are shaping the IT strategy.

As CIO it is my job to make sure our employees can take advantage of new technology quickly. I have to stay ahead of the trends. We were one of the first larger companies to adopt the iPad, which had made us a major player in the mobile industry.

Because mobile is changing the market rapidly I have to implement this new device quickly. SAP has a device agnostic approach, meaning we can run pretty much any mobile device on our infrastructure. Today it is the iPad but the next big thing is just around the corner.

During customer meetings I am frequently being asked how to leverage massive amounts of customer data for a competitive advantage, which leads me into question number 2.
What's the next big tech thing in your industry?

Actually, I can give my opinion as CIO of SAP and as an SAP Customer.

Big data - in other words real real-time decision making for enterprises.

At SAP we see three new technologies driving the business IT innovation circle, namely mobility, in-memory and cloud computing.

SAP In-Memory Computing is enabling a new reality of amazing new applications, breakthrough analytics and simplified IT landscapes. We are bringing together in-memory, mobile and cloud-computing technologies to help customers form real-time business networks.

Enterprise mobility will enable completely new business scenarios. In-memory computing will enable the merger of transactional systems and analytical landscapes, enabling real-time insights and reducing TCO (total cost of ownership).

I am an SAP customer in the form of SAP Runs SAP.

SAP Runs SAP means partnering with our development and sales organisation as an early adopter of emerging technologies and solution enhancements - in many cases we are our own first customer.
We can use the technology and give feedback to the development and sales organization to make our software run even better.

What's the biggest technology mistake you've ever made - either at work or in your own life?

In 1990 I had a chance to develop applications on touch screens to navigate through to self-service applications for banking customers for IBM.

They were huge screens, by the way, and weighed half a ton.

I saw the potential, but really the biggest mistake was over time, to underestimate the benefits or in other
words miss the opportunity that Apple took in putting this together with the iPhone smartphone and tablet, which opened a huge market field.

It shows sometimes that you think there is something new, and it takes 20 years to really become a consumer product.

Telkom’s 8.ta blunder « Business « MyBroadband Tech and IT News

A costly missed opportunity means its numbers can’t begin to compare with the gorillas…

In its first (fiscal) year of operation, Telkom’s mobile business 8.ta, burned through over R1bn. Capital expenditure since the unit’s inception – it had to build a network – totals R1.68bn. That’s for a network comprising 970 base stations. There are still around 1 000 to come. Selling, general and administrative (so-called “SGA”) expenses were R769m.

Employee expenses for the 2011 financial year were R140m. This may seem low when looking at the group’s high-level numbers. Staff costs in the rest of the South African business were R7.977bn for 22 884 employees, an average of R348 584 per employee per year. The mobile business’s costs average out at R614 035 per employee per year.

Who said start-ups were cheap?

We are told by Telkom that there has been “positive market response” to 8.ta, and that “costs are in line with budget”. But, EBITDA breakeven has been pushed out to FY2014, with the mobile business becoming cash-flow positive in FY2015. Nothing too alarming, save for the market response perhaps not being as “positive” as the business case would’ve demanded.

Telkom further says that 8.ta is committed to a “target prepaid market”. One would assume that it’s not hurtling along, signing up customers at any cost. Yet, ARPU (average revenue per user), a useful measure to track performance in various customer segments for its active prepaid subscribers is R15.86 per month. This is on a base of 440 775 customers.

Compare this to MTN’s (mature) prepaid subscriber base of 15.763m, where ARPU is R101 per month as of March 31 2011. The ARPU of Vodacom’s 21.409m prepaid customers is R85 per month. As dominant players are forced to add subscribers in the lower LSM groups, they end up with lower and lower average ARPU. Even in Tanzania, where it’s involved in a vicious price war, Vodacom’s ARPU is R20. Which segment of the prepaid market is 8.ta focused on?

The contract side is equally problematic: ARPU of R238.57 on just 32 829 customers in the case of 8.ta, while Vodacom’s 5m-plus post-paid customers spend an average of R387 per month, and MTN’s 3.4m R299.

With products spanning anything from entry-level offers with high (and unsustainable) rewards, to (extremely) high-end iPad data-only services, one gets the feeling 8.ta is looking to plug gaps in the market, rather than define segments. It’s being forced to fight on the fringes.

The holy grail is in converged services.

The answer has been staring Telkom in the face. Over the past five years’ worth of financial results presentations, without fail, there is a presentation slide with the words “fixed-mobile substitution” (customers are running away to mobile), and another with the words “converged services” (or “integrated fixed mobile bundle”) as a solution.

How difficult is it to bundle a mobile contract, a home phone line and some sort of data service on one bill with one number? When you’re at home, the network routes your calls to your “home/fixed” phone. When you’re mobile, to your cellphone. Answer: not that difficult. Telkom has been trialling this internally for months (probably years).

This is its unique selling proposition. No one else can deliver on this. Not Vodacom. Not MTN. Not Cell C. And not Neotel. Telkom told us, many times before in those presentation slides, that it is “uniquely positioned”.

On the consumer side, it has the customer base to convert: there are 4m fixed lines in the country, of which 751 625 are also ADSL subscribers. In the enterprise space its arguably even stronger.

Sources inside Telkom have confirmed that these converged products are late to market, at least according to its mobile unit’s business case. These were supposed to have been taken to market shortly after launch. Right now 8.ta is still toying around with offering free YouTube streaming to BlackBerry subscribers.

The other official line is that “best practice” around the world is to launch consumer products first and then the business ones. How many of these “others” Telkom looked at globally launched a mobile operator from scratch in 2010? You’re late to market. You’re dominant in the enterprise space. Why still tackle the fierce consumer space first?

8.ta (the consumer brand) launched nearly nine months ago. Towards the end of last year, another well-placed source suggested that Telkom would take a mobile/converged offering to enterprises under the “Telkom Business” brand in early 2011. The official line is that this will only happen in the second half of the calendar year. Another six months.

There are hints as to why there have been delays in Telkom’s commentary and presentation to analysts. It says “complex IT projects [are] taking longer than expected, delaying the launch of new products”. Imagine integrating a billing system from this side of the year 2000 with its legacy one.

Hints of converged products have reached the market. The latest Telkom Simple bundle comes with a free 3G modem. Telkom Mix, which launches on June 27, bundles a BlackBerry, landline calls and mobile airtime for R399 per month (over 24 months). Getting there.

Converged (fixed-mobile) products go hand in hand with its subscription packages (like Telkom Closer). But, by its own admission, the company needs to be “careful” of both the rate and number of customers it migrates to these packages so as “not to decimate revenue”.

It’s caught between defending its traditional voice revenues, and growing its subscription and bundled packages. This almost puts it in a position of not wanting to develop products that are too attractive to certain segments of its traditional fixed line customer base, so that this revenue doesn’t evaporate. This has been and will continue to be a conundrum Telkom has to face.

The 8.ta numbers, had converged products been in the market, would’ve looked far better than those published Monday.

In the same way UK consumers get one bill for their cable television, broadband and voice access, surely that future (or at least a version of that) can’t be too far off?

Why can’t Telkom offer a bundled broadband offer with a sizeable ADSL package and a decent 3G product with one bill? Why not 10GB of data on ADSL and another 5GB on 3G?

Why can’t Telkom offer a blended package of 1 000 minutes per month on either your home or mobile phone on one bill, at one price?

Why can’t customers buy a converged phone service, with a BlackBerry (for argument’s sake) bundled in for e-mail?

And while we’re at it, why can’t customers pay for ADSL line rental without having to have a fixed line too?

*Hilton Tarrant contributes to “Broadband”, a column on Moneyweb covering the ICT sector in South Africa. Converged services are really not that difficult to take to market!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

PlayBook review: good for work, better for play | TechCentral


First the good: the BlackBerry PlayBook is infinitely more fun than expected. It’s sleek, it’s sexy, and it shamelessly aims to answer the complaints consumers have levelled at its — and every other tablet manufacturers’ — biggest rival, the iPad.

Its maker, Canada’s Research In Motion (RIM), has gone out of its way to make consumers aware of the fact that not only does the PlayBook support true multitasking, but that it also supports both Adobe Flash and Adobe Air Mobile. Of course, with HTML5, Flash could soon be consigned to the technological scrapheap anyway, but that’s not the point.

The point RIM wants to make is that the PlayBook does things that the iPad doesn’t. However, with only a 7-inch screen, the device immediately removes itself from contention for those consumers looking for a 10-inch tablet.

Aside from the power, volume up and down, and play/pause buttons on the top of the device, the PlayBook relies on a gesture-based touch interface. Swiping from the top bezel displays options when an application is maximised, or settings when viewing the home screen. Swiping up from the bottom in an app brings up the main menu and allows one to open multiple apps simultaneously, and swiping from the left or right bezel into the screen allows one to switch between maximised applications.

The BlackBerry PlayBook

The PlayBook displays notifications in the top left of the information bar, while settings, power, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and the inspired addition of an orientation lock are accessible via a single touch on the top right of the screen.

The screen itself is 1024×600 — fairly standard for a 7-inch tablet. The front-facing camera is 3-megapixels, while the rear is 5-megapixels – unfortunately, like many of its competitors, the rear camera doesn’t include any sort of flash.

As the name of RIM’s first foray into the tablet market demonstrates, RIM also want you to think of the PlayBook as anything but a business tool. It’s not that the company doesn’t want business sorts to use it; interest in the tablet from BlackBerry-enamoured business users is assumed. The goal, it seems, is to encourage non-BlackBerry users and retail consumers to consider it, too.

For those who claim their BlackBerry phone is a business tool (rather than just a tool for BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM) and hope to justify their purchase of a PlayBook using the same argument, here are the essentials: it’s compatible with BlackBerry Enterprise Server, it offers all manner of security options and, when it’s linked to a BlackBerry phone the PlayBook uses a secure Bluetooth connection.

The tablet connects to BlackBerry handsets by means of an application called BlackBerry Bridge. Bridge allows users to access and manipulate messages, contacts, BBM, memopad and tasks on their handset — but it shouldn’t be thought of as synchronisation. Once the Bridge connection is severed, no data remains on the PlayBook. This is one of the reasons it’s deemed so secure and suited to business users. It’s also one of the reasons non-BlackBerry users might feel reluctant to buy a product that seems so locked into RIM’s ecosystem.

Until later this year, the PlayBook will only be available in SA in its 16GB Wi-Fi configuration. Critics suggest that the lack of 3G support, the lack of a native e-mail client at launch, and the tablet’s “reliance” on a BlackBerry phone take it out of contention for non-BlackBerry owners in the market for a tablet.

However, for those with Wi-Fi access looking for a tablet with which to browse, check mail from an online service like Gmail, play videos and games, and check the weather, the PlayBook is a competent tablet, even without a corresponding BlackBerry handset.

The combination of a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and the ability to switch between applications by swiping from the left or right bezel into the screen makes the PlayBook efficient at genuine multitasking. It’s even possible to play a high-definition video on a TV (via a mini-HDMI cable) while simultaneously checking e-mail or surfing the Web.

RIM highlights the PlayBook’s support for Adobe Flash (via YouTube):

Sure, there’s no native e-mail client at launch, but RIM have promised there will be one available shortly via a firmware update, and if you’re using an online e-mail client you won’t notice this early oversight. RIM isn’t the first company to launch an “incomplete” product, and it won’t be the last to. The Nintendo 3DS, for example, only got support for an Internet browser after launch.

The built-in Facebook and Twitter apps are competent, and their usefulness is bolstered by the PlayBook’s impressive multitasking functionality. However, a dearth of apps on offer in BlackBerry’s app store might put people off for now.

Neither the release date nor local pricing have been finalised, but RIM says prices will be “competitive”. Whether that means it’ll be in the range of the 16GB Wi-Fi-only iPad or its more expensive 3G-enabled sibling remains to be seen.

If the PlayBook is competitively priced, it could prove to be a compelling proposition for the casual user and a competitive option for business users who already use BlackBerry devices. However, for those looking for more than seven inches of screen real estate, or those with the patience to hold out for the next generation of Apple, HTC or Samsung tablets, the PlayBook’s superb multitasking abilities and intuitive interface may not be enough to convince the undecided.

Craig Wilson, TechCentral

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Unregistered SIM cards blocked after June 30 « Cellular « MyBroadband Tech and IT News


SAPA
June 13, 2011





Cellphone users must register with their service providers before June 30 or their SIM cards will be blocked
Cellphone users must register with their service providers before June 30 or their SIM cards will be blocked, the department of communications said on Monday.

“Those who have not registered will not be able to make or receive calls and will not be able to send SMSes or use data,” Deputy Minister Obed Bapela said.

The Regulation of Interception of Communications Act (RICA) requires cellphone users to register with their service providers as well as provide proof of residence and copies of their identify documents.

The act allows for the lawful interception of phone calls, SMSes and emails.

“All of this is in the interest of the individual’s right to privacy and can only be done after authorisation by a judge,” Bapela said.

RICA is applicable to both prepaid and contract users.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Apple iCloud launched / My Broadband

iCloud Music








Sunday, June 5, 2011

Bylaws to aid Tshwane fibre roll-out

Craig Wilson, TechCentral

The City of Tshwane wants to make it easier for telecommunications operators to deploy fibre-optic networks in Pretoria and surrounding areas with a new set of bylaws to ease their construction.

The city is set to release a document for public discussion on 1 July in which it will outline proposed bylaws dealing with the laying of fibre infrastructure in the city. The plan is to produce a set of standards for the deployment of fibre so as to minimise the impact on commuters and ensure contractors adhere to minimum standards.

An industry source, who does not want to be named because of a need to retain a relationship with both the municipality and operators, says it’s important to remember that “subcontractors are deploying assets on behalf of operators, but that the operators have no way of controlling standards. Legislation is vital if these assets are to be deployed effectively.”

Despite government’s apparent eagerness to expedite fibre projects, there is a lack of legislation guiding them. With more than 400 licensed telecoms operators in SA, the industry believes guidelines are long overdue.

Without a process for approving and managing contractors, the door is open for corruption and mismanagement, the source says. It’s said to be common knowledge in the industry that wayleaves, which grant contractors permission to trench, can be fast-tracked by means of wining and dining the right people.

Tshwane wants to automate the process of granting wayleaves to prevent this sort of practice. It’s understood Tshwane wants to partner with companies that have infrastructure in place when it can and instead use its budget to build networks in areas that won’t get fibre from commercial operators.

Industry players say streamlining the wayleaves process is essential, especially with big projects underway. For example, FibreCo – a joint venture between Cell C, Dimension Data and Convergence Partners – plans to build 12 000km of fibre over the next five years, but if wayleaves aren’t promptly processed this may not be possible.

According to the source, the fibre industry is “petrified of government because it can drag its feet”.
“The moment you apply to trench a road, you have get permission from up to a dozen individual entities, from utilities departments to other companies who have already got fibre in place. Each of these parties has 30 days to respond and some take 29 days on purpose.”

If Tshwane is able to expedite fibre projects for commercial players, it could provide a model for other cities to emulate.

Icasa delays publication of unbundling document

Staff reporter, TechCentral

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) has delayed publication of a discussion document on the unbundling of Telkom’s local loop of copper cable infrastructure by up to two weeks.

In a terse statement issued on Friday, the authority says it has decided to postpone publication of the document “for a period of up to two weeks” to allow it to “finalise the finer details in the actual document”.

Icasa had been expected to publish the discussion document in the Government Gazette this week. Communications minister Roy Padayachie has said he wants the local loop unbundled by no later than November this year. Unbundling would give rival operators access to the Telkom-owned copper cables that connect consumers and businesses. It’s seen as a way of reducing broadband prices and stimulating competition.

Icasa councillor Thabo Makhakhe, who is one of the members of the team tasked with dealing with local-loop unbundling, has said the authority would create a document that clarifies what aspects of the local loop other operators will have access to.

The authority has not provided further details as to why it felt the need to postpone publication of the discussion document.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Vodacom reaches 43Mbps milestone « Broadband « MyBroadband Tech and IT News


Rudolph Muller
June 1, 2011
9 comments


Vodacom has reached their self imposed target of 2,000 active 43Mbps HSPA+ towers by the end of May 2011
In April 2011 Vodacom surprised many people when they announced that they have exceeded 1,000 active 43.2Mbps HSPA+ sites on their network, boosting the capacity and increasing the overall performance of their network.

At the media event held to make this announcement, Vodacom CTO Andries Delport said that the company further planned to have at least 2,000 43.2Mbps HSPA+ towers by May 2011.

Despite the aggressive rollout target Vodacom has exceeded their self imposed goal, and exceeded the 2,000 43Mbps HSPA+ tower mark by the end of May 2011.

In April 2011, Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys reiterated that their 43Mbps network is not merely aimed at increasing peak speeds, but also at boosting the overall capacity on their radio network to ensure higher average speeds to all subscribers.

It is therefore not surprising that all the new 43Mbps sites are located in metropolitan areas where additional capacity is most needed to serve a fast growing subscriber base.

Vodacom currently has over 4,300 3G (HSPA) sites in South Africa, of which 2,650 are 21Mbps enabled, with the rest all supporting downlink speeds of 14.4Mbps.

Uys said that that they would like to roll out at least another 1,000 3G towers in the coming year, and connect as many sites as possible via fibre.