The week began with cellular operators Vodacom and Cell C climbing into each other, following the lengthy network collapse last Friday. With neither side willing to take the blame, ITWeb ran a caricature of CEOs Alan Knott-Craig and Talaat Laham in boxing gloves. Blaming corrupt data from Cell C, Vodacom cut off the smaller operator`s subscribers until the early hours of Saturday morning.
SARS stalls, as suspicions emerge
On Tuesday some of the inside details of the SARS tender debacles surfaced. Sources from within the organisation revealed the changeover in the CIO`s office has caused major reconsiderations of three eagerly-awaited tender announcements - which carry a combined value of about R4 billion.
The service responded quickly to the allegations, and assured taxpayers there is no shake-up in the organisation. The lengthy delays are simply a reflection of the care that SARS is taking in making sure the money is spent in the right way, it says.
ICASA Bill voted in
Tuesday also saw Parliament voting on the ICASA Amendment Bill. The outcome saw Parliament passing changes to the Bill - ruling African National Congress members voting overwhelmingly in favour, while opposition parties abstained.
The communications minister will become the appointing authority, and the National Assembly will provide the minister with a list of candidates.
Dave Glazier, junior journalist, ITWeb
The communications minister will become the appointing authority, and the National Assembly will provide the minister with a list of candidates that`s exactly one-and-a-half times longer than needed.
The minister and the National Assembly must work together to institute a performance management system for the councillors, and the minister can now remove councillors on request of the National Assembly.
Communications budget speech
It`s been a busy week for Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri. The communications minister outlined her plans for the year in her budget speech on Thursday. The state has, she said, prioritised the roll-out of broadband infrastructure with three focus areas: the information super highway, wireless broadband and international communications network access.
Sentech featured prominently in the address - most notably, it will be allowed to carry voice. The minister also said Sentech will provide the core of a national wireless broadband infrastructure network, and the network will be invested in and expanded.
Limpopo`s healthy IT tender
This week also saw the announcement of the controversial Limpopo hospital IT tender winner. The winner was a local empowerment consortium in partnership with the multinational health IT services provider, IBA Health, which plans to establish operations in SA.
On the losing side, the current service provider, Ethniks Systems, slated the province for declining its bid, which was R186 million less than the winner`s submission. The department says Ethniks wasn`t what it was looking for this time.
Whatever happened to VOIP?
One final point: ITWeb ran an in-depth feature into what has happened to 'the VOIP revolution`. It`s worth reading.
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