Finally: True cellphone TV

Although ITWeb has been following SA`s progress in bringing true broadcast television direct to cellphones since the beginning of the year, this week the technology (known formally as digital video broadcasting via handheld - or DVB-H) received a huge boost in attention.

The reason for this was MTN`s advertising campaign in many prominent print and broadcast media channels, and an event on Monday to mark the commercial launch of its DVB-H offering. Admittedly, only two channels are available, and users have to be in certain areas of Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria or Soweto to pick up the signal, but it is a giant leap in the right direction.

Monday began with two additions to the East African Submarine System`s (Eassy`s) "I agree" list, with Zimbabwe and Botswana joining Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Lesotho, Malawi, Madagascar and SA as the countries happy with the protocol.

ITWeb broke the news of a R750 million tender awarded to state-owned IT company arivia.kom by the Ugandan government. The contract is for a population database to register 29 million Ugandans - a project that will take five years.

Telkom confirmed its grand-scale R30 billion next-generation network plans are well under way. Just under R5 billion has already been spent this year, says communications executive Lulu Letlape. All at Telkom agree that spending on improving its network to bring better, and more ubiquitous broadband, will reap rewards in the end. Who knows? It probably will.

Monday began with two additions to the East African Submarine System`s "I agree" list.

Dave Glazier, journalist, ITWeb

Dimension Data this week revealed it will restructure its business, and consolidate its substantial stakes in Paracon, 3fifteen and Pebbletree into a new entity - Britehouse. On the positive side, Britehouse is 30% black empowered. On the negative side, Britehouse is just another narrow-based insider deal - with the enterprising Andile Ngcaba grabbing a decent chunk of this particular pie. ITWeb explores the real value of many of the large ICT BEE deals in a column by journalist Bandile Sikwane.

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has, it says, finalised the findings of its investigation to determine whether local mobile prices are too high. According to ICASA manager Nomvuyiso Batyi, the findings will be published in the Government Gazette by late October, following council approval.

The City of Johannesburg said this week that its telecoms assets (network infrastructure and a private telecoms network licence) would be made available to a successful private sector bidder. Although the tender has not yet been compiled, a spokesperson says the fibre, copper and wireless telecoms infrastructure will be leased in return for rental income.

Finally, on the business front was news that Eskom is also planning something special for its private telecoms network. The architecture, which has been in place for more than a decade, is growing old, says the power supplier, adding that renovations will span four years and cost R1 billion. Project partners have not yet been found, but work is due to begin within a year or so.