Probably the biggest, and certainly the most positive news this week, were the R2.25 billion MultiChoice and R730 million Media24 BEE announcements, timed to coincide by parent company Naspers.
MultiChoice also indicated that a further 15% of the company would gradually be sold off via empowerment schemes, promising great opportunities for enterprising individuals.
Still no new skills
Government`s big plan to attract 2 500 ICT professionals into the country to help with the skills shortage seems to have disappeared into obscurity. While recruitment agencies say the IT skills shortage is getting worse, the industry training body does not expect to see results from this initiative for at least another year.
Teleco chiefs most powerful black leaders
This kind of thing makes our Internet services look quite good - perhaps South Africans shouldn`t complain so much.
Dave Glazier, journalist, ITWeb
Interesting stats released this week from black empowerment rating agency Empowerdex shows our two most prominent telecoms leaders are the most powerful black directors in the country.
Referring obviously to MTN CEO Phuthuma Nhleko and Telkom CEO Papi Molotsane, the report (which will be converted into book form later this year) charts business leaders in terms of their company`s market cap.
Nortel seeks SA partner
Multinational networking company Nortel is looking for a South African partner. Nortel SA says it has already identified a few candidates and expects to seal an arrangement at the end of this year or early next year.
Pretoria goes WiFi
On the Internet front, a WiFi mesh network went live on Tuesday in Pretoria`s Hatfield area, as part of a proof-of-concept project by wireless and networking company Neology and Tshwane municipality. A notable aspect of the project is a free service giving users access to the local Tshwane community IP network, designed to lay the groundwork for future e-government and service applications.
No Internet in Zim
ITWeb also reported that Zimbabwe`s Internet service providers are struggling to provide Internet services after connections to an outbound Intelsat satellite carrier were cut. The disconnection occurred, apparently, due to non-payment by government-owned Zim telecom operator TelOne. This kind of thing makes our Internet services look quite good - perhaps South Africans shouldn`t complain so much.
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