Tech

Strangely, at a time when South Africans are beginning to benefit from better and cheaper broadband connectivity, our communications regulator is toying with the idea of licensing online video. The notion smacks of institutional self-interest, of a body in search of a cause to justify its existence. But the irony is that the Independent Communications […]

Sitting down every morning to face an email inbox that never empties has prompted me to make this list. Dealing with email is Sisyphean in nature. Sisyphus was the guy whose punishment was to roll a rock up a hill only to have it roll down again, eternally. Email: * Makes it too easy to […]

EASSy, the second of nine new undersea telecommunications cables to connect sub-Saharan Africa to the rest of the world by 2011, will make landfall in South Africa tomorrow. But there may well be some unintended consequences. Telkom announced today that the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) would land at Mtunzini — the landing site […]

Two ads in the latest Sunday Times were seemingly innocuous: six posts advertised for Broadband Infraco and 13 for the Department of Home Affairs. But between the lines, they said so much. To start with, the Home Affairs ad was headlined “Building the New Home Affairs”. That’s a positive sign to start with; an acknowledgement […]

Is it just me, or is there a need for a new debate about copyright? The Copyright Act that is on the statute book at the moment was passed in 1978 and has been updated several times since then. But in essence, we are dealing with a piece of legislation that was passed when the […]

I admit I have a love affair with the internet. There are naysayers who see the demise of “real” communities and lament the loss of “authenticity”. Some of the criticism reminds me of the sci-fi novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. To borrow some text from Neil Postman who compares Orwell and Huxley in […]

On Wednesday September 9 a new type of telecommunications carrier will be making its debut in the South African market. His name is Winston. He’s a pigeon. Winston will be flying from Howick to Durban in a test to see if he can oust Telkom as the telecommunications supplier to The Unlimited Group. A 4Gb […]

So I’ve deactivated my Facebook profile. The 339 people who included me in their networks of friends may or may not have noticed that I’ve simply vanished. Gone. And it’s wonderful. I thought I’d be devastated, as though a limb had suddenly been removed, but I feel liberated. A new person. Perhaps this is how […]

As communications technology becomes more complex and regulatory processes more dense, Icasa is in more of a mess than ever. Walking into the Sandton offices of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) tells you more than you need to know about the regulator. There are dead flowers at reception and the distinct smell […]