Monthly archive September, 2006

There is no disagreement, the future will revolves around the conception of Convergence, portability, affordability , and mobile banking.The next three years is likely to be dominated by South Africans, the younger generation going mobile banking.The key thing is that , do we have conducive environment that permit information highway to benefit the 'information poor'? Are our legislative framework such that allows fair equitable market shares, and while on the other hand evenly spreading the fruites of a wireless world to the grasroots. Do South African consumers have more choice or more diversity not just plurality? Mobility 2006 was a Read More →

Elia Tsouros , Executive –Business Development Verizon Business SAThis is an age of collaborations and convergence of media technologies-commoditisation of core communications, increase market maturity but still more restrictions and legal uncertainty. However, security breaches curtail 'social engineering' and makes it difficult for greater deregulation. Evolving business and revenue models in response to complex and ever dynamic marketplace requires “operators to create new channels to the market”. In Africa there will be an estimated 147 million users by 2007. Even though some operate within remote areas sometimes network problems, a vision towards “digital cities”remain foreseeable. Read More →

Mobile Commerce Markets and Regulatory Trends!The Wireless Application Services of South Africa was formed in August 2004 with the aim of monitoring developments in the mobile industry and to engage policy makers on issues affecting the Wireless industry. There are about 2.5 billion global users of mobile,with the fastest growth being in China with almost 300 million users. In Africa, South Africa has 30 million users and Nigeria has 23 million with 80 % prepaid users. The majority of users use mostly SMS text and voice. But of far more interesting is the fact that , there has been Read More →

This presentation was very funny because of a mime in the back of the room which demonstrated all sorts of funny body movements as the presentation got underway. Sajeed Sacranie, CEO of Virgin Mobile South Africa, is an African by birth, background and preference. Born in Malawi, he spent his formative years there and because of his cosmopolitan background, is equally at home in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He describes himself as multinational and multicultural and was appointed at CEO of Virgin Mobile in March 2006. Virgin Mobile officially launched on 24 June 2006 and is South Africa’s newest Read More →

Southern Africa is populated with people often with total illiteracy-can we expect these population of techno - don’t know how to effectively usage mobile technologies at their disposal. What form of digital divide in mobile is crippling South Africa-is it complete lack of mobile knowledge or inability to effectively use such technologies? The answer lies within the context in which these technologies are taking place; we have emerging new mobile handsets that equal computers in operations. Mr Searll provided deeper analytic research findings on the use Read More →

The chairperson of ICASA Mr. Paris Mashile addressed the opening session of Mobility 2006 conference. Despite being accused a “losers” for delaying the introduction of mobile number portability by the current edition of Financial Mail today. His address was largely to justify state heavy regulation within the mobile industry in favour of protecting the consumers. A point was put forward that we should all remember that ‘consumers are key constituencies”. South Africa remains a “developmental state” by virtue Read More →