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Broadband price wars heat up

Cell C is the latest operator to slash prices as competition heats up.

Following broadband price cuts by rivals 8ta, Vodacom and MTN - mobile operator, Cell C has now introduced offerings from 3c per MB.

The mobile operator unveiled 10GB and 20GB bundled broadband packages for the local market.

Yesterday, Vodacom announced revisions to its data services structure and pricing. The operator revealed that customers would pay 7 cents per MB for data consumption and get double their data for free with Night Owl.

A smarter way to deploy mobile banking

First National Bank (FNB) has certainly fired the opening salvo when it comes to mobile banking in South Africa, with its July 19 launch of mobile banking applications for iOS, Android and Blackberry. These applications complement an established and popular USSD cellphone banking service from the bank.

FNB is the first of the big four to venture into the banking application realm - although it is not the first in South Africa, as it claims, Imbongi Capital has offered a full suite of banking applications since 2010.

Imbongi Captal is a customer of VMT and they used a mobile enterprise application platform (MEAP) to launch across all platforms immediately. The other South African banks would do well to sit up and take note, as it is clear that deploying banking applications is no longer a matter ‘if’ but ‘when’.

Outsourcing is a human affair

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Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: When operating in a tough economic climate as well as a competitive environment, more companies are considering outsourcing their IT infrastructure and services in an effort to save money, streamline operations and keep up with the latest in technology. While outsourcing, when done correctly, does have many advantages, few companies consider the human aspect of the decision. “In every outsourcing project, there are many people who will be affected by the changes,” [...]

Vodacom reveals data price cuts

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Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: Vodacom has revised its data services structure and pricing - and says contract data customers could see savings of up to 43% . From 1 August customers will pay less for accessing the Internet. The operators says its customers will now pay 7 cents per MB for data consumption and get double their data for free with Night Owl, moving the effective savings to  72%. “Vodacom‘s change to red brought with it the promise of real changes to [...]

FNB introduces mobile banking app

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Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: FNB has introduced a banking application for smartphones and tablet computer devices - a first in South Africa. The banking app - FNB’s latest mobile digital channel - combines the benefits of banking with the power of a smartphone or tablet computer device to deliver a unique user experience that only an app can offer. Michael Jordaan, CEO of FNB says the banking app speaks to FNB’s strategic drive to be the [...]

Regulation and mobile money services across borders

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Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: With an estimated 300 million mobile phone subscribers in Africa, USA and UK, development agencies have noted that of the new technologies offering improvements to remittance services and reductions in transaction costs, mobile phones hold the greatest promise for Africa. Remittances, the money sent  home by migrant workers, has gained much attention recently as an increasingly important source of income to developing countries, with the potential to assist in poverty alleviation and [...]

Leveraging social media within business analytics

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Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook create vast amounts of freely available information each day. How can businesses leverage this to gain a better insight into consumer needs? The sheer growth in the volume of operational and business related data available to the average CIO today is unprecedented. In this modern age, executives are finding it more difficult to make the right business decisions due to the amount of information [...]

DMASA leads bid to run opt-out register

The National Consumer Commission (NCC) has revealed that the Direct Marketing Association of SA (DMASA) is the front-runner in the bid to run a national Do Not Contact (DNC) register.

The NCC has published a notice in the Government Gazette calling for comments on service providers who had expressed interest in operating the opt-out register.

Only the DMASA, Stephen Logan attorneys and Delloitte Consulting had responded to calls by the NCC and according to the notice, the DMASA is being considered as the preferred service provider.

MTN pilots high speed network

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Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: MTN is set to pilot a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in Gauteng – a move it says will revolutionise the provisioning of broadband services in SA. The LTE rollout and pilot test, which MTN is undertaking in partnership with Huawei and Ericsson, will see selected MTN customers with provisioned dongles navigating on an ultra-high speed network that boasts speeds of up to 70Mbps across over 100 sites MTN’s pilot network encompasses over 100 LTE [...]

Reichelt leaves CellC

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Archived; click post to view. Excerpt: CellC has announced that CEO, Lars Reichelt, would be leaving the company immediately, citing personal reasons. Reichelt joined the mobile operator in March 2009, taking over from Jeffrey Hedberg who left CellC to join the board of Virgin Mobile South Africa. “Lars has indicated his wish to resign for personal reasons and, after discussions about the way forward, the board has agreed to accept his resignation,” Cell C said. The CellC board had nominated [...]