Author: Chris Anu
An influential South African government agency has recommended the country phase out coal-fired power stations as it published a 10-year study which found that people living near them were 6% more likely to die than their peers elsewhere. South African officials and citizens are debating whether and how fast the country should embark on a partly donor-funded programme to switch to sun and wind energy from coal. The fossil fuel provides three-quarters of national power and employs 90 000 people in jobs unions are fighting hard to protect. The report by the South African Medical Research Council and Britain’s Department for…
Graphic: Xsolla Xsolla, a leading global video game commerce company, announces updates to Xsolla Cloud Gaming solution. Powered by the new Amazon GameLift Streams on AWS, this solution allows developers to deliver high-quality PC and mobile gaming experiences to players remotely from the cloud in a browser, using a pay-as-you-go monetization model and cloud vendors’ aggregation. The global cloud gaming market, valued at $6.91 billion in 2024, is projected to grow to $22.01 billion by 2028 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33.59%. Xsolla Cloud Gaming is poised to capitalize on this growth, offering developers solutions that enhance…
Huge NXTGN MD Jason Harmsen The mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) market is South Africa is getting crowded, yet a new player in the space believes that by making it easier for businesses to launch them, there’s still room for significant growth. Huge NXTGN – pronounced “next gen” – has built a platform it calls a “digital VNE”, based in part on parent Huge Group’s acquisition of key assets of now-defunct MVNO Virgin Mobile South Africa, to make it simpler for businesses to launch these virtual networks. An MVNO is a business that offers telecommunications services (usually mobile) to its…
Microsoft’s investment builds on the company’s R20.4 billion investment over the past three years. US-based software giant Microsoft has announced plans to invest R5.4 billion over the next two years, to expand its cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in South Africa, to meet the growing demand for Azure services in the region.This investment builds on the company’s R20.4 billion investment over the past three years to establish the country’s first data centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town.This round of investment, according to the company, will enable a wide range of local organisations, from start-ups to large multinationals and government…
Microsoft president Brad Smith Microsoft president Brad Smith has announced during a visit to Johannesburg that the US software giant will invest R5.4-billion in new data centre infrastructure in South Africa. The new data centres will be built for artificial intelligent workloads, Smith announced at an industry event on Thursday attended by President Cyril Ramaphosa. Smith, who also serves as vice chairman of Microsoft, said the company has spent more than R20-billion to date on its Azure data centres in South Africa. The new data centre infrastructure will include a big investment in AI infrastructure, populated with GPUs, or graphics…
Mustek assembles and distributes PCs and complementary ICT products, services and software in SA. PC distributor Mustek has suffered a huge decline in revenue for the six months ended 31 December.The JSE-listed company, which assembles and distributes personal computers and complementary ICT products, services and software in South Africa, announced its financial results today.The firm’s distribution business encompasses the distribution of laptop brands, gaming equipment, printers, desktop and similar hardware.According to the distributor, revenue decreased by 14% to R3.66 billion (31 December 2023: R4.27 billion) because of economic constraints, lower consumer demand and being selective in only pursuing deals that…
Mustek’s head office in Midrand, Johannesburg JSE-listed Mustek, currently the subject of a takeover bid by Novus Holdings, has reported a 74.3% decline in interim headline earnings per share (Heps), with management blaming the economy and other external factors for the poor performance. Heps for the half-year ended 31 December 2024 was 23.47c, down from the 91.34c reported in the 2023 financial year. Revenue also slid, down 14.1% year on year to R3.7-billion. Operating profit fell by 47.1%, although gross profit rose by 13.8% as the result of a “more favourable product mix”. “The group’s performance remained under pressure, reflecting…
Dr Drew MacFarlane, head of GSMA Advance. MWC25 Barcelona: The GSM Association (GSMA) has partnered with the N50 Project, to tackle digital poverty and bridge the digital divide.The partnership was announced at this year’s MWC Barcelona, formerly Mobile World Congress Barcelona, currently under way in Spain.Led by GSMA Advance – the GSMA’s educational division – the new skills training initiative will offer over 100 fully-sponsored scholarships to individuals and communities worldwide, providing access to specialised digital training resources and educational courses.According to the mobile industry body, through the scholarships, applicants will further their knowledge through GSMA Advance’s curriculum, which is…
CT International, established in 1988 to provide funding to the consumer product finance industry, faced a significant challenge: its existing service provider wasn’t delivering the expected level of service, particularly when it came to API integration. This led to inefficiencies and limitations in its operations, making it clear it needed a more capable and reliable solution. Graham Russon, IT manager at CT International, explained that when the company was searching for a new provider, Telviva’s sales team stood out due to their professionalism and expertise, while the cooperative and helpful approach from Alun Davies (a new business developer at Telviva)…
Jacqueline Shi, president of Huawei Cloud global marketing and sales service. MWC25 Barcelona: Huawei Cloud aims to expedite the cloud services evolution from cloud-native to artificial intelligence (AI)-native.This, as the company revealed that Huawei Cloud expanded by over 50% in 2024, outside of the Chinese mainland, becoming a “preferred partner” for numerous organisations.This came to light at the Huawei Cloud Summit, hosted ahead of MWC Barcelona 2025, formerly Mobile World Congress Barcelona.Huawei is among the many vendors that are this week showcasing their technologies and solutions at the GSM Association-run flagship mobile connectivity conference.According to Huawei, countries and companies are…