Author: Chris Anu
The 2Africa cable coming ashore at an undisclosed location. Image: Meta Platforms The consortium behind 2Africa, a new broadband cable encircling the African continent, has announced the completion of the new system’s core infrastructure. The vast system, built by Meta Platforms and partners including MTN’s Bayobab, Vodafone Group and Wiocc Group, now connects 33 countries across Africa, Europe and Asia, reaching more than three billion people, Meta said in a blog post on Tuesday. It is the longest open-access submarine broadband cable system built to date. The 2Africa project has been billed as one of the most ambitious subsea cable…
The 2Africa cable will connect over three billion people across Africa, Europe and Asia. (Image supplied by Meta) Meta has announced the completion of the core 2Africa subsea cable infrastructure, which it bills as the world’s longest open access subsea cable system.In a blog post published this week, the technology giant says the completion of the 2Africa cable is a “defining moment” for Africa’s digital future. Meta led the design, funding and deployment of the subsea cable system. It says it is building the infrastructure that will drive economic growth and connect over three billion people across Africa, Europe and…
The author, Richard Firth The South African government spends billions of rand annually on technology and infrastructure, yet citizen-facing systems are well-known for being inadequate for the task. From chronic billing issues in municipalities like the City of Johannesburg to cries of “offline” at every home affairs office in the country, South Africans are left frustrated by systems that should be making their lives easier. Instead of enabling efficiency and transparency, many of these investments result in outdated, overpriced and poorly integrated solutions that fail to deliver real value to citizens. It is incredible that in this modern era, the…
The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition has proposed opt-out registry legislation to block unwanted direct marketing communication. The Information Regulator is creating regulatory confusion because it wants spam telemarketing to fall under its ambit, while the industry says it has no legal authority to take up the fight against illegal marketing callers.This issue has been created by advocate Pansy Tlakula, chairman of the Information Regulator, saying she will set a legal precedent to extend the definition of “electronic communication” to include telemarketing. This, she says, would put spam callers firmly within its ambit so they can be penalised for…
Problems at cloud infrastructure provider Cloudflare caused disruptions to online platforms across the world on Tuesday – and the problem was so bad it took down a website people use to report problems online. The issues began around 1.30pm SAST and appeared to be impacting websites across Africa, Europe and North America. Even Downdetector, a website that lets users report problems with websites, was briefly unavailable. There were still problems being reported at 4.30pm SAST as Cloudflare worked to recover from the incident, details of which were still not available. Cloudflare acknowledged it was working to resolve a problem on…
Cloudfare is a global internet infrastructure and security company. Cloudflare has suffered an outage that caused widespread disruption across the internet, affecting major global platforms, as well as sites and users in South Africa.Cloudflare is a global internet infrastructure and security company that helps websites run faster, stay online and protected from cyber attacks.The issue began late morning UTC, when Cloudflare reported an internal service failure that triggered 500-error messages and prevented many websites from loading.The ripple effect was immediate, as services such as X (formerly Twitter), ChatGPT, and numerous local and international sites became slow, unstable, or completely inaccessible.Although…
Telkom Consumer CEO Lunga Siyo Stringent cost management has been a driver of Telkom Mobile’s success alongside its market-leading value offerings. At R79/GB, Telkom is offering prepaid data at the cheapest rates but still managing to grow revenues without sacrificing profitability. At Telkom’s investor presentation following the release of its results for the six months to end September on Tuesday, group CEO Serame Taukobong said the company’s consumer business, which houses its mobile operations, has become a driver of groupwide growth. “Our consumer business has become the benchmark of mobile growth in South Africa. In the past five years alone,…
Cloudfare is a global internet infrastructure and security company. Cloudflare has suffered an outage that caused widespread disruption across the internet, affecting major global platforms as well as users in South Africa.Cloudflare is a global internet infrastructure and security company that helps websites run faster, stay online and protected from cyber attacks.The issue began late morning UTC, when Cloudflare reported an internal service failure that triggered 500-error messages and prevented many websites from loading.The ripple effect was immediate, as services like X (formerly Twitter), ChatGPT, and numerous local and international sites became slow, unstable, or completely inaccessible.Although Cloudflare later confirmed…
The 2025 South African Startup Awards aim to raise the bar for industry recognition. Entries for the 2025 South African Startup Awards, aimed at recognising SA’s early-stage tech start-ups shaping the future, are officially open. The awards were established in 2023 and are hosted by Startup Club ZA, a tech start-up and investor network. The awards were created to bring fairness, independence and credibility to how excellence is recognised in the local innovation ecosystem. Now in its third year, the programme continues to attract promising start-ups in SA. The country’s start-up scene remains stable, maintaining its ranking of 52 in…
MTN Ghana looks poised soon to overtake MTN Group’s home market of South Africa as the second largest by service revenue behind Nigeria, further shifting the group’s centre of gravity to West Africa. In the group’s quarterly update for the three months to end September, published on Monday, it said MTN South Africa generated R32.7-billion year to date in service revenue for the three-month period ending 30 September, representing some 20% of the group total. Ghana is only marginally behind this figure at R30.2-billion in service revenue year to date, accounting for 19% of the total. MTN Ghana delivered service…