The year to come

THE 2010 WORLD CUP will dominate the news in the year ahead, but SA`s ICT sector looks set for an equally significant year off the soccer field.

Better bandwidth and lower mobile costs look likely, and there are widespread hopes that the economy will turn around some time during the year. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan" rel=tag>Pravin Gordhan said recently that there was evidence the SA economy had "turned the corner", and was already on its way to recovery. Equally positive sentiments are emerging from across the financial sector. On the down side, Eskom price hikes could have widespread repercussions on all sectors.

In the ICT business arena, there are still some unresolved issues analyst Paul Booth hopes to see resolved next year, the two biggest being the lack of a country manager for HP and the ongoing uncertainty with arivia.kom. He also predicts MTN may go after smaller telecoms players to expand its portfolio. "I still think there`s more to come on the Faritec front; they could be the subject of an acquisition themselves."

He also says the industry may see a consolidation of smaller telecoms players. Booth believes there will be more impact from Indian companies on the African continent. Ernst & Young`s Adrian Macartney, head of transaction advisory services for Africa, agrees that India is looking to Africa, and says the auditing and accounting firm expects local telecoms operators to descend on Africa next year, as they seek ways to bolster their subscriber numbers.

Globally, Booth predicts Apple will "pounce on somebody".

He adds: "I think there are a couple of companies which shape, form and destiny will be different by the end of 2010, including Motorola and Unisys."

There are three developments gaining momentum, he says, all bandwidth dependent, so they will probably be trends overseas before they come here. These are cloud computing, software as a service and the integration of social media into the mainstream.

Regarding social media, Booth says next year may see several smaller social networks consolidate, and possibly even the listing of one of the bigger sites.

As the economy normalises, more companies are likely to list, both locally and globally, he predicts.

"But it continues to be an exciting industry, and there will always be some surprises," he says.