The week in review

AT HOME

THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL of the department of communications, Lyndall Shope-Mafole, told law makers last Friday that InfraCo, the new broadband fibre-optic company formed by the communications arms of Eskom and Transnet, would be available for any company to use at cost, including Telkom. - Business Report

THE LICENCE conditions for second network operator Neotel would have to be changed in the light of government`s initiative to establish InfraCo, said Shope-Mafole. However, she stressed the amendment would be made only after taking account of the views of the industry and public, perhaps through public hearings. - Business Day

SA`S TELKOM believes MTN is an "attractive asset" but is not seriously thinking about buying a stake in sub-Saharan Africa`s biggest cell phone operator, it said last week. Despite media speculation, Head of Investor Relations Nicola White said Telkom was focusing on persuading Britain`s Vodafone to allow its joint-owned cellphone operator Vodacom more freedom to expand in Africa. - Reuters

PICK `N PAY has launched eazySurf, a service which provides instant, prepaid, Internet access, developed for the retailer by SA company iSurf.TV. Aimed at low-income earners, infrequent `netizens` or the entry level Internet market, eazySurf is offered in either Budget and Super surftime options in the form of vouchers, which can be bought at tills within Pick `n Pay nationwide or on the eazySurf Web site.

SURGING CD and DVD sales helped lift year-on-year retail sales in September by 14.8%, the Retailers Liaison Committee said last week. CD and DVD sales increased 21.9% from September last year. In October, the country`s biggest CD retailer, New Clicks Holdings-owned Musica, said sales continued to grow despite faltering demand in markets such as the US where cheap broadband Internet access saw consumers switching to Internet downloads - Business Report.

LG ELECTRONICS has launched a `flagship` showroom at Montecasino in Johannesburg. Named the LG Xperience Centre, the showroom allows consumers to `touch and feel` the company`s products.

INTO AFRICA

AFRICA: Ministers are to draw up a strategy to enable the exploitation of ICT in national development plans. This was decided at the inaugural Commonwealth Ministers` Forum on Public Sector Development held in Sydney, Australia, at the end of October. - Commonwealth News and Information Service

EAST AFRICA: Mobile company Safaricom has posted the biggest profit ever in East Africa Ksh 12.77 billion ($174 million) - edging out listed company East African Breweries from the position. The star performance is likely to impact on the negotiations between the government and Vodafone of the UK over the sale of a 9% government stake in the company. - The East African

EAST AFRICA: Following success in the Middle East and North Africa, a Dubai-based Internet, wireless and mobile commerce solutions firm, Ducont FZ-LLC, is eyeing entry into three East African markets. The firm, with operations in Nigeria, SA, Ghana and Tanzania, has now partnered with Ugandan-based IT firm, Solutions for Business, to access the Ugandan, Rwandan and Kenyan markets. - East African Business Week

KENYA: State-owned Telkom Kenya is preparing to roll out its own mobile telephone service to compete with Safaricom and Celtel in a market that is supposed to witness the entry of at least two other players in the next ten months. Well-placed sources say that Telkom has already received the nod from the market regulator, the Communications Commission of Kenya, to enter the cellphone market. - The East African

KENYA: Kenyans last week breathed a sigh of relief following the licensing of the second landline operator by the Communications Commission of Kenya, the industry regulator. The licence, won by a consortium led by Dubai-based VTEL Holdings, allows it to provide national mobile and fixed telephony, Internet backbone, international voice gateway, long distance voice data services and commercial VSAT. - Highway Africa News Agency

UGANDA has opened up the telecoms infrastructure market of the country to full competition, thus ending the exclusivity period that has been enjoyed by MTN Uganda, Uganda telecom and Celtel Uganda over the past six years. - Highway Africa News Agency

ZIMBABWE: Cellphone service provider NetOne has installed equipment worth US$7,5 million to upgrade its mobile switching centres and base stations countrywide. The move is aimed at easing congestion and improving the quality of network service. - The Herald

ABROAD

A GROUP OF laptop vendors and battery manufacturers plans to announce a standard for making safer lithium ion batteries by June 15, 2007, in an attempt to recover from a massive series of battery recalls in recent months. The new standard will cover "process requirements, quality control and assurance" for all forms of rechargeable lithium ion battery cells, according to the Association Connecting Electronics Industries. - IDG News Service

NOKIA is preparing to enter the European GPS navigation market with the release of its Nokia 330 Auto Navigation device. Along with navigation and 2D/3D maps for the whole of Europe, the 330 will have photo, video and music-playing capabilities. It is scheduled for release later this year. - vnunet.com

MICROSOFT last week filed more than 50 lawsuits and other legal actions worldwide against people it says sold pirated copies of its software using online auction sites such as eBay.

The legal actions are the latest in a broad effort Microsoft has taken to curb widespread piracy of programs including the Windows operating system and Office suite. - AP

UK CULTURE secretary Tessa Jowell last week urged 32 nations - including SA - to back a code of principles on Internet gambling. The measures are Britain`s attempt to regulate Internet gambling instead of criminalising it as US President George W Bush favours. - Bloomberg

COMMUNICATIONS software company Aricent debuted last week. Previously the software development and solutions business of Flextronics International, Aricent is its new name following the acquisition of 85% of the business on September 4 by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Sequoia Capital.