At Home

Ryan Miles, Itec

Local office automation and communications group, Itec has become a fully-fledged telecommunications services provider, through a partnership that it expects to propel the business to new heights within SA’s rapidly growing telecoms landscape. Ryan Miles, Itec COO, says the company’s February acquisition of a majority stake in local telecoms provider Songimali Communications – a licensed telecoms provider – essentially positions Itec as a tier one provider. – ITWeb

Telkom’s mobile arm, 8ta, has announced the availability of the new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone through its flagship stores, Telkom Direct Stores, Telkom Express, Edcon and Altech Autopage. The operator is also the last of SA’s four to reveal its pricing plans for the new BlackBerry 10 OS device, which does not come with the traditional R59 BlackBerry Internet Services plan. – ITWeb

Following a series of promotions and cheaper ADSL offerings from SA’s Internet service providers (ISPs), Afrihost is offering free ADSL accounts with 1GB of data. The ISP says the offer, which gives customers free data each month until the account is cancelled, is not a promotion and does not place any obligations on clients to sign up. – ITWeb

The Gauteng province has set aside funding over the next three years for the Gauteng Broadband Network initiative as it seeks to roll out a massive infrastructure programme as SA moves towards 2055. “Infrastructure development has been identified as a catalyst for economic growth and job creation,” said Gauteng MEC for Finance, Mandla Nkomfe, tabling his 2013/14 budget. – ITWeb

The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) is looking to build sustainable technologies focusing on ICT skills challenges in rural communities. The Black Information Technology Forum (BITF) held a formal discussion about these challenges with Nedbank, EOH and ITWeb, at the Hilton Hotel in Sandton. The event provided a platform for the discussion of issues affecting the development and growth of ICT skills in black communities. – ITWeb

Johannesburg-based creative agency Penquin has become an early poster child for the power of cloud computing to transform small businesses. The company has not only saved tens of thousands of rands in IT costs, but says it has “fundamentally changed the way it works” since moving its technology backbone into the cloud. – ITWeb

SA’s second network operator, Neotel, has launched a phone it says will connect small businesses with access to the lowest call rates in the country. “This means that businesses of all sizes can take advantage of increased flexibility, while drastically reducing their overall telecommunications spend,” said chief of business solutions, Abid Qadiri. – ITWeb

Absa has introduced a mobile branch that can be operational anywhere in SA, within 24 hours of arrival. The big four bank announced the launch of its first “mobile village branch model” (Branchon-the-move) – a mobile bank branch Absa will run on a trial basis in Idutywa, in the Eastern Cape, which recently saw the original branch razed by a fire. – ITWeb

Into Africa

Nairobi technology hub and business incubator, iHub, has announced a partnership with chipmaker Intel, in a move aimed at growing the local tech community. The partnership is planned to help train developers and scale up mobile apps, while also developing collaborations among universities, tech hubs and developer communities across the continent. – ITWeb Africa

Botswana has adopted Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting – Terrestrial (ISDB-T), as its digital terrestrial television (DTT) standard, a government official has announced. Mokgweetsi Masisi, minister of presidential affairs and public administration, has said the decision was reached after consultations on the two leading international standards - Digital Video Broadcasting-Television second generation (DVB-T2) and Japan’s ISDB-T. – ITWeb Africa

Construction of a project to build a $10 billion IT hub, which is planned to house Africa’s tallest building, has been kick-started near Ghana’s capital Accra. The project called Hope City is planned to have Africa’s tallest building, at a height of 270 metres or 75 storeys according to an investor in the project, local technology company RLG Communications. – ITWeb Africa

Kenya plans to launch a $22 million online cargo clearance system by yearend, in a bid to boost cross-border trade. The system is to be rolled out in phases, with the fi rst in October this year and the second in April 2014. The system is being rolled out at the port, the airport and land border posts. – ITWeb Africa

The Zambia Telecommunication Company (Zamtel) plans to rollout Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network with Livingstone expected to be the first city to have the network in the country. The operator has applied to the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA), the country’s telecom sector regulator, for an LTE licence. – ITWeb Africa

Negative revenue growth in Nigeria has dragged down MTN Group’s results for the year ended 31 December 2012. MTN Group says that revenues in Nigeria - the mobile operator’s biggest market - fell 0.8%. Significant tariff declines and heightened competition are reasons for the company’s poor performance in Nigeria, says MTN Group. – ITWeb Africa

Abroad

Google’s Motorola Mobility unit will slash 1 200 jobs or 10% of its workforce as the smartphone maker tries to return to profi tability. The layoffs come on top of 4 000 jobs Google eliminated at Motorola Mobility in August as the Internet search giant seeks to make more smartphones and fewer simple handsets. – Reuters

Thorsten Heins, BlackBerry

BlackBerry has gotten its new touchscreen mobile device on store shelves in more than 20 countries and is very encouraged by the traction that the smartphone is gaining, CEO Thorsten Heins said. “The feedback is very encouraging,” Heins said at the Communitech Tech Leadership Conference in the company’s hometown of Kitchener-Waterloo. – Reuters

China and Russia are buying increasingly powerful surveillance technologies to intercept communications and try to take control of the Internet, a senior US official said. Alec Ross, the US secretary of state’s senior adviser for innovation, said new players such as Thailand and Ukraine would determine the future shape of the Internet by deciding whether to open up globally or operate more closed national “Intranets”. – Reuters

Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop took a 45% cut in his pay package last year, according to a US regulatory filing, as the company continued losing market share in smartphones to Samsung and Apple. Elop, hired in 2010 from Microsoft to turn around the Finnish mobile phone maker, earned 4.33 million euros ($5.63 million) in 2012, down from 7.94 million euros in 2011. – Reuters