At Home

Communications minister Yunus Carrim has come down on SA’s leading mobile operators for choosing to go the legal route in what has become a tussle over the Independent Communications Authority of SA’s new termination rate regulations. Carrim said South African companies were too quick to jump into courts, when negotiation could be used to resolve issues. – ITWeb

Cell C has unveiled two new products as part of what it says is an aggressive drive to get consumers to change to its network in 2014. Doug Mattheus, executive head of marketing at Cell C, says the product is comparable to other operators’ unlimited products, but has its unique points. – ITWeb

Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko" rel=tag>Sipho Maseko has publically questioned MTN and Vodacom’s resistance to mobile termination rate (MTR) changes in an open letter. Maseko addressed the letter to his counterparts at MTN and Vodacom – Zunaid Bulbulia and Shameel Joosub" rel=tag>Shameel Joosub – saying the operators’ opposition to new MTRs is “standing in the way of SA’s future”. – ITWeb

The COFIMVABA Schools District Technology Project, which introduces tablets for teaching and learning in Eastern Cape rural schools, has so far shown the potential to be implemented in other South African provinces. This is according to Merryl Ford, programme manager for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Tech4Red project, which distributes tablets to teachers and learners. – ITWeb

The Department of Communications aims to accelerate socioeconomic development by facilitating the growth and development of small, medium and micro enterprises in the ICT sector. According to National Treasury’s Estimates of National Expenditure, it aims to do this – and improve their sustainability – by loading business profiles onto its e-commerce platform. – ITWeb

Internet Solutions has this week announced the availability of two network services, which provide direct access to its undersea cables between SA and the UK. The company says the move to offer new services is in response to increased demand for transfers of large amounts of data. – ITWeb

The Department of Home Affairs will print around three million smart ID cards this year as it moves towards a new national identity system in a bid to fight corruption. The new card replaces the green bar coded ID book, which is susceptible to fraud. It will also help the department to remove fraudulent entries from the national population register and eradicate duplicate identity numbers. – ITWeb

Commuters on South Africa’s Gautrain and GauBus transport service can now access an application that should inform them of real-time train and bus times in a slicker way. The app, dubbed the GauRider 1.0, was launched for commuters who make use of the railway system. The Gautrain is South Africa’s rapid rail and bus service system that was launched in 2010 in the Gauteng province. – ITWeb Africa

Lack of a data privacy culture in South Africa is resulting in most local businesses being ill-prepared for the impending implementation of a Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI). POPI plans to bring the country in line with international data protection laws and help enact citizens’ constitutional right to privacy. – ITWeb Africa

According to David Mphelo, executive director for public sector business, Cisco SA, bureaucracy in South Africa’s government is holding it back from adopting technology more quickly to help boost service delivery. Cisco is in a bid to work with South Africa’s government and private sector to help roll-out what the company calls the ‘Internet of everything’. – ITWeb Africa

Into Africa

Kenya’s government has lifted a ban that prohibited development within a 10km radius around the country’s future multibillion-dollar Konza technology city. Government had banned any development within the buffer zone, until a “local physical development plan” was approved by local authorities in conjunction with the Konza Technopolis Development Authority. – ITWeb Africa

Customers of Zimbabwean mobile money offering Telecash can now pay for their DStv subscriptions using the service. To make a DStv payment, Telecash subscribers can dial *888# to access to the Telecash menu and choose the ‘pay bill’ option. Telecash users can then select ‘DStv’ as the service provider they want to pay and enter their account number, the amount they want to pay and their personal identification number. – ITWeb Africa

One of the Middle East and Africa’s largest Internet and data facilities, Etisalat’s SmartHub in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has notched up another top African telecoms client. A statement from Etisalat indicates that Safaricom is set to access the SmartHub through the East African Marine System cable, known as “TEAMS”, which is directly connected to Etisalat’s SmartHub in Fujairah in the UAE. – ITWeb Africa

Botswana’s citizens are increasingly choosing electronic transfers over cheques to make payments, according to the country’s central bank governor. Linah Mohohlo, governor of the Bank of Botswana, said although banknotes and coins continue to be a major medium of exchange in Botswana, non-cash transactions, especially electronic transfers, have gained considerable ground. – ITWeb Africa

Zimbabwe’s biggest telecoms firm Econet Wireless may have reached a breakthrough regarding a feud with its mobile money agents. Speaking at a launch of a free education Web site access service called ‘Econet Zero’, Econet’s services CEO Darlington Mandivenga told ITWeb Africa that its mobile money agents are “free” to sell any service of their choice. – ITWeb Africa

Kenyan developers are set to have access to the latest Nokia imaging software, dubbed “Imaging SDK (software development kit) 1.1”, to help create mobile imaging applications. This is according to Nokia’s developer relations lead in East Africa, Moses Sitati, who says the release is expected to leverage the imaging experience of phones such as Lumia 520. – ITWeb Africa

Thousands of people moving through the South-Sudan-Uganda border post now have access to an MTN customer service centre in the area. The opening of the facility also means travellers through the area do not need to travel as far as over 150km to buy telecoms services in South Sudan capital, Juba. MTN has operations in both Uganda and South Sudan. – ITWeb Africa

Global software giant Microsoft, chipmaker Intel and the Kenya Private Schools Alliance have launched a “youth device programme”. The programme is planned to provide a bundle of cheap devices, educational applications, online services, affordable data plans, and smart financing to Kenyan learning institutions as part of the Microsoft 4Afrika’s Youth Initiative. – ITWeb Africa

Telecoms infrastructure company Ericsson says it plans to connect one million refugees both in Africa and globally through a mobile initiative dubbed “Refugees United”. Ericsson has partnered with mobile networks such as MTN, Airtel and Safaricom in Africa to help establish Refugees United. Using mobile technology such as SMS and USSD, displaced refugees are then connected with their relatives and loved ones. – ITWeb Africa

Abroad

Caterina Fake, Findery

Findery, a map-based social networking service started by the co-founder of popular photo-sharing site, Flickr, launched a mobile app. The free app, which is available for Apple iPhones, lets users leave notes, photos and videos about real-world locations on digital maps. Caterina Fake, Findery’s founder and CEO, is hoping there’s room for a specialised service that appeals to a different set of Internet users’ sensibilities. – Reuters

High-speed trader Infinium Capital Management, which has struggled financially, has stopped trading and is working to wind down the company, president Mark Palchak told Reuters. The closure of Chicago-based Infinium reflects pressures on high-speed trading firms stemming from increased competition and regulatory oversight, low interest rates that have hurt volume and volatility, and the uncertain global economic recovery. – Reuters

Walt Disney overhauled its struggling interactive division in a sweeping reorganisation that will reduce the number of video games it develops and alter its advertising strategy to focus more on the fast-changing mobile market. As part of the revamp, Disney will lay off 700 employees, roughly one-quarter of the interactive division, according to a person with knowledge of the layoffs. – Reuters