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TechCentral is the leading quality news and information resource for people involved in South Africa’s fast-growing information and communications technology industry and those interested in the fast-changing world of information technology.

Promising breakthrough in battery technology

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The 94-year-old creator of the lithium-ion battery has invented another breakthrough storage device that’s capturing the attention of industry heavyweights.

“John Goodenough, inventor of the lithium battery, has developed the first all-solid-state battery cells,’ said Alphabet’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt via Twitter on Tuesday. Goodenough’s claim that his new battery cells have three times as much energy density as today’s lithium-ion batteries is “promising,’ according to Google’s former CEO.

A new and more powerful generation of batteries may be made entirely from glass, according to the conclusions of Goodenough and his team of researchers published by the UK Royal Society of Chemistry. They store and transmit energy at temperatures lower than traditional lithium-ion packs and can be made using globally abundant supplies of sodium.

The research could result in “a safe, low-cost, all-solid-state cell with a huge capacity giving a large energy density and a long cycle life suitable for powering an all-electric road vehicle or for storing electric power from wind or solar energy,’ the researchers wrote in the peer-reviewed journal Energy & Environmental Science.
Energy storage is seen as the missing link in the world’s transition to a zero-carbon economy. Batteries can fill power gaps from intermittent solar and wind energy. Companies including Tesla and Volkswagen have set their sights on lithium-ion to usher in a new generation of plug-in vehicles.

The research conducted by Goodenough and his team, who worked from the University of Texas at Austin as well as at the University of Porto in Portugal, was driven by the “urgent’ need to reduce fossil fuel consumption and combat climate change.

The researchers are working on several patents and are seeking to collaborate with battery makers “to develop and test their new materials in electric vehicles and energy storage devices’, according to a statement by the University of Texas.
“The road from the lab to the factory is a long one,’ said Julia Attwood, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “Some technologies encounter significant difficulties when they attempt to scale up. It could be a while before we’re seeing these materials in electric vehicles or stationary storage.’

It took Goodenough about 11 years to see his lithium-ion breakthroughs commercialised by Sony in 1991, according to a 2015 profile published by Quartz. The scientist began focusing on storage technologies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the 1970s as a potential way of resolving the persistent oil crisis of the era, according to the article.

“We believe our discovery solves many of the problems that are inherent in today’s batteries,’ Goodenough said in a statement. “Cost, safety, energy density, rates of charge and discharge and cycle life are critical for battery-driven cars to be more widely adopted.’

(c) 2017 Bloomberg LP

Source: Tech Central

MVNO giant Lycamobile to launch in SA

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One of the world’s largest mobile virtual network operators, Lycamobile, will launch services in South Africa, Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos revealed at a media briefing.

Though Dos Santos declined to reveal details about the launch, he confirmed the UK-headquartered company will launch an MVNO on the back of Cell C’s network infrastructure.
Cell C actively courts MVNO providers, and provides the network for virtual operators such as FNB Connect, MRP Mobile and Virgin Mobile.
Lycamobile describes itself as the world’s largest international MVNO with over 16m customers.

“Our mission is to connect friends and family around the world. We aim to do this by providing low-cost, high-quality calls, texts and data…’ the company’s website said.
The company operates in 21 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, the UK and the US.
Some of the services that Lycamobile offers in various markets include calling cards, voice-over-IP telephony, financial products and content, including radio and television.

© 2017 NewsCentral Media

Source: Tech Central

DStv mulls streaming-only option

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MultiChoice is giving serious consideration to the launch a standalone streaming version of DStv, not delivered via direct-to-home satellite but offered exclusively over broadband connections and not tied to a satellite subscription, though the broadcaster said it’s not imminent.

Mark Rayner, CEO of MultiChoice South Africa, said at a press conference on Thursday that a standalone streaming version of DStv is “definitely’ coming in the future. “The question is when,’ he said.

The idea of launching a standalone streaming version of DStv is something MultiChoice spends considerable time discussing internally, Rayner said. But there are “no concrete plans to launch on a specific date.’

He said broadcasters around the world are launching online-only options, but the jury is out on whether consumers want to subscribe to multiple “skinny bundles’ — offering a limited subset of channels — or whether they want a broad bouquet of channels from a single provider.

MultiChoice already offers a streaming service through DStv Now, which offers access to more than 60 live DStv channels in standard definition, as well as Catch Up video-on-demand content.

Last month, the broadcaster said it was expanding DStv Now to more subscribers. Historically, DStv Now was only available to DStv Premium customers with an active personal video recorder (PVR) decoder.

However, the service has now been made available to all DStv Premium subscribers, irrespective of whether they have a PVR.

DStv Now can be viewed from smartphones, tablets (Android and iOS) and computers using a Web browser.

The platform’s library includes the M-Net Movie Collection, which offers a thousand movies that are updated weekly.

The streamed channels include all of SuperSport, with DStv Now proving a popular way for consumers to catch a game when they’re away from their TV (such as Friday morning rugby games).

(c) 2017 NewsCentral Media

Source: Tech Central

Iflix set to take on Netflix and ShowMax in Africa

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Netflix and ShowMax competitor Iflix, which is promising a lower-cost alternative video-on-demand service, is soon to be launched in Africa.

Iflix, a video streaming service with customers mostly in Southeast Asia, raised US$90m (about R1,2bn) in a round led by telecommunications giants Liberty Global and Kuwait-based Zain to take on Netflix and Naspers, which owns ShowMax, in Africa and the Middle East.

The investment will also fund expansions throughout Asia, the company said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday, 7 March 2017. Iflix has approached its entry into Africa fairly quietly to date. But it has already established a head office in Cape Town, along with offices in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Accra and Lagos. The Cape Town office has about 25 employees, with eight in Johannesburg.

Iflix offers customers in nine countries a mix of Hollywood fare like the film Iron Man and TV series Homeland along with local programming for a monthly subscription fee. The company has signed up more than 5m customers — more than analysts estimate Netflix, the world’s largest paid video service, has in Southeast Asia.

The streaming provider is looking to capitalise on its early success in the region by spreading to emerging markets elsewhere, starting with the Middle East and Africa. It has also formed a joint venture in the Middle East and North Africa with Mobile Telecommunication Co, known as Zain, which has 47m customers in eight countries.
“It was always meant to be a Southeast Asian business, but it grew so fast,’ Patrick Grove, Iflix co-founder and chairman, said in an interview. Grove started the company with fellow entrepreneur Mark Britt, the company’s CEO, with support from Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency and private equity firm TPG Growth.

Iflix has succeeded, Grove said, by positioning itself as cheap alternative to piracy, which is rampant in poorer countries where most people don’t pay for cable. Though the membership fee varies by country, it costs about as much as a pirated DVD typically does in those markets. In Malaysia, Iflix runs about $1,80/month for an annual subscription. Netflix’s service starts at about $8/month in many markets.
South Africans and users in the other African markets where Iflix will be launched can look forward to a mix of Hollywood and local and regional content. “There will be plenty of African content in there,’ according to regional marketing director Jo Eyre, adding that Iflix is talking to content producers in various markets.

The gap in Africa is for a video-on-demand platform at a low cost that appeals to mobile users, Eyre said. The company is promising excellent video quality, even on 3G connections, thanks to advanced compression technology. “ShowMax and Netflix are doing an awesome job, but they are very much focused on the top of the pyramid. We are trying to plug the gap [lower down] with a service that is optimised for mobile.’

However, Iflix will also target higher-end users with high-speed fixed internet connections at home, she said.

© 2017 Bloomberg LP
© 2017 NewsCentral Media

Source: Tech Central and Bloomberg

Vumatel now in KZN

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Fibre-to-the-home broadband provider Vumatel has taken its first tentative steps into the KwaZulu-Natal market, acquiring Durban based fibre company Estate Connexions (ECX).

Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
“The acquisition allows Vuma to develop a footprint in Kwa-Zulu Natal and contributes towards our vision of building a connected South Africa,’ said Vumatel CEO Niel Schoeman in a statement.

“ECX builds high-speed open-access fibre-optic networks. Similar to Vumatel, the company installs the infrastructure and allows Internet service providers to compete freely over the open-access infrastructure to provide Internet services to the customer,’ Schoeman said. Initially, service providers may offer regional deals, so consumers may not necessarily find the same packages in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.

“The investment by Vumatel is a vote of confidence in what ECX has achieved to date. We are excited to bring Vuma to Durban and continue to provide Kwa-Zulu Natal with high speed open access fibre,’ ECX CEO Arthur Beavon said in the statement.

According to Vumatel’s website, ECX has already deployed fibre in parts of the Mount Edgecombe Country Estate north of Durban. It also plans to roll out infrastructure in Somerset Park near La Lucia and in Umhlanga Rocks.

(c) 2017 NewsCentral Media

Source: Tech Central

SqwidNet IoT network now live in Gauteng

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SqwidNet, the newly established subsidiary of Dark Fibre Africa, is making quick progress with the deployment of its Internet of things (IoT) network, already providing coverage to many parts of Gauteng.

SqwidNet CEO Reshaad Sha, speaking to TechCentral in a podcast interview on Friday, said the company started rolling out the network a few weeks ago.
“We already have coverage from the north of Pretoria all the way to Vanderbijlpark. Of course, the city of Johannesburg is covered extensively, and so is the city of Ekurhuleni and Tshwane,’ Sha said.

“The plan is to cover 85 per cent of the population of South Africa, and by the end of this year we will have “singular’ coverage across that footprint. We will then build in redundant coverage as we continue to roll out the network.’

Redundancy is important, he said, in light of the fact that SqwidNet intends offering service-level agreements to clients promising minimum network availability.
Dark Fibre Africa signed a network operator agreement with France’s Sigfox, a leader in IoT that owns and operates several IoT networks and provides the technology behind the SqwidNet roll-out in South Africa.

“We are putting down micro base stations, computer equipment that connects to an antenna on an existing tower. We are not building new towers, but rather co-locating on existing towers.’
The network uses the 868MHz radio frequency band, which is shared spectrum, or an “industrial, scientific and medical’ (ISM) band.

(c) 2017 NewsCentral Media

Source: Tech Central

.africa domains on sale soon

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The general public can apply for .africa domain names from 4 July. This follows the delegation by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) of the geographic top-level domain to the ZA Central Registry (ZACR) after a protracted legal dispute.

The launch phases of “sunrise’ and “land rush’ will now take place, allowing early registrations, followed by “general availability’.

The tentative date for the first two phases is 4 April. The sunrise phase will provide an opportunity for intellectual property rights holders to register domains, while the land rush phase will see premium name applicants applying for .africa domains from this date.

“General availability should commence on 4 July, and this is when the general public can apply for their .africa domain names,’ said ZACR CEO Lucky Masilela in a statement.

“Website names ending in .africa are set to become hot property in cyberspace as the continent’s most loved brands snap up their digital presence.’

Icann should have handed over control of the .africa domain years ago to ZACR, but the process was delayed following a series of legal challenges by Kenyan-based DotConnectAfrica, which wanted to be the registry operator.

In December, DotConnectAfrica lost a second motion in a Californian court for a preliminary injunction to stop Icann’s delegation of the domain to ZACR, effectively ending the legal process.

“All attempts to stall the public availability of the .africa geographic top-level domain have failed and it’s now time to create the next chapter in the .africa story,’ said Masilela.

© 2017 NewsCentral Media

Source: Tech Central

DStv to hike prices on 1 April

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MultiChoice is hiking the prices of its main DStv bouquets. However, most of the increases this year are relatively modest compared to last year’s adjustments.
The 2017 increases are mostly below the prevailing consumer inflation rate, and are significantly less than the increases announced in 2016.

In a communication with customers, MultiChoice acknowledged that consumers are under pressure because of a tough economic environment and it said it has attempted to keep increases in 2017 to a minimum.

The less-steep hikes may also reflect the growing competition from Internet streaming rivals such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and ShowMax, a sister company to MultiChoice in the Naspers stable.

Another factor is that cost pressures on MultiChoice have lessened significantly since last year’s steep price hikes thanks to the strength of the rand against international currencies, especially the US dollar.

Since the last price adjustment was announced, on 1 March 2016, the rand has improved by almost 25% against the greenback. The purchase of foreign programming, often in US dollars, is a significant cost driver in MultiChoice’s business.
From 1 April 2017, the price of DStv Premium — the company’s top-end bouquet — will rise to R789/month, from R759/month now, an increase of 4%, it said in the communication to customers. Last year, MultiChoice hiked the price of DStv Premium by more than twice that — by 8,6% — from R699/month to R759/month.
DStv Extra will increase on 1 April 2017 by 6,5% to R489/month, from R459/month now, while DStv Compact customers will have to fork out R365/month, a 5,8% increase over the R345/month currently charged. The 2016 increases for Extra and Compact were 8% and 8,2% respectively.

DStv Access and EasyView customers will be pleased to learn that the prices of the two bouquets remain unchanged at R99/month and R29/month respectively.
However, DStv Indian and Portuguesa subscribers will have to cough up more from 1 April.

The DStv Indian bouquet will rise to R360/month, from R340/month now, while an add-on Indian bouquet, offering even more channels, will cost R229/month, from R220/month now. Portuguesa subscribers will in future pay R465/month, from R445/month now, with add-on channels rising from R220/month to R299/month.
The personal video recorder access fee remains unchanged at R85/month, as do BoxOffice rentals (R35/title) and decoder insurance, MultiChoice said in its communication with customers.

© 2017 NewsCentral Media

Source: Tech Central

Icasa defers spectrum auction indefinitely

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Communications regulator Icasa has deferred a planned auction of high-demand spectrum indefinitely.

In a notice published in the Government Gazette, Icasa said it is deferring the timeframe for the spectrum award process “until further notice.’

The move is unsurprising, given the planned auction is the subject of a legal challenge by telecommunications & postal services minister Siyabonga Cwele.
Cwele already won an urgent interdict stopping Icasa from going ahead with the auction until the courts have had a chance to consider the matter.

The planned spectrum auction is at direct odds with government policy plans, endorsed by Cwele, to assign the spectrum to a single national operator.
Under the controversial national integrated ICT policy white paper, government wants to allocate all high-demand spectrum — spectrum that can be used to deploy 4G and future 5G networks — to a wholesale open-access network (Woan) provider.

The plan, which has drawn intense criticism from the big mobile operators, the Free Market Foundation, industry analysts and others — while drawing praise, albeit qualified, from the Internet Service Providers’ Association — would bring an end to the allocation of exclusive-use spectrum to companies such as Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Telkom.

Critics have slammed the plan, saying it is untested and could backfire badly on South Africa if it flops.

While government has said it intends pushing ahead with the plan to create the Woan, Icasa has also refused to budge, insisting that a spectrum auction is the best way of allocating scarce spectrum. Certainly, Icasa’s plan is in line with international best practice.

TechCentral understands from a well-placed source that discussions are taking place behind the scenes between Icasa and government officials in attempt to resolve the impasse. However, the source said the parties have been unable so far to overcome their differences and that it’s difficult to see how they can reach agreement.

The spectrum that Icasa wants to auction off is in the 700MHz, 800MHz and 2,6GHz bands. All three bands are pivotal for delivering next-generation wireless broadband services to South Africans and reducing the cost of communications.

(c) 2017 NewsCentral Media

Source: Tech Central

ShowMax takes first step into Europe

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Naspers-owned video-on-demand platform ShowMax has made its debut in a European country, launching services in Poland on 15 February 2017.
The Warsaw-based team responsible for the expansion is led by former YouTube and Polish television executive Maciej Sojka.

The new service is closely tailored to local needs with a strong focus on Polish content, including original productions commissioned by ShowMax, the company said in a statement.

Naspers is no stranger to the Polish market, having invested in online marketplace Allegro back in 2008 in a US$1,5bn deal. It sold Allegro last year for $3,3bn to funds advised by private equity firm Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa.
ShowMax said it has tailored its service specifically for Poland, with local TV shows and movies forming part of the catalogue.

“Poland has a vibrant TV and film production industry, and for launch ShowMax has acquired exclusive rights to a range of popular local shows including political satire Ucho Prezesa as well as a catalogue of the most sought-after movies by Polish directors,’ it said. “These include the 2016 box office hits Pitbull and Planeta Singli. Plans are also underway for original productions.’

ShowMax CEO John Kotsaftis said the Polish market is “exciting’ as it has a population of 38m, 7m of whom are already paying for online video (although some of this is paid for access to pirate sites).

“The key to success is catering to local needs. To deliver on this and be close to the market, we chose to set up operations in Warsaw, headed up by a respected Polish pay-TV and Internet TV pioneer (Sojka). This team is aggressively developing a strong portfolio of local content including commissioning original productions.’
Sojka, who has been hired to set up and run ShowMax Poland, ran YouTube partnerships for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to that, he set up the 24-hour news channel TVN24 before moving on to the role of CEO of a satellite pay-TV platform owned by ITI Neovision.

ShowMax Poland’s executive team also includes Grzegorz Esz as head of marketing (ex-UPC Polska and T-Mobile) and Jerzy Dzięgielewski as head of content (ex-HBO Central Europe).

“Poland is an interesting market in that local content features heavily on pirate sites, with many of these sites actually charging for access. In fact, pirate sites account for a significant portion of all online video revenue,’ said Kotsaftis. This suggests there’s an appetite among consumers to pay for a legitimate Polish service with good content.

On ShowMax’s plan to create original Polish programming, Kotsaftis said: “We’re looking hyper-local. We’re not trying to compete with prohibitively expensive shows designed to appeal to audiences worldwide. Instead, we think there’s strong demand for local content that only works at the local level.’

ShowMax was first launched in South Africa 18 months ago. Since then, it has been made available in markets across Africa.

© 2017 NewsCentral Media

Source: Tech Central

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