It’s been a busy week on the technological front with quite a few interesting developments. We bring you the headlines courtesy of TechCentral.
Mxit Money, a partnership between Standard Bank and mobile social network Mxit, has been launched and allows Mxit users to send money to one another for free, transact with that money, and even withdraw it. Users can also send money to other mobile phone users for a nominal fee. Read more.
German-based media streaming company Simfy is set to launch a local offering of its music streaming service before the end of the month. Simfy Africa will have more than 18m tracks available for streaming and has secured licensing deals with all of the big international record labels, including Sony Music. Read more.
Mauritius-based DotConnectAfrica is laying claim to the .africa generic top-level domain for which SA’s ZA Central Registry is the African Union’s endorsed bidder. This is in spite of the fact that DotConnectAfrica inadvertently applied for the wrong domain, at a cost of US$185 000, and is unlikely to succeed in meeting the stringent requirements for geographic gTLDs. Read more.
The Competition Tribunal last week fined Telkom R449m for abusing its dominance in the telecommunications industry between 1999 and 2004. Assuming Telkom doesn’t appeal against the decision, half of the penalty is to be paid within six months of the tribunal’s decision, with the balance is payable within 12 months thereafter. Read more.
