Today we received the final official unconditional approval from the Competition Commission for the Vox purchase of Storm.
From here, we wrap up retrenchment and redeployment processes and kick off integration processes and of course pay out monies owed for shares and options.
The long wait is over.
OK, so telecoms was fun... anyone for taking on Eskom? ;)
Total Telecom, getting into silly season mood, sent me this frivolous gem:
A new phone you can really dig
If you don't fancy the latest in mobile Web surfing technology this
Christmas, or if you're exceptionally clumsy, there is an alternative.
JCB, famed makers of 10-tonne diggers used the world over, have brought out a ruggedised branded handset, presumably for big boys who love Tonka toys.
What's more, rather than a big boring list of technical specifications, such as whether or not it's 3G and how many megapixels the camera has, the JCB phone sells along different lines, like the fact that it's waterproof, dustproof and shockproof.
Although it might also have something to do with the fact that it's 2G, and doesn't have a camera.
Aptly called the Toughphone, it comes in a yellow and black design, and as well as being available from traditional outlets, it will also be sold in equipment hire shops from February 2008.
Its sturdy design is bound to appeal to U.K. consumers: without going into too much detail, Brits drop 855,000 handsets down the toilet every year, generating a whopping £342 million in insurance and replacement costs.
That's one every 36 seconds!
Bretton picked up this story in c|net news.com.
The FBI seem not only to be able to turn on your mobile phone's microphone remotely and use it to monitor any conversations within range, but they are allowed to do so and use the evidence in court!
The technique is called a "roving bug".
"Kaplan's opinion said that the eavesdropping technique "functioned whether the phone was powered on or off." Some handsets can't be fully powered down without removing the battery; for instance, some Nokia models will wake up when turned off if an alarm is set.
...
Because modern handsets are miniature computers, downloaded software could modify the usual interface that always displays when a call is in progress. The spyware could then place a call to the FBI and activate the microphone--all without the owner knowing it happened. (The FBI declined to comment on Friday.)
...
Security-conscious corporate executives routinely remove the batteries from their cell phones.
...
Malicious hackers have followed suit. A report last year said Spanish authorities had detained a man who write a Trojan horse that secretly activated a computer's video camera and forwarded him the recordings.
"
Can you imagine confidential business meetings from now on where everyone is expected to haul out their phones and pull out the battery, leaving both lying on the table?!
Technically, very neat, but from a right to privacy point of view, seriously frightening.
Every time I drive crawl through rush hour traffic, I think of what an 
impact a decent broadband system in SA would make to the economy, with many people being able to work from home. Just yesterday I wrote the following in reply to a UK based customer complaining about our quote for a 2Mbps connection to the UK:
>The cost is approx 6 times what we would pay in the UK > for the same circuit – I know bandwidth can be
> expensive in South Africa but is this the best price
> available or are there any other options?Considering telecoms pricing in general (driven primarily by Telkom's continued monopoly of local loop and international gateway) is acknowledged to be 10x higher than it should be, and that Seacom (due in 2009) are proposing prices of 15x less than Telkom are charging the likes of Storm for IPLC's now, 6x what you're paying in the UK is bloody good! There could conceivably be some crowd prepared to cut their margins to ridiculous levels to better this, but I would not buy from them myself.
>do you have an uncontended 2mb ADSL option?
No such beast in SA. DSL is a contended technology anywhere in the world. The difference being that in places like the UK you can pay more for a "low contention / business" DSL as opposed to a "high contention / consumer" DSL. Here, we're stuck with the "consumer" version where the telco refuse to quote contention ratios.
An here is what my 512kbps DSL line looks like today folks as I write this from my "home office":
ISDN used to give me 64kbps or 128kbps day in and day out. I cannot access my fileserver. I can hardly pull mail.
Telkom's quoted speeds for this line:
Down stream line sync speed minimum 416kbps; maximum 512kbps and up stream: minimum 192kbps; maximum 256kbps.
And the Telkom Product Manager for DSL had the bare faced cheek to tell me (when I suggested he differentiate his products based on contention ratio's) that he was not going to degrade his perfectly good product just to charge less!
Gah! Love to know what parallel world he is living in.
OK. I can finally say it. We've sold. And yes, it is to Vox.
Mixed feelings. A part of my soul will be forever attached to the Storm brand and I'm feeling a sense of loss. But I'd be kidding myself to say I joined up to grow old with Storm. I'm not a corporate man and I'm more suited to the chaos & stresses of Startup than the order and stresses of Corporate process and politics.
I have no idea where I will be in a few months time, but I'm quite comfortable with that.
One thing I can say is that I've learned that one can do a lot with a team of competent people who learn to trust each other and play to each others strengths. Stormers are a great bunch & I salute the lot of you for getting us to this point.
The press release from Vox:
Vox Telecom to buy Storm
It is official. Vox Telecom will buy Storm, one of its biggest rivals in the least-cost-routing and VoIP market.
Vox Telecom has announced its intention to buy Storm Telecom in a R360m deal. Storm Telecom provides telephony and internet services, including voice over IP (VoIP), least cost routing, international call-back, virtual private networks and internet access, hosting and security to medium and large-sized South African companies.
It has over 6,000 contracted customers and monthly annuity income of over R22 million.
Vox Telecom will integrate Storm’s telephony business into its subsidiary Orion Telecom, the data business into corporate ISP DataPro and the consumer ISP business into consumer ISP, @lantic Internet
“Storm is a major player in the voice and data markets, with a very strong VoIP platform and customer base,” says Vox Telecom CEO Douglas Reed.
“They also bring VoIP skills that are complementary to ours. The acquisition strengthens our stated strategy of establishing Vox Telecom as the preferred telecommunications alternative to the domestic incumbents. It will considerably improve our position in the VoIP telephony market and augment our corporate customer base profile and market share.”
“This is a very positive development for Storm’s customers as they will be able to still benefit from the current Storm services, but will have a further advantage from the economies of scale that the larger Vox Telecom group offers”, said Willem van Rensburg, CEO of Storm Telecom.
“There will be a seamless transition from a customer perspective, with the same products being supported by the merged entity, but they will also be able to take advantage of the other products and services available from Vox Telecom.”
“We continue to look for acquisitions that are strategic, accretive to earnings and allow us to improve our scale and strategic positioning in the South African telecommunications market”, says Vox Telecom Executive Chairman Tony van Marken. Storm is in our strike-zone and is an excellent fit with our existing businesses.”
Van Marken says the deal also offers “significant synergies once the businesses are integrated. Storm is a significant asset to add to the Group and will be a key contributor to future growth and earnings.”
The R360m purchase price is to be funded through a combination of debt and equity financing. The deal is still subject to approval by the Competition Commission and other regulatory bodies including the Reserve Bank and the JSE.
(No boet, I don't have writer's block again... I'm just juggling and dropping too many balls at the moment! As requested, here is the text of the article that appeared in Business Day.)
The Future of SA’s Universities Lies in the Pipes
Universities are looking for new communications partners to connect them to the world. It’s a big responsibility: without the pipes, they’re going down the tubes, says Storm Telecom business development director Dave Gale
There is an aphorism in academic circles: “publish or die”. If you’re not
publishing original research, or contributing to academic discourse at a high level, you’re not only unable to compete – you’re not even in the game. South African universities have to struggle with transformation, with creating skills relevant to our country’s needs, with very limited funding, and with being on the far side of a long plane ride to major centres of research. It’s pretty tough.
But they have been doing it. South African universities are still managing to stay engaged with top-tier research institutions in the US and Europe. And – more importantly, with institutions in China and India, which are our peers as “almost developed” developing countries. This is particularly true in the engineering and sciences fields, where technology is not just key – it’s all-important.
So yes, we can hold our heads high – but much of the success achieved is through sheer determination and grit, because our universities still have to struggle every day with wholly inadequate network infrastructure.
How inadequate? Put it this way … South Africa connects into GÉANT (Gigabit European Academic Network) at 155Mbps. European institutions connect in at multiples of 10Gbps. That is not two or three, but hundreds of times as fast! Fair enough, they’re close to each other… but China isn’t, and links in at multiple gigabits per second.
This isn’t just a my-pipe-is-bigger-than-yours locker-room size contest. It’s a basic requirement for participating in international research collaborations. It’s a basic requirement for developing new technologies. It’s a basic requirement to be competitive in the modern world. We’re not trying to keep up with the Joneses – we can’t. We don’t have the funding or expertise to stay up with the Cambridges or MITs of the world. We’re needing to keep up with the da Silvas and Novaks and Guptas and Changs. Our peers like Brazil, Hungary, India, China.
There are any number of modern technologies that specifically require high speed, low latency connections, notably for voice and video services. This is where a huge amount of commercial opportunity awaits. Many Web technologies (especially in the Web 2.0 space) assume a high speed Internet connection to function effectively. Modern business applications are often the aggregation of multiple services being pulled in from servers scattered around the office, country or planet. Many consumer and business applications are embedding voice and video. All require high speed links.
We don’t just need fast links to make applications work, we also need development skills and technology strategies that can only be honed in a high-speed network environment. If our students and researchers are learning in an environment that mimics the business environment of five years ago, they’re in trouble.
Turning academic achievement into business success is vital for the future of South Africa’s economy. Look at Yeigo, a startup created by some UCT computer science graduates and launched through the Cape IT Initiative’s Bandwidth Barn business accelerator. This company designed a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to allow you to use your cellphones data channel to make cheap voice calls.
Great technology, especially in telecoms-constrained Africa. But while it’s valuable now, in many ways it points towards a developmental dead-end. The rest of the world is heading to broadband with voice running as a virtually free service on it. We’re developing better tyres for the wheel, when the rest of the world is climbing onto rocket-ships.
So where to from here?
TENET (South Africa’s Tertiary Academic Network, which connects the major tertiary education institutions) is looking for new network partners as its old contract with Telkom comes to an end. It is looking to a new breed of communications service providers to give it high-tech network services that also stretch limited budgets the furthest.
Technology is not just an enabler of science and engineering research – it’s a communications enabler. Not only do universities need to provide fast technical resources to laboratories, it needs to provide effective, low cost communications to all staff and students. Cheap international phone calls. Video conferencing. The stuff of collaboration.
This is a critical period for South Africa – in this race, once you fall off the back of the pack, regaining your position becomes well nigh impossible. We’re not trying to win the race – that’s unreasonable. But we must stay in the running.
Spotted by some eagle eyes trawling ITWeb today: This.
OK, so they've fixed the faux pas, but that has to be the most ironic juxtapostion of content I've seen in a while.
The DoC was castigated recently (yes, there are people other than me who do chuck 
brickbats their way from time to time) for throwing a lavish party "to mark the occasion of the delivery of my vote in the National Assembly." according to Madame Matsepe-Casaburri.
ITWeb today reports that she has revealed that although the event cost R395 315.06, only R96,000.00 came from the DoC... the rest from corporate sponsors.
Who are they? Acc. to ITWeb:
The companies which sponsored the department's event are: Dimension Data, Vodacom, Cell C, MTN, GijimaAST, ForgeAhead, Microsoft, Business Connexion, Neotel, Multichoice and Nokia Siemens Networks.
Telkom conspicuous by their absence. Was it because they found it distasteful to fund a party for the telecoms policymakers of the land or did they decide they have no reason to suck up to government, or were they not approached?
I know lobbying government is part of life, but quite frankly, I'm not sorry that Storm's name is not on that list. There are more constructive ways of spending money right now and when we see some real progress in making SA Telecoms more competitive I'll be ready to celebrate.
Right now, I'm wondering what the fuss is about.
Stumble It!