iWeek is a tree-killing news weekly from the same team who bring us the excellent ITWeb.
Here follows my take on a few stories that were run in the 16 February 2006 edition.
“Wits students get computer lab”
HP and Aptronics donated a lab for post-grads at Wits University to use.
Faculty member’s response: “they hoped that post-graduates would… …not be tempted to try their hand at hacking or vandalism.”
Ummm, hacking (to write or refine computer programs skillfully) (a learning process) at an institute of learning? Heaven forbid.
Yes I know what they mean, but it’s a stupid thing to say.
“Telkom’s African Safari”
Telkom wants to roll out services to Africa, one of the lowest (maybe the lowest) teledensity regions in the world. Mike Mlengana’s (group exec for business development) comment when questioned on strategy:
“It’s difficult to give details, as we don’t want to give too much away to our competitors.”
Obviously Telkom has no idea about disrupting markets. If you’re quicker and better than the competition, who cares what they think they know?
“Wireless Business Solutions launches iGo-lite, a wireless broadband package offering users 210 megabits(sic) of data at the price of R195 per month.”
They actually mean 210 megabytes. It doesn’t matter. The quantity is pitiful.
30 US dollars for 210 megabytes.
$0.15 per megabyte.
I can hear the scornful laughter from our overseas kindred, and it is LOUD.
Tags: Wits, University, HP, lab, hacking, Telkom, Hellkom, marketingdisruption, competition, wirelessbroadband, broadband, WBS, iBurst, bandwidth