ADSL on its last legs in South Africa

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  By   Daniel Puchert Partially state-owned telecommunications company Telkom announced in its financial results for the year ending 31 March 2025 that its ADSL subscribers had more than halved to under 30,000. According to the company’s operational data, ADSL lines decreased from 64,959 in March 2024 to 29,770. This 54.2% decline highlights that the legacy broadband technology is slowly approaching the end of the road. Telkom’s ADSL business peaked at the end of March 2016 with 1.01 million subscribers — two years after fibre upstart Vumatel  broke ground in Parkhurst . What followed was a sharp decline in Telkom ADSL subscribers. Customers connected to its copper networks decreased by more than 500,000 over the next four years. This was partly driven by Telkom itself, which began actively switching off its copper network in some neighbourhoods. If it did not have fibre in the area, it would offer a “fixed line lookalike” wireless service that ran over its cellular ...
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PHALLIC-SHAPED OWL STATUE IN SERBIA'S NORTH SPARKS PROTESTS

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PHALLIC-SHAPED OWL STATUE IN SERBIA'S NORTH SPARKS PROTESTS

The protestors say the terra-cotta statue’s elongated shape and minimalist features were obscene and demanded its removal.
Serbia’s northern town of Kikinda is now trending on social media for a different reason: a protest over a statue aiming to brand it as the city of owls which many say resembles a phallus rather than an owl. Picture: @stevie_evans1/EWN
Serbia’s northern town of Kikinda is now trending on social media for a different reason: a protest over a statue aiming to brand it as the city of owls which many say resembles a phallus rather than an owl. Picture: @stevie_evans1/EWN
| 2 days ago
KIKINDA - Thousands of keen bird-watchers flock to Serbia’s northern town of Kikinda every winter to see one of the world’s largest roosting populations of long-eared owls.
But the small town on Serbia’s border with Romania is now trending on social media for a different reason: a protest over a statue aiming to brand it as the city of owls which many say resembles a phallus rather than an owl.
The protestors say the terra-cotta statue’s elongated shape and minimalist features were obscene and demanded its removal.
“Freud could say something about this statue, it looks so much like a phallus,” one protester said in a Facebook post.
“Now everyone will ridicule Kikinda,” read another post on Facebook. “This (statue) represents something very masculine, but not an owl,” another said on Twitter.
Local sculptor Jovan Blat, who made the statue, could not be reached for comment. Last week he told Belgrade’s Vecernje Novosti daily he was ready to make a differently-shaped statue. Local authorities declined to comment.
Zeljko Bodrozic, editor-in-chief of a local newspaper, said the owl monument should remain in place.
“With all the hype swirling around it ... in a way it also becomes a symbol of our city.”

Keen birdwatcher Dragan Simic said he did not care about the statue. “Kikinda is now famous for its owls ... across Europe, even around the world ... the bird-watchers are very active, numerous and loyal tourists,” he said.

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