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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 ...

Lazarus Chakwera: Malawi's president who 'argued with God'

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By Damian Zane BBC News 29 June 2020 Share this with Facebook   Share this with Messenger   Share this with Twitter   Share this with Email   Share Image copyright REUTERS Image caption Lazarus Chakwera's political fortunes were revived by a court ruling that annulled last year's flawed election In the unmistakable cadence of a preacher, Malawi's new President, Lazarus Chakwera, appealed for unity in his country shortly after he was sworn in on Sunday. The day of the week seemed fitting as the former head of the Malawi Assemblies of God, one of the largest Christian denominations in the country, treated the stage like a pulpit to inspire fervour with his words. The country is fractured after a divisive 13 months following the disputed 2019 election, the result of which was cancelled by the courts. Speaking in a style and accent that had hints of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King, President Chakwera talked about the drea...

Why smart people believe coronavirus myths

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From students to politicians, many smart people have fallen for dangerous lies spread about the new coronavirus. Why? And how can you protect yourself from misinformation? By David Robson 7th April 2020 It is a sad truth that  any health crisis will spawn its own pandemic of misinformation . In the 80s, 90s, and 2000s we saw the spread of  dangerous lies about Aids  – from  the belief that the HIV virus was created by a government laboratory  to the  idea that the HIV tests were unreliable , and even the spectacularly unfounded theory that  it could be treated with goat’s milk . These claims increased risky behaviour and exacerbated the crisis. Now, we are seeing a fresh inundation of fake news – this time around the coronavirus pandemic. From Facebook to WhatsApp, frequently shared misinformation include everything from  what caused the outbreak  to  how you can prevent becoming ill . ...

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