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 ...

Zimbabwean diaspora ready to invest

 Sunday 21 March 2021 - 3:00pm

eNCA correspondent Pindai Dube brings us this story. Courtesy of #DStv403

HARARE - Zimbabweans working and living outside their country are willing to invest back home and boost the economy, as long as there is a good environment according to the International Organization for Migration in Southern Africa.

More than two million Zimbabweans are estimated to be in neighbouring South Africa and Botswana, while thousands are based in the UK, Australia, and Canada among other nations.

READ: Zimbabwe opposition MPs fired from Parliament
 

Zimbabwe's economy is currently bleeding due to a lack of foreign investment.

The IOM's Southern Africa regional director, Charles Kwenin has met with Zimbabwean government officials and says citizens outside the country want to spend money back home.

IOM Southern Africa director Charles Kwenin said, "Zimbabwe has very huge human resources capacity in neighbouring countries abroad and everywhere. And there are really very willing and to support and make a contribution to their home country."

"Their contribution is welcome whichever way through remittances, skills transfers, social remittances and even foreign direct investments in the country. So these are things we think it's important but it will also be important that before we do this we get the right environment."

He said the coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on migrants because cross-border trading is what supports many Zimbabwean families.

READ: New lockdown looms in Zimbabwe
 

Kwenin said, "there are a lot of income and support source of livelihoods that migration provides through informal cross border traders most of them are women and this corona that has  resulted in lockdowns and closure of borders has serious social-economic impact on cross-border  traders"

In Zimbabwe, the IOM is partnering with a farming foundation to help train migrant returnees and rural communities to generate an income.

The organization is also assisting the country by providing personal protective equipment, sanitisers and water at all border posts regarded as high-risk areas for COVID-19.

Zimbabwe's total number of infections currently stands at over 36,000 while there have been about 1,500 deaths.

Source
eNCA

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