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Showing posts from June, 2021

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 ...

Texas Republicans Who Want to Lure Bitcoin Mining Companies Should Be Very, Very Careful

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  BY   JAKE DEAN  AND  NITISH PAHWA JUNE 28, 2021 10:30 AM Grindi/iStock/Getty Images Plus TWEET SHARE COMMENT China was at one point home to nearly  three-quarters of the world’s total Bitcoin production . But now it’s cracking down on the highly popular cryptocurrency, with  state media claiming that 90 percent  of its mining operations closed on June 21. In response, the value of the currency has been going haywire,  dropping that day to $28,680 , its lowest level in a month, before rebounding to nearly $33,000 by Tuesday. But instability continues to loom due to a concurrent slide in demand; the U.S. Federal Reserve’s announcement of  possible interest rate hikes by 2023  may have additionally spooked investors. At any rate, China’s enterprising miners, who once had entire countryside regions and dedicated power plants for their use, are striking out West for new opportunities in countries embracing digital currencies.  While na...

Bill and Melinda Gates divorce highlights work outside foundation

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  In the years leading up to their split, Bill and Melinda Gates have each dived into projects outside the scope of their foundation’s work, a trend that’s expected to accelerate post-divorce. For Melinda French Gates, 56, the divorce could mean that more resources will be focused on Pivotal Ventures, her 90-person incubation and investment firm largely focused on gender equality [File: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg] By  Sophie Alexander and Ben Steverman Bloomberg 28 Jun 2021 In her first public appearance since her divorce announcement, Melinda French Gates traveled to the White House, leaders from her charity and investment firm in tow. She pressed Biden officials on two issues central to her priorities: paid family leave and child care. The same day this month, Bill Gates appeared in a virtual address to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. Wearing his familiar sweater, collared shirt and glasses, the Microsoft Corp. co-founder spoke for nearly...

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