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 ...

Jean-Pierre Adams: Former France international dies after 39 years in coma

 6 September 2021

Jean-Pierre Adams
Jean-Pierre Adams won 22 caps for France

Former France footballer Jean-Pierre Adams, who had been in a coma for 39 years, has died at the age of 73.

Adams was admitted to hospital for knee surgery in March 1982 but never regained consciousness after an error with his supply of anaesthetic.

Born in Senegal, the defender made more than 140 appearances for Nice and also played for Paris St-Germain.

In a statement, PSG said Adams' "joie de vivre, charisma and experience commanded respect".

Nice said the club would pay tribute to Adams - who won 22 caps for France between 1972-1976 - before their next home game against Monaco on 19 September.

Adams also made 84 appearances for Nimes, who said they were sending their "most sincere condolences to his loved ones and his family".

On the day of Adams' operation to repair a damaged tendon in his knee - suffered while on a coaching training camp - many staff at the hospital in Lyon were on strike.

His operation still went ahead, with the anaesthetist looking after eight patients, including Adams, at the same time. Adams was supervised by a trainee, who later said: "I was not up to the task I was entrusted with."

Between the anaesthetist and trainee, numerous errors were made, causing Adams to suffer a cardiac arrest and brain damage.

It wasn't until the mid-1990s that the anaesthetist and trainee were punished - a one-month suspended sentence and a 750 euro fine.

Adams was discharged from hospital after 15 months and had been cared for at home in Nimes by his wife, Bernadette, ever since.

'Remarkable devotion'

Piers Edwards, BBC Sport Africa

Bernadette Adams is a remarkable woman, a gentle but steely soul who never once considered turning off her husband's life support machine despite his vegetative state.

For four decades, she has spent nearly every day caring for Jean-Pierre, changing his clothes, preparing his food, never forgetting to give him presents and often talking to him too.

The response was of course silence from a man once described as "larger than life" (and whose skills were highly rated by German football legend Franz Beckenbauer) yet nurses reported slight mood changes on the rare occasions Bernadette went away for a night or two.

I visited the Adams home in southern France in 2016 whereupon Bernadette explained the hospital had never apologised for an accident which she could not help thinking about every day.

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