Forget SNO, think TNO

The Department of Public Enterprises is, say sources, planning to establish a third national telecommunications provider aimed at national broadband roll-outs. The organisation, or the TNO if you like, will include Eskom and Sentech infrastructure, reveal the sources. It may be a little premature, considering the SNO is still a long way from the start line, but its something to keep an eye on.

Another set of speculative reports doing the rounds this week is that the SNO will not buy its own network, but rather lease it from Eskom. However, ITWeb has been unable to confirm this with public enterprises minister Alec Erwin`s department, Eskom, or the SNO, despite repeated efforts - leaving doubts over exactly what the SNO-Eskom arrangement will be.

Microsoft hastily assured everyone that solutions to prevent such an attack would be investigated.

Dave Glazier, journalist, ITWeb

ITWeb also reported on Monday the flaws discovered in the Vista operating system. Hackers at the annual Black Hat conference in Las Vegas were shown by Polish researcher Joanna Rutkowska how to bypass security measures in Vista that prevent unsigned code from running. Microsoft hastily assured everyone that solutions to prevent such an attack would be investigated.

The recent re-evaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar - effectively wiping three zeros off any amount of money - has caused a huge accountancy problem, with many companies halfway through their financial years. Most accounting firms have been caught off guard, with little time to adopt software that can accommodate the change, says an SA-based accounting software exec.

Telkom filed a 448-page document with the US Securities Exchange Commission this week, expressing concern that increasing competition in the South African market might result in lower overall tariffs and market share. It also indicated it is very worried about the incidents of theft and vandalism.

While in the mood for making announcements, SA`s only fixed-line operator also revealed delays in its takeover of Business Connexion. It seems the logging of the scheme of arrangements with the Register of Companies and approval from the competition authorities will be set back.

ITWeb reported yesterday that the State IT Agency (SITA) has awarded a transversal tender to 25 companies for the supply of enterprise content management (ECM) solutions in government departments nationwide. With over a million workstations in the public sector, the project is likely to run into the billions of rands, sources say.

IBM SA has secured a lucrative 10-year contract with SA-based shipping company Safmarine Container Lines, worth about a billion rand.

Nedbank has earmarked a "substantial" portion of its R1 billion investment in its distribution channels for IT. Part of this plan will see the bank install 600 new ATMs over the next two-and-a-half years.