Lock-in has been the name of the game in the internet service provision and hosting markets in South Africa – until now. New, neutral players are changing the game. "Brainstorm Magazine - Samantha Perry"

Planned 8 Mbps ADSL upgrades will mean ADSL bonding clients will see speeds of up to 40 Mbps...or more Staff Writer MyBroadband |

Arrow Altech Distribution (AAD) has seen its monthly communications cost fall by 35% since partnering with Altech Technology Concepts in October 2009. (IT-Online)

JSE-listed technology group Altech is considering ramping up its investments in telecommunications infrastructure in SA and West Africa, effectively replicating its investments in East Africa.

JSE listed Allied Technologies Limited (Altech) today announced the group’s interim results for the six months ended 31 August 2009. rnrn“I am particularly pleased with the strong performance that has been delivered by all of Altech’s operating companies. What is even more impressive is that we have increased our operating profit margin to 10%. This has resulted in a 17% increase in our profits. Altech East Africa is showing exceptional growth and already contributes 18% of the Altech group’s total operating profit, proving that it has been a very successful and sound investment. Altech East Africa, which perfectly complements our existing and successful group of companies, should contribute approximately 45% of Altech’s total profit over the next two to three years. It is definitely the growth engine for the Altech group,” said Altech CEO, Craig Venter.

Winston the Data Pigeon is bold, but still a bird-brainrnrnIt sounds a bit like a corny joke: “What’s the difference between a carrier pigeon and a Telkom ADSL line?” The Homing-Pigeon-that-beat-Telkom-ADSL story cooked up by a Kwazulu Natal call centre company has played really well in media… it got Slashdotted and Digged right up onto the front page, appeared on news sites all over the world and featured in daily papers all over South Africa.rn

JSE listed Allied Technologies Limited (Altech) and SEACOM, today announced their strategic alliance for the mutual acquisition of bandwidth capacity on two cable systems. The agreement sees Altech procuring two STM-16s from SEACOM (equivalent to 5Gbps) , with the option to upgrade, within three years, to double this capacity, to an STM-64. SEACOM will in turn purchase six STM-64s throughout the East Africa region on the terrestrial backbone network owned by Kenya Data Networks (KDN), a subsidiary of Altech.

“Kenya Data Networks, rolls out a fibre optic cable from Mombasa to Kampala, soon to reach Kigali and beyond”

Kenya Data Networks (KDN), an Altech subsidiary and the fastest growing ICT company in East Africa, has laid an estimated 1500kms of fibre backbone from the Kenyan city of Mombasa to Kampala in Uganda. The fibre optic network will afford homes, businesses and Digital Villages the opportunity to tap into the anticipated benefits of faster, cheaper and more efficient services, including cable television, voice and data services.

If not after Seacom goes "live" on Thursday, when?

Over-hyped expectations around the 90% drop in prices we were suddenly going to see with the arrival of the Seacom undersea cable are now somewhat more "grounded".

If we're not going to wake up on Thursday (when the $600m cable officially lights up) suddenly paying 50c or even R1 per MB (from the current R2) for mobile data (this we know, Seacom will not mean a massive drop in prices), when might we?

[ Johannesburg, 13 July 2009 ] - Allied Technologies ' Technology Concepts (Altech TC) is evaluating the possibility of rolling out its own infrastructure, making use of its parent company's hard won ECNS licence.

Speedtest.net has become a popular destination for Internet users to test their downlink and upload speeds. The website sports a user friendly interface and a multitude of testing servers across the globe – including Cape Town and Johannesburg based testing sites.

The Johannesburg server is hosted by Altech Technology Concepts, well known for its ADSL bonding technology, with adequate bandwidth to provide accurate results for local broadband services.

Internet access, support and web development company, Altech Technology Concepts has introduced TC Hosted Exchange, a Microsoft Exchange Server solution, to its ever-growing suite of SaaS (Software as a Service) offerings that bring enterprise grade solutions to smaller businesses.

JSE listed Allied Technologies Limited (Altech), today announced a sterling set of results for the year ended 28 February 2009. “We are proud to have demonstrated resilience in the challenging global economic conditions. The results underscore our successful strategy of continued globalisation, particularly the progress made in the East African broadband and value-added network services markets. The Group remains perfectly positioned to capitalise on the sustained growth projected for broadband technology in Africa, across multiple technologies, services and geographies,” commented Altech’s Chief Executive Officer, Craig Venter.

JSE listed Allied Technologies Limited (Altech), today announced the acquisition of 100% of the equity in and claims against Lateral Technology Concepts (Pty) Ltd (Technology Concepts), an internet service provider (ISP) and information technology company, subject to the fulfillment of normal conditions precedent.

Johannesburg based internet technology solutions company - Technology Concepts - developed “channel bonding” technology over 18 month ago as a means of connecting broadband ADSL lines to provide higher-speed connections to businesses. The concept of the technology was to provide South African companies with a service to replace their much more expensive leased lines service and ultimately improve their connectivity experience of the Internet.

We take a look at the price of a 20Mbps ADSL solution with a 100GB cap.

Staff Writer, MyBroadband 15 March, 2009

The small to medium sized business tier is where leading-edge networking lives. Enterprise-level companies focus on tried and tested solutions. Safe bets. Smaller companies are more inclined to test the waters with new technologies, and even to deploy consumer-focused offerings should these work for them. This is not to say that value is not important, but SME businesses want their challenges solved rapidly and are not overly picky on the shape of the plug, but are more concerned with the hole it fills.