ITNewsAfrica’s Most read stories of 2011

This year has indeed been very exciting in the ICT industry. While some companies lost their lustre, others managed to entice new customers with innovative offerings and new products. Here’s a list of our most read stories of 2011:

1. BlackBerry Internet Service down again

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion had a bit of a tough year, but their biggest news-making event happened when their BlackBerry Internet Service failed. After the service failed, the technology-maker managed to get it up and running again for a couple of hours – after which it failed again. The outage left users with no means of communication – and livid.

2. Who is Anonymous?

Hacker collective Anonymous rose to prominence in 2011 by attacking high-profile businesses and websites, exploiting their personal files and information. The group was responsible for the many Occupy movements around the world, most notably instigating the Occupy Wall Street rally, which sparked off the worldwide protests. The Who is Anonymous? article looks at the group’s structure and their inner-workings.

3. Top 10 Telecoms leaders in Africa

ITNewsAfrica profiled Africa’s Top 10 Telecom leaders, based on their executive achievements and their companies’ business performance.  Topping the list was Chairman of Orascom Telecom Holdings, Naguib Sawiris, followed by Mohamed Abdel Rehim Hassanein, CEO and Managing Director for Telecom Egypt, and Alieu Conteh, the Chairman of Congolese Wireless Network.

4. Telkom increases data caps

Data has truly become the new commodity, and companies that can deliver the most amounts of data at the highest speed for the lowest price often flourish.

5. Top 10 African women in ICT

Similar to the Top Telecoms leaders in Africa list, ITNewsAfrica compiled a list of the top African women working in the ICT sector and who have made significant contributions to the sector. Telkom CEO Nombulelo Moholi made the top of the list, followed by the CEO of Kutana Investments Group Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe, and Felleng Sekha, non- executive director of Business Connexion.

6. RIM issues statement over BIS outage

With the crash of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Internet Service, RIM was slow to respond to initial questions about the outage. The media and customers were further angered when RIM took almost a week to release an official statement – but when they finally broke their silence, everyone wanted to know the severity of the situation.

7. 500Gbps network – a global first

Africa rejoiced when cable operator SEACOM held a technical demonstration of its new 5×100 Gbps network. According to Suveer Ramdhani, SEACOM Head of Product Strategy, the latest SEACOM project was a global first and would benefit Africa as a whole.

8. Nigeria’s NCC may sanction MTN, GLO, Airtel

In early November it came to light that Nigeria’s Communications Commission was considering placing sanctions on mobile operators MTN, Glo and Airtel if the operators did not improve their services by the end of November 2011. Luckily the situation was rectified.

9. 9 reasons to invest in African ICT

The African continent has attracted numerous international investors seeking new business deals across the continent, and for that reason ITNewsAfrica took a look at some of the key reasons as to why other international companies should invest in Africa. Some of the biggest factors were infrastructure, mobile penetration and undersea cables.

10. Q&A: RIM Director on plans for Playbook

Shortly after the launch of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Playbook tablet, ITNewsAfrica spoke to RIM’s Regional Director for Southern Africa, Craige Fleischer about the company’s future.

Charlie Fripp – Acting Online editor