The hard working boys and girls over at Skyrove.com are making waves again. This time they plan to take on the industry gaints by participating in the first ever auction for national radio frequency in the 2,6GHz band.

The Skyrove business model is simple and allows anyone to set up a Wi-Fi hotspot and earn an income by sharing or selling Internet access to others. If Henk Kleynhans CEO of Skyrove uses the same model as Skyrove and applies it to the 2,6GHz band, it’s going to be huge. This would in theory allow the company to scale rapidly via third party clients who could then resell 4G wireless broadband in their local area under license from Skyrove. The scaling potential is huge and me thinks the larger mobile networks in South Africa are going to sit up straight or miss out.

Most of the smartphones these days have WiFi and this new 4G network linked into the Skyrove model could create a network of WiFi hotspots so large that you could move between networks almost seamlessly. Thats the theory and me thinks only time will tell how Henk’s model really works. It’s going to be very interesting to see how the larger players in the indusrty respond to this.

I really hope Henk and his team win the license. Just participating in this auction is going to cost Skyrove R70000 (non refundable). They will also need to put down a refundable deposit of R750000 just to be able to bid. This is no small auction and taking on the industry gaints is no small task. Henk and his team obviously have fringing balls of steel and financial backing to boot, because this auction is going to easily clock a few hundred million. Maybe we should be wishing the industry gaints luck, because the new kid on the block is going to kick your butt

That being said we wish the Skyrove team well with their bid, we are rooting for you!

Break News:

Twitter just went wild with news that MTN is going to launch “uncapped 3G broadband” come 1 June 2010, so I decided to digg deaper and bring you the facts.

MTN South Africa has just announced that they will be introducing “uncapped 3G broadband” from 1 June 2010. This may sound like brilliant news but lets look a little closer before getting excited. The “uncapped” 3G will come with strict fair-usage restrictions and at the end of the day is this new “uncapped 3G” service really as “uncapped” as it sounds?

MTN will launch two packages come 1 June 2010:

1. R 749.00/ month - You get 3GB of 3G data, throttled down to 128kbit/s after using 3GB.
2. R1999.00/month - You get 10GB of 3G data, throttled down to 128kbit/s after using 10GB.

Clearly real “uncapped” data at an affordable rate is still along way off in South Africa.

You can already purchase mobile 3G data from 0.19c/MB when purchasing a 2GB bundle, so 3GB of data is already R583.68 at the standard rate and you are then paying R165.32 for the remaining 128kb uncapped connection after you reach the 3GB cap. So looks like they should be announcing ‘uncapped 128kb connections’ with the purchase of our over priced bundles. You can btw already get 128kb wireless internet connections in South Africa for R299.00 per month which means the MTN offering is R133.68 cheaper per month so lets give them credit where it’s due, the new rate is cheaper than current market prices but they are forcing you to purchase and expensive 3GB bundle, which makes the deal less appealing to the poorer mass market.

The 10GB account also looks much better, however why would you want to pay for 10GB of expensive data. Why don’t they just launch a 128kb connection to market and drop the whole 3GB and 10GB bundle idea. On the 10GB account you are in theory only paying R53.40/month for the 128kb uncapped connection.

I sure hope MTN looks at bringing a ‘uncapped 128kb connection’ to market for under R60.00/month without the end user needing to purchase a 3GB or 10Gb bundle, now that would be revolutionary

It’s going to be interesting to see how Vodacom responds to the new MTN rates. Lets hope Vodacom reads this blog and takes the hint and brings a lower speed cheap connection for the mass market.

fringsters as you may have seen in our last post, Nokia last night announced that ‘Comes with Music‘, “a pioneering digital entertainment service, is now available in South Africa. The service, offers consumers a year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia Music Store catalogue.

Comes With Music devices enable the consumer to download an unlimited number of the over 5-million digital tracks available on the South African Nokia Music Store http://music.nokia.co.za for a one year period. In addition, the consumer is able to keep all their downloaded music from the diverse catalogue of international and local artists - even when the service period of one year is over – on both their Comes With Music device and dedicated PC.

Comes with Music will be available exclusively across a range of Nokia devices through MTN, Cell C, Nashua Mobile and Autopage cellular. Devices include the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic Comes with Music edition – exclusive to MTN, the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic and the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic available across all four channels.”

Comes With Music is a great new service, the only question I have is when will we see Comes With Fring

If you happen to have any one of these great new Nokia handsets be sure to download fring here.

Breaking news from South Africa:

“From Wednesday, anyone buying a pre-paid SIM card in South Africa must provide proof of address and identification, according to a new law.”

“The compulsory registration of all SIM cards in use, in terms of the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (RICA) will come into effect from 1 July 2009.”

Existing Vodacom, MTN and CellC contract customers will have 18months to register “subscribers that fail to comply with RICA within the specified time period will be deactivated”.

The new law also only allows for in person registration and no telephonic registrations will be allowed. You will also need to have the following with you when registering.

*Cellphone number
*Full names and surname
*ID number or passport number.
*Physical address.

Note: Not sure how this will affect tourists purchasing pre-paid simcards during the 2010 world cup soccer but I think you would be able to use your passport and accommodation info when purchasing.

“Cell C customers can register at all Cell C franchise stores or at stores where they see a RICA sign. Alternatively, they contact Cell C’s contact centre on 140 (free of charge) from a Cell C cellphone or 084 140 from any other phone for more information on RICA.

MTN customers can register at all MTN’s services centres across the country and in the event customer need guidance and clarity the MTN customer care number is 173, free from an MTN cellphone or 083 173 from any other phone, for prepaid subscribers.

Vodacom customers can register their SIM cards at any Vodacom outlets or they can contact their Customer Care Centre on 111, free from a Vodacom cellphone, or 082 111 from any other phone to find the nearest RICA agent where they can register their SIM card.” Mybroadband.co.za

fringsters here’s some of good news from MTN South Africa.

MTN will later today introduce “bandwidth rollover“, this means that you can now purchase a data bundle and not worry about it expiring at the end of 30days. MTN is the first local cellphone network to introduce this service and I am sure this move will win MTN many new customers.

Sadly though MTN’s data bundle prices will for the moment remain unchanged.

“More good news for broadband consumers is that MTN is planning another announcement regarding data bundles in around two month’s time. MTN remains tight lipped about what this announcement will involve, but it may entail giving the consumer even more bang for their buck. “

The “worlds largest cellphone” currently on display at the MTN Sciencentre in Cape Town is about to take a back seat when it comes to large cellphones. According to Guinness World Records the Sony Ericsson W810i which measures a staggering 2.50 x 1.14 x 0.49 meters is was currently the worlds largest handset. Hold the phone, you mean there is a bigger handset? Yip continue reading… Sadly though for Sony Ericsson this world record is a thing of the past, Samsung together with cricket have just released a new contender for the worlds largset working mobile phone at Fidelity Plaza, Chicago, USA.

According to frings Indian Blogger Frazier: This new Samsung device measures an amazing “15 feet wide by 13 feet tall” wow! your device really is bigger than ours. Congratulations Samsung and crew. P.s Wouldn’t it be great if the next world record handset includes support for fring?