South African Telecommunication market is becoming more challenging and highly competitive which results in market share continuously shifting between the role-players in this sector. The market is characterized by diverse service offering radical price plans that are offered by the operators. An organization that operates in this space needs to have some sort of competitive advantage which will ensure that it remains relevant and be able to survive the tough competition. Competitive advantage in an organization is seen as having leverage of rival organizations and is derived from either the external sources or internal sources. The external sources include factors like lower prices, differentiated services etc. This research unpacks the internal sources for achieving competitive advantage. These internal sources are seen as the internal corecompetencies, which are the combination of skills, knowledge and intellect that will ensure that the organization thrives amongst the competitors. The dimensions of core competencies that have been analysed are innovation, strategic entrepreneurship, intellectual capital and effective leadership. The primary objective of this research is to determine the impact of these internal core competencies in improving the organizational competitive advantage. This will in turn provide a view of the critical skills and knowledge base in the organization and how these skills will assist the organization in surviving in this challenging and competitive environment. This research makes use of the resource based view (RBV) as the baseline model for core competencies and to address the short comings of RBV, organizational learning theory dimensions have been added to the operational model of this research. The research then provides the analysis of all the dimensions of core competencies using statistical modelling to provide empirical evidence. Based on the empirical evidence, descriptive statistics and using the theoretical frameworks, the recommendations for this research are provided.

M.Sc. / The work is based on a project done by SAMES (South African Micro Electronic Systems) for the local production of an integrated circuit that previously had to be imported. The circuit finds application in the telecommunications field where it controls loop disconnect dialling in the telephones. The mechanical disc dial is thus replaced by an electronic network that makes use of push-button entry and full digital out-dialling. The push-button telephone is compatible with the rotary disc dial telephone with advantages in reliability, speed and ease of use. An access pause and re dial facility add towards a more efficient telephone. The circuit was bought from an American company for manufacturing purposes. A process fit and circuit modifications were done for product ion on the CMOS process line at SAMES. The work includes a circuit- and process study with modifications, computer aided design, prototype production and analysis. The original circuit is called the General Instruments AY-5-9151D and the re-designed version the SAMES SA 9151-A2.

Includes bibliography. / South Africa needs a modern, sophisticated telecommunications network to ensure economic development and political stability. The same network must also provide affordable and reliable service to a great percentage of the population. The telecommunications industry is currently monopolised by Telkom, a state-owned business enterprise (SBE), and does not appear capable of meeting these basic requirements. The purpose of this paper is to present a case for restructuring Telkom and liberalising the telecommunications industry to best serve the needs of the South African economy. The objective for restructuring the telecommunications industry must be to maximise long-term consumer welfare for all South Africans. This paper argues that consumer welfare will be maximised only by dismantling the statutory monopoly structure and moving toward a highly competitive, privately owned telecommunications industry. The economic issues, of course, cannot be discussed realistically without reference to political, social and historical variables, all of which are also considered. By focusing primarily on economic issues, however, this paper strives to avoid the ideological disputes which usually surround discussions of state ownership. This paper focuses on the telecommunications industry because it represents the single most important infrastructural component in a modern economy. It also presents a unique opportunity if managed well, and a grave danger if allowed to continue in its current structure.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2006. / From the 1990s onwards, significant developments have occurred in the international telecommunications sector that have affected the South African telecommunications industry and peoples' access to the telephony. Rapid developments in Information and Communication Technologies together with the reorganisation of telecommunications operators through commercialisation, privatisation and market liberalisation have resulted in monopoly operators moving away from their public service mandates. Globalisation and adherence to World Trade Organisation rules are causing operators to rebalance their tariffs, long-distance rates are decreasing while the cost of local calls is increasing. High-end users of telecommunication services are benefiting while low-end, largely residential users are being priced off the network. The end result is a negative effect on universal access to telecommunications. This study examines the extent of telecommunications reform within the South African telecommunications industry as it affects the provision of telecommunication services and the government's goal of achieving universal access in South Africa. Quantitative research methods utilising secondary data were utilised to establish that the state owned operator, Telkom, has transformed itself from a public service operator to one that is fully commercialised and prepared for competition. This study finds that despite the large roll-out programme in fixed-line telecommunications, there has been only very limited uptake for rural and low-income users. Although Telkom's exclusivity period initially caused an acceleration of the growth in net new lines from Telkom's greater investment levels, this acceleration only lasted until 2000/1 when Telkom started to enforce timely accounts payment more strictly. This resulted in an actual decrease in the total number of active lines in 2001 and 2002, despite new lines being rolled out. Household figures suggest that low-income households disconnected in large numbers. Fixed line telephony access was given to people who could not afford telephones and hence they were later disconnected. The end result was that fixed lines ended up growing at a similar rate to what they were prior to the exclusivity period, suggesting that the grand subsidisation of universal access was most likely a waste of resources and only resulted in temporary ownership improvements. A further problem now faced by government is the number of people who were disconnected from Telkom and remain indebted to the company. These households are prevented from getting a fixed-line phone until they repay their deb!. This has potentially far-reaching effects on their lives through destroying their credit rating. In contrast to fixed line telephones, the growth in cellular subscribers has grown beyond all expectations. Almost all the gains in ownership have come from the adoption of cellular by rural and low-income users. This study demonstrates that cellular is the rational choice for most low-income consumers given the different tariff structures and the average monthly spend on communication. The study further suggests that future use of universal service funds should be more technology neutral, this will enhance the role of cellular telecommunications in such plans. Removing the burden off fixed line for universal service provision may enable the acceleration of telecommunication liberalisation in South Africa. Obvious benefits are better prices and products for business users. Fixed-line technology remains the core technology for business users who require bandwidth for data services and make considerably more calls than residential users, making fixed-line the cheaper technology. Amongst the current biggest users are cellular network operators. Improving prices on leasing and interconnection should lower cellular call rates, making it even more attractive to low-income users. Finally, the new Intemational Telecommunication Union definitions for universal access and service now include cellular technology and move away from a fixed-line focus. These definitions are very much in line with the results identified in this study.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Computer Science in the School of Computer Science. Faculty of Science November 21, 2016. / There is stiff competition for customers and market share in the South African telecommunications industry amongst the four predominant mobile service providers, namely Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Telkom Mobile. The First National Bank (FNB) through one of its entities, FNB Connect, has also joined this intensely competitive environment. These companies face a constant challenge of having to come up with new and innovative ways of attracting new customers and retaining their current ones. Cell C has embarked on a good strategy of claiming solid market share and growing itself against the competition by using the Private Label Promotions (PLP) group, a leading BEE Level 3 company that provides a variety of business solutions, to market GetMore, its value-added service package. A recommender system could be used to suggest and promote the items available in this package to existing and potential clients (users). There are different approaches to recommendation, the most widely used ones being the collaborative and content-based recommendation. The collaborative filtering approach uses the ratings of other users to recommend the items the current (active) user might like. In the content-based approach, items are recommended in terms of their content similarity to items a user has previously liked, or elements that have matched a user’s attributes (features). Hybrid recommendation approaches are used To eliminate the drawbacks individually associated with the CF and CBF approaches and to leverage their advantages. One of the aims of this research was to design and implement a prototype hybrid recommender system that would be used to recommend Cell C’s GetMore package to current and potential subscribers. The system was to implement matrix factorisation (collaborative) and cosine similarity (content-based) techniques. Several experiments were conducted to evaluate its performance and quality. The metrics used included Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC). We expected the proposed hybrid recommender system would leverage the advantages provided by its different components and demonstrate its effectiveness in providing Cell C’s customers with accurate and meaningful recommendations of its GetMore package services. Keywords: Content-based Recommendation, Collaborative Recommendation, Hybrid Recommendation, Cosine Similarity, Matrix Factorisation, Association Rule Mining, J48 Classifier, Decision Table, Naive Bayes, Simple K-means, Expectation Maximization, Farthest First, Predictive Apriori / LG2017

M.Sc. (Statistics)

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the Doctor of Technology Degree in Information Technology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2014. / The work described in this thesis summarizes the author’s contributions to the design, development and testing of embedded solutions for maritime Radio and Satellite tracking and detecting systems. In order to provide reliable tracking and detecting facilities of ships have to be integrated Convectional Maritime Radio Communications (CMRC) and Maritime Mobile Satellite Communications (MMSC) systems. On the other hand, Global Mobile Satellite Communications (GMSC) as a part of Global Communication Satellite Systems (GCSS) has to be integrated with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) of the US GPS or Russian GLONASS systems. The proposed local maritime Radio VHF Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) systems and devices, such as Radio Automatic Identification System (R-AIS) or VHF Data Link (VDL), Radio Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (RADS-B) and GNSS Augmentation VDL-Broadcast (GAVDL-B) are introduced. The new technology deigns of global Satellite CNS maritime equipment and systems, such as Global Ship Tracking (GST) as enhanced Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT), Satellite AIS (S-AIS), Satellite Data Link (SDL), Satellite Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (SADS-B) and GNSS Augmentation SDL (GASDL) are discussed and benefits of these new technologies and solution for improved Ship Traffic Control (STC) and Management (STM) are explored. The regional maritime CNS solutions via Stratospheric Communication Platforms (SCP), tracking of ships at sea via Space Synthetic Aperture Radar (SSAR) or Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR)and Ground Synthetic Aperture Radar (GSAR) are described. The special tracking systems for collision avoidance with enhanced safety and security at sea including solutions of captured ships by pirates through aids of the MMSC, SCP and Radars are introduced and the testing methodologies employed to qualify embedded hardware for this environment are presented. During the voyage of the ship in good weather conditions and when navigation devices on the bridge are in order, then can be used very well AIS, LRIT, anti-collision Radar and other on-board equipment. However, at very bad weather conditions sometimes surveillance Radar and Radio HF Transceiver cannot work, but may work only GPS Receiver and L/C-band Satellite Transceiver, while Radio VHF Transceiver will have extremely reduced coverage, what is not enough for safe navigation and collision avoidance. Therefore, during those critical circumstances, when the safety of navigations very important, it will be not necessary to ask "Where am I", but "Where are nearby ships around me"? At this point, it should be needed the newest techniques and equipment for enhanced STC and STM, such as GST, S-AIS, SDL, SADS-B and GASDL. Terrorists exploit surprise in successful pirate actions worldwide and security forces are generally unaware of the source of these attacks at sea. In today’s information age, terror threats may originate with transnational organizations or exploit the territory of failed, weak or neutral states. Thus, countering piracy by eliminating the terrorists on land is the best solution, however, it might not be feasible and even though it’s successful could require many years. In the thesis, the general overview of Radio and Mobile Satellite Systems (MSS) for ship communication and tracking systems is conducted as well, including the space platform and orbital mechanics, horizon and geographic satellite coordinates and classification of spacecraft by Geostationary Earth Orbits (GEO) and Non-GEO orbits.

M.Sc. (Statistics)

M. Tech. Business Administration / The purpose of this study was to identify and understand customer perceptions about service quality (SQ) at a telecommunications retail outlet. The theory of Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (PZB) known as SERVQUAL was used to give theoretical grounding to the study.

This study analyses the role of project management during strategy execution within the telecommunications environment in South Africa. The study is qualitative in nature and utilises semi-structured face-to-face interviews with participants. Content analysis is utilised from a data analysis perspective. For the cross-case analysis an adapted version of the Interactive Qualitative Analysis technique was utilised to complete this. This qualitative study found that there is a disconnect when utilising the project management discipline during strategy execution. This is due to a lack of corporate process ownership regarding the concepts under study. A further finding is that projects are selected based on financial viability even though a formal criteria is constituted for the selection of projects. Within this study, strategy execution results are achieved by applying dynamic processes when utilising the project management discipline. A project management based strategy execution framework will aid effective strategy execution in this regard. This research is a cross sectional study at a particular point in time and not a longitudinal study over an extended period. The study does not have extensive cause and effect, behaviour and additional informational characteristics for informed theory building over an extended period as with a longitudinal study. The study has been conducted across four cases within a specific industry. An extensive sample across different industries would have allowed for better generalisability. / Hierdie studie ontleed die rol van projekbestuur gedurende strategie-uitvoering in die telekommunikasie-omgewing in Suid-Afrika. Die studie is kwalitatief van aard en gebruik semi-gestruktureerde, persoonlike onderhoude met deelnemers. Inhoudsontleding word aangewend vanuit 'n dataontledingsperspektief. 'n Aangepaste weergawe van die interaktiewe kwalitatiewe ontledingstegniek is gebruik om die kruisgeval-ontleding te doen. Hierdie kwalitatiewe studie het bevind dat daar 'n onsamehangendheid is wanneer die projekbestuurdissipline gedurende strategie-uitvoering aangewend word. Hierdie is weens 'n gebrek aan korporatiewe proses-eienaarskap rakende die konsepte wat ondersoek word. 'n Verdere bevinding is dat projekte gekies word op grond van finansiële lewensvatbaarheid, hoewel formele kriteria saamgestel word om projekte te kies. In hierdie studie word strategie-uitvoeringsresultate bereik deur dinamiese prosesse toe te pas wanneer die projekbestuurdissipline aangewend word. 'n Uitvoeringsraamwerk vir 'n projekbestuurgebaseerde strategie sal effektiewe strategie-uitvoering help in hierdie opsig. Hierdie navorsing is 'n deursnee-studie op 'n bepaalde tydsduur en nie 'n longitudinale studie oor 'n uitgebreide tydperk nie. Die studie het nie 'n breedvoerige oorsaak en uitwerking, gedrags- en addisionele inligtingseienskappe vir ingeligte teoriebou oor 'n uitgebreide tydperk soos met 'n longitudinale studie nie. Die studie is oor vier gevalle in 'n spesifieke bedryf uitgevoer. 'n Breedvoerige steekproefneming oor verskillende bedrywe sou vir 'n beter veralgemening gesorg het. / Hierdie studie ontleed die rol van projekbestuur gedurende strategie-uitvoering in die telekommunikasie-omgewing in Suid-Afrika. Die studie is kwalitatief van aard en gebruik semi-gestruktureerde, persoonlike onderhoude met deelnemers. Inhoudsontleding word aangewend vanuit 'n dataontledingsperspektief. 'n Aangepaste weergawe van die interaktiewe kwalitatiewe ontledingstegniek is gebruik om die kruisgeval-ontleding te doen. Hierdie kwalitatiewe studie het bevind dat daar 'n onsamehangendheid is wanneer die projekbestuurdissipline gedurende strategie-uitvoering aangewend word. Hierdie is weens 'n gebrek aan korporatiewe proses-eienaarskap rakende die konsepte wat ondersoek word. 'n Verdere bevinding is dat projekte gekies word op grond van finansiële lewensvatbaarheid, hoewel formele kriteria saamgestel word om projekte te kies. In hierdie studie word strategie-uitvoeringsresultate bereik deur dinamiese prosesse toe te pas wanneer die projekbestuurdissipline aangewend word. 'n Uitvoeringsraamwerk vir 'n projekbestuurgebaseerde strategie sal effektiewe strategie-uitvoering help in hierdie opsig. Hierdie navorsing is 'n deursnee-studie op 'n bepaalde tydsduur en nie 'n longitudinale studie oor 'n uitgebreide tydperk nie. Die studie het nie 'n breedvoerige oorsaak en uitwerking, gedrags- en addisionele inligtingseienskappe vir ingeligte teoriebou oor 'n uitgebreide tydperk soos met 'n longitudinale studie nie. Die studie is oor vier gevalle in 'n spesifieke bedryf uitgevoer. 'n Breedvoerige steekproefneming oor verskillende bedrywe sou vir 'n beter veralgemening gesorg het. / Isifinyezo esiqukethe umongo wocwaningo Lolu cwaningo luhlaziya indima ye-project management ngesikhathi sokusetshenziswa kwesu kumkhakha wobuxhakaxhaka bokuxhumana ngezingcingo i-telecommunication eNingizimu Afrika. Ucwaningo ngolwenhlobo ye-qualitative kanti lusebenzisa ama-interview ahlelekile kodwa angenazihibe eziqinile, ukuqondana nalabo ababamba iqhaza ubuso nobuso. Kusetshenziswa inqubo yokuhlaziywa kwe-data lapho kuhlaziywa ingqikithi. Lapho kuhlaziywa nokuqhathanisa ama-case, kuye kwasetshenziswa ithekniki ebizwa ngokuthi yi-Interactive Qualitative Analysis ukuphetha lo msebenzi. Lolu cwaningo lwe-qualitative, luye lwathola ukuthi kukhona ukungaxhumani noma ukungahambelani phakathi kwe-project management kanye nesu ngesikhathi kusetshenziswa isu. Lokhu kungenxa yokusweleka kobunikazi kwinqubo ye-corporate maqondana nemibono okucwaningwa ngayo. Kanti futhi kubuye kwatholakala ukuthi amaprojekthi akhethwa ngkulandela ukuthi ngabe azongenisa imali yini ngisho noma kubekwe imibandela ethize ekukhethweni kwamaprojekthi. Kulolu cwaningo, imiphumela yesu lokusebenza ifezeka ngokusebenzisa izinqubo ezisebenza ngokuphezulo lapho kusetshenziswa inqubo ye-project management. Uhlaka olugxile ekusetshenzisweni kwe-project management luzosiza ekufakeni kahle kwesu lapho lusetshenziswa maqondana nalokhu. Lolu cwaningo luxhumanisa ukuqhathanisa eminye imikhakha yocwaningo ngesikhathi esithile kanti akulona ucwaningo olulandelelwa isikhathi eside. Lolu cwaningi alunawo umkhakha wembangela nomphumela, imibandela yokuziphatha kanye neminye imibandela yolwazi olungezelelwe ukwakha ithiyori esekelwe phezu kolwazi esikhathini socwaningo olulandelelwa isikhathi eside. Lolu cwaningo lwenziwe kuma-case amane kwimboni ethile eyodwa. Ukuthatha amasampuli ajulile ezimboni ezehlukene bekuzobe kusize ukuthi imiphumela ikwazi ukubonelela nokwengamela ngokunabile. / Business Management / D.B.L.