2012 MyBroadband Conference in photos

The 2012 MyBroadband attracted a record audience, and provided some of the year’s biggest announcements

October 11, 2012

The 2012 MyBroadband Conference took place at Vodacom World on Wednesday 10 October, bringing together the biggest names in the South African telecommunications industry.

The event attracted a record attendance of 1,600 delegates from across the country, who included CEOs and CTOs from the largest ICT companies in SA.

The high profile speakers at the event did not disappoint: the first commercial LTE service in South Africa was launched by Vodacom; 8ta demonstrated their new LTE offering; and DFA announced a new, more affordable long-distance fibre service.

The exhibition area showcased new services and products from the top telecoms and IT providers in South Africa.

The following photos should give people who could not attend the 2012 MyBroadband Conference an overview of the event.

The MyBroadband conference was held at Vodacom World, with four main areas: The Vodadome as the primary conference area; the Talk 100 and Talk 200 auditoriums as overflow venues; and the Talk 500 as an exhibition area.

MyBroadband Conference

The master of ceremonies for the conference was 702’s Aki Anastasiou, who opened the event with an entertaining speech.

Aki Anastasiou

MyBroadband’s Rudolph Muller discussed developments in the South African telecoms and broadband market over the last 12 months.

Rudolph Muller

Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub discussed Vodacom’s continued network growth and upgrades, the company’s data strategy, and changes in the mobile industry.

Shameel Joosub

Joosub was joined on stage by Vodacom CTO Andries Delport and Vodacom data executive Jannie van Zyl for the launch of the company’s commercial LTE service.

Jannie van Zyl, Shameel Joosub and Andries Delport

Former MWEB CEO Rudi Jansen shared his view on a changing broadband environment, and how broadband can be improved in South Africa.

Rudi Jansen

Cell C Chief Commercial Officer Jose Dos Santos called for lower mobile termination rates, scrapping peak and off-peak call rates, and doing away with on-net and off-net call rates.

Jose dos Santos

Telkom executive Steve Lewis discussed Telkom’s network transformation, higher broadband speeds and what people can expect in the ADSL market.

Steve Lewis

Vodacom’s Jannie van Zyl shared his views on LTE and 4G, the true cost of data, and what the future is for BlackBerry data rates in South Africa.

Jannie van Zyl

Vox Telecom CEO Douglas Reed discussed the company’s new Yahclick satellite service, its Fishbone offering, and what he would like to see in the fixed-line broadband market.

Douglas Reed

Broadband panel: Steve Lewis, Douglas Reed, and Jannie van Zyl

The 2012 MyBroadband awards were handed out at the conference, which were based on votes from 20,000 South African broadband users.

Former Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys received an honorary award for his big contribution to mobile broadband in South Africa.

Former Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys

Former MWEB CEO Rudi Jansen received an honorary award for making affordable broadband a reality in South Africa.

Rudi Jansen lifetime award

Alan Knott-Craig is the 2012 MyBroadband person of the Year for his work at Cell C (award accepted on Knott-Craig’s behalf by Karin Fourie).

Telkom’s 10Mbps ADSL service won the award for the best fixed line broadband service of the year (Steve Lewis accepting the award).

Steve Lewis Telkom award

Cell C won the best award for the mobile service of the year (award accepted by Karin Fourie and Jose Dos Santos).

Jose dos Santos and Karin Fourie with Cell C awards

Afrihost won the award for the best ADSL ISP of the year (award accepted by Gian Visser).

Gian Visser with Afrihost award

MTN SA CEO Karel Pienaar discussed the way forward to bring broadband to all South Africa, and investing enough on infrastructure to support the massive growth in data in South Africa.