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Technology
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“South Africa has been ranked 38th out of 80 countries in the World Economic Forum’s technology index. The ranking is a substantial improvement on last year’s report, which placed the country 46th on the index, and it helped South Africa gain two positions to 32nd on the overall growth competitiveness index.” ITWeb, 13 November 2002
We are the ninth largest internet user in the world and by far the largest in Africa, with 90% of the continent’s users.
South Africa is the first country in the world to have its own official internet portal (www.southafrica.info). The Sunday Independent, 3 March 2002
MTN serves as the SMS gateway for PC-to-mobile messaging for AOL (America Online), the world’s biggest internet service provider.
Information technology firsts
Mark Shuttleworth’s innovative approach to digital certification through his company Thawte, which was sold to VeriSign for US$575 million;
Saswitch was the world leader in allowing remote ATM access by any institution with any institution, regardless of network protocol (the next country in the world took over 5 years to launch a similar service);
Nedcor was the first bank anywhere in the world to strategies and implement Microsoft technology on teller platforms;
Standard Bank was a pioneer in the world of banking by allowing ‘securitisation’ of an asset online to gain access to funds in other environments by using 'Access Bond';
UBS was the first bank in the world to use IMS Fastpath for simplified banking transactions, allowing it at that stage to process more transactions per second than any other bank coping with similar volumes;
Computicket’s technology for providing online ticketing across multiple geographic locations and for multiple venues / categories was a world first;
Multichoice was the second company in the world to launch satellite TV;
Paul Maritz, the man behind the global NT software, is a graduate of the University of Cape Town and the University of Natal;
Ivan Epstein, CEO of Softline, started with R5 000 – today they provide accounting software available in 8 languages and sold in over 38 countries;
Omnipless (launched in 1994), manufacture world-class antennas in a niche market for satellite communication and nearly 100% of its product is exported;
A Stellenbosch-based company called Electronic Development House has a three-year rolling contract with the Association of Tennis Professionals, which runs 67 tournaments in more than 30 countries, to supply its innovative electronic scoring system.
Located in the Karoo, the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) in Sutherland will be the biggest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere when it's completed in 2005. It will also be the third largest in the world. Fair Lady, April 2003
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