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South Africa Growth Pushes Vodacom Group Revenue Up 5.6%

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Vodacom Group revenue increased by 5.6 percent to ZAR 22.73 billion in the first quarter to 30 June.

The mobile operator said it saw strong growth in South Africa as customer demand rose during the lockdown, but international operations were hit by lower economic activity because of Covid-19.

Service revenue climbed 7.6 percent to ZAR 18.76 billion. The temporary spectrum assignment in South Africa allowed Vodacom to fast-track the launch of the country’s first mobile 5G network and a fixed 5G commercial service.  

International service revenue grew by 10.7 percent, benefiting from the rand devaluation. Underlying performance was subdued with a 5.3 percent decline, as a result of lower economic trading activity, free M-Pesa services and customer registration requirements in these businesses.

Normalised international service revenue shrank by 5.3 percent as coronavirus reduced economic activity, with lower pricing for M-Pesa transactions in some operations to enable social distancing, and the barring of service to 2.9 million customers in Tanzania in Q4 of the prior year. Customers increased 7.1 percent compared with the prior year to 37.7 million, with a net loss in the quarter of 919,000, primarily in Tanzania. Vodacom deleted a number of customers in this quarter who had been inactive since barring services in Q4, in line with its 90-day churn policy.

While underlying growth in international voice revenue was down 11.7 percent during the first quarter, data customers increased 5.2 percent to 20.0 million, with data traffic rising 44.3 percent driven, by the need to work from home, and substitution of data over voice during lockdowns in the DRC, Mozambique and Lesotho. Usage per customer increased on average by 32.5 percent.

International M-Pesa revenue was up 17.0 percent and customers increased 3.5 percent to 14.7 million. Revenue was hit by discounted and free person-to-person (P2P) services in most markets. Movement restrictions in several of markets have also seen trade reduced, which resulted in the value and number of transactions decreasing in the quarter.

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SES Agrees Acquire Intelsat for $3.1bn

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Satellite company SES has agreed to buy Intelsat Holdings for $3.1 billion in a deal that would create a major European player but raised investor concerns around debt, sending the buyer’s shares to a record low.

European satellite companies have been looking to consolidate to better compete with the likes of Elon Musk’s Space X-owned Starlink, and Amazon’s Project Kuiper. While a move to gain scale was welcomed by analysts, concerns it might not do much to close the gap with U.S. rivals, while saddling SES with debt, sent its Paris-listed shares down as much as 12% to 4.36 euros, its lowest price ever.

The new company would have a fleet of more than 100 geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) and 26 medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites, the two companies said in a statement. The deal, unanimously approved by the two companies’ boards, should close in the second half of 2025 and will be financed by cash and new debt, including hybrid bonds, the companies said.

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Deloitte’s Women @ Work report shows stagnating progress in and outside the workplace for women

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Now in its fourth year, Deloitte’s Women @ Work: A Global Outlook, a survey of 5,000 women in workplaces across 10 countries, explores some of the critical workplace and societal factors impacting women’s careers. Rising stress levels and poor mental health persist. And fewer women report feeling supported by their employers to balance work responsibilities with their commitments outside of work—a trend that is leading some women to switch employers.

Although women working in a hybrid model are reporting better experiences this year than last, many have recently been asked to return to the office and are reporting adverse effects on their mental health and productivity.   

This year, the report also further explores women’s physical health, revealing a startling number of women working through pain or symptoms related to menstruation, menopause, and fertility. It also reveals worrying statistics on safety and non-inclusive behaviors in the workplace.

“Despite a small number of improvements since last year, our survey tells us that women are facing mounting pressures in the workplace, their personal lives, and in their communities,” says Emma Codd, Global Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, Deloitte. “Globally, women feel their rights are backsliding, they are experiencing increased stress and taking on the majority of household tasks at home. Alongside this they are experiencing non-inclusive behaviors at work, are concerned for their safety and feel unable to disclose when they are experiencing women’s health challenges. This is a situation that must change—and employers must enable this.”

Half of women say their stress levels are higher than they were a year ago and a similar number say they’re concerned or very concerned about their mental health. Mental health is a top three concern for women globally (48%), falling behind only their financial security (51%) and rights (50%).

Women are feeling the weight of misbalanced caregiving and domestic responsibilities. Notably, 50% of women who live with a partner and have children say they take the most responsibility for childcare—up from 46% in 2023, with only 12% saying this falls to their partner. Further, 57% of women who live with a partner and are involved in care of another adult say they take the greatest responsibility for this—up from 44% in 2023, while only 5% say this responsibility falls to their partner.

Meanwhile, more than two in five women bear the most responsibility for cleaning and other domestic tasks, similar to 2023. These pressures are taking a toll: women who take on the greatest share of household responsibilities are far less likely to say they have good mental health than those who do not. And nearly half say they have taken time off work for mental health reasons in the past year, compared with just under a quarter of women who don’t have the greatest responsibilities for these tasks.

The result of this disproportionate allocation of responsibilities makes it more challenging for women professionally—only 27% of women who bear the greatest responsibility at home say they can disconnect from heir personal life and focus on their careers.

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Samsung Begins Global Launch Of Galaxy S23 Series

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Samsung has announced global launch of its Galaxy S23 Series with pre-orders of the new devices outstripping last year’s Galaxy S22 series and doubling those of Galaxy S21 series within the first week.

This year, pre-order results were even higher than those of the Galaxy S22 series, with 60 per cent of consumers opting for the most premium Galaxy S23 Ultra.

President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics, TM Roh, said, “The great momentum we’re witnessing speaks to customers’ excitement about products that push the envelope and give them the freedom to express themselves creatively.”

“This year’s pre-order numbers echo our customers’ strong trust in our brand and demonstrate how our commitment to ground-breaking innovation and sustainability continues to resonate with consumers.”

Led by the Galaxy S23 Ultra with its new 200MP Adaptive Pixel sensor and iconic embedded S Pen, the Galaxy S23 series, also featuring the Galaxy S23+ and Galaxy S23, represents a new era of Samsung’s ultimate premium phone experience.

The Galaxy S23 series features epic cameras that give users more freedom to explore their creativity, fast mobile graphics thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy, and a striking design that advances the company’s sustainability commitments with more components made using recycled materials than in any other Samsung Galaxy smartphone. 

Samsung Galaxy S23 series also unlocks the next level of mobile security with Samsung Message Guard. This powerful sandboxing tool pre-emptively protects against zero-click exploit attacks. This is a new kind of cyberattack where just receiving an image can compromise a device – even without the user’s interaction. Samsung Message Guard acts as a virtual quarantine, trapping harmful images and ensuring you receive safe images.

 Samsung Galaxy’s epic camera gives users more freedom to explore their creativity, like capturing truly cinematic Nightography videos with transformative AI.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy unleashes premium experiences, including groundbreaking AI, future-ready mobile gaming feature and powerfully sustained game play with the world’s fastest mobile graphics.

On the Galaxy S23 Ultra, an embedded S Pen that many long-time Samsung Galaxy users know and love offers more possibilities for productivity, notetaking, hobbies and more.

All the Galaxy S23 series’ new standard-setting innovations are housed within a striking design that advances the company’s sustainability commitment with more components made using recycled materials than any other Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

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