16 December 2005
	Bits & Bytes By Duncan McLeod

SNO "It's almost unbelievable," Transtel CEO Karl Socikwa grinned as he held up and kissed the second network operator (SNO) licence in Sandton last week. His relief is understandable. Originally meant to begin operating in May 2001, the SNO was delayed for years because of shareholder infighting, poor bids, a lack of foreign interest and bungling by government. The major shareholders in the SNO are Nexus Connexion, Tata subsidiary VSNL, Two Consortium, CommuniTel, Transtel and Eskom Enterprises. The licence, issued by the Independent Communications Authority of SA, is valid for 25 years. The SNO, which is expected to cough up a licence fee of R100m , has been given the right to build fixed-line and fixed-wireless networks. The licence does not give it the right to build a cellular network. Semiconductor sales Sales of semiconductors should reach US$235bn in 2005, a 6,9% increase on 2004, says analyst house Gartner. This will be the first time that the semiconductor industry has surpassed the previous record-setting year in 2000, when revenue reached $223bn. Intel remained the number one vendor in 2005, as its revenue grew 14,3%, twice the market average.

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