Independent Telecoms & Spectrum consultant

William was educated in 17 places in 3 continents, eventually getting some weird non-specific honours engineering degree in London.

That’s just as well, because he was a Construction, Project, Electrical, Mechanical, Systems and Control & Instrumentation Engineer – and that’s just in the Mining Industry.

After that, he wandered back to the Telecoms Industry and became a bit of a pain about telecoms liberalisation in Africa. Along the way, he co-founded ISOC-ZA, AfrISPA and NameSpace, and led all of them at some stage. He also made noises at ISPA, who were so glad he left that they gave him an award.

He programmed his first huge mainframe (with 36 K of hand-built Ferrite Core Memory) in 1972, built the first fibre optic network in an underground mine in 1987, started an ISP in 1996 and did a bunch of clever stuff no one else had thought of, with lots of help from his partners, until they bailed. For his sins, he ended up being an ICASA Councillor and is now a Consultant, flogging his enormous skills (and tiny ego) on the open market.