Nairobi, Feb. 8 -- A South African man could receive up to Sh170 billion from Safaricom's parent company, Vodacom, as compensation for his innovation of the 'Please Call Me' (PCM) service used in Kenya and other African markets where the firm operates telecommunication businesses.

In a ruling on Monday, the South African Supreme Court of Appeal said Mr Nkosane Makate, the inventor of the PCM service, is entitled to be paid five- 7.5 percent of the total revenue Vodacom has earned from the service since its rollout in South Africa 2001.

PCM is a feature that allows Safaricom (and other Vodacom subsidiaries) users to send a free message to other subscribers requesting to be called even if they don't have airtime via short-message service ...