PRESS: MyADSL HITS HEADLINES

[Peapod]

Okay, not headlines but certainly the mainstream. Read this and weep...with joy!

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=21267&sa=57

I have invited Mr Fraser to join our forum [:D]

[rpm]

Hi Peapod

Thanks for posting this link.

I wrote a letter to Ian thanking him for the excellent coverage of MyADSL…maybe we will hit the headlines again soon :-)

Regards,

RPM
rpm@myadsl.co.za

[cwayjone]

wow Peapod you have really been doing your homework......
However, these press articles don't seem to achieve anything...

[rpm]

Hi Cwayjone

I must disagree. The initial media coverage of MyADSL was so successful that Telkom agreed to meet with us and discuss the issues. It stirred up the issue and I am certain Telkom took certain measures to try and improve their service. Mr. White pointed out that their initial decision was to ignore us, but guess why that changed… Telkom is definitely not immune to bad media, and I am certain they would not like to get an image of a company that ignores their customers.

Regards,

RPM
rpm@myadsl.co.za

[cwayjone]

Its fine saying that ...but as a adsl user i think the service is getting gradually worse ...no positive improvements at all. ...if only i could buy some more bandwidth at a reasonable price. But yes i do believe they are sitting up and taking notice. Its just that i believe telkom does not consider it to be worthwhile investment at the moment.

[Peapod]

but if a company makes a declared profit of 37.5 BILLION rand (March2003) why can they not provide a service that their consumers a re demanding. The press is doing exactly what it should be doing - bringing unfair and extortionate business practice into the public eye. That we are in some small way responsible for assisting this process is awesome. Without exposure NOTHING will happen.
I hear your point and do understand you position - hang in there, I am doing far far more than homework.

[microfast]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by cwayjone</i>
<br />wow Peapod you have really been doing your homework......
However, these press articles don't seem to achieve anything...
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Hi cwayjone,

I think a lot has been achieved and much more will be done to force Telkom to take serious notice of this forum. The topic concerns a lot more than just the adsl service.

Well done Peapod

[ASF]

Yip - its about a deregulated telco industry - have hope folks - we ARE getting there. More members -&gt; more heads & ideas -&gt; more people to share the load and get involved hands on.

A call was made to meet regionally and get "chapters" going -&gt; great idea. Believe me -&gt; when people have a passion about something and are willing to offer their free time for nothing in return you better believe that the sparks are going to fly!

Think back to what the topics / sentiments / plans were just 2 months ago compared to today..... We are definately gaining momentum as a community....

[musnit]

the more news articles about this sh*t adsl the shorter it will take for telkom to realise that they must change.

[kaspaas]

I note there are some questions about if we achieved something.

Well, I think we did.

Would you like your boss to read something like what was published in this article?

The Telkom PR people will have a hard time to control the "damage" done by this article.

Somewhere within Telkom somebody should start to realise that a good technology, ADSL, is handled in a terrible way.

Note the increase in frequency of "Telkom you are useless" articles in the press.

MyAdsl provides a base from where a journalist can obtain info to take on Telkom, and I'm predicting that such articles will become more fashionable with journalists. Remember these guys have column lengths to fill, and they tend to write on issues that affected them during the past week and on which they can get easy info - they are just as lazy as we are.[^]

A long queue at Telkom might just trigger another column, or the daft action by a Helpline operator or any other blunder by Telkom.

In short: I think a lot has been achieved in raising journalist awareness (and public awareness) around the Telkom issues.

[savage]

Can someone please post the article? Personal, I think it's absurd to have to register to read a article on a web site. If they don't want it in public domain then why even bother getting a site up.

[Peapod]

With thanks to the Mail & Guardian whose copyright laws I have just infringed but they will hopefully forgive me [:D]
As a matter of interest, you might want to register - you get the whole M&G and a load more free and they send you no spam, no unsolicited mail, in fact, I think its quite fair that they want to see how many people read their ezines - it helps build content and we can only win in that scenario.

And OH, we are public domain and we all registered on MyADSL so go figure [;)]

<hr noshade size="1">
'Telkom Must Die'

Ian Fraser: FRASER'S RAZOR

30 September 2003 15:08


I was on the verge of getting ADSL from Telkom, (given that it seems to be the only vaguely cheap method locally of having 24/7 Internet). Then, thanks to this local site which tells you a lot of informative and useful things that Telkom aren’t speaking about in their glossy handouts, I've changed my mind. Go read the very useful information available, especially in the forum, where there's a huge amount of information and expert analysis that Telkom doesn’t want you to know, at the excellent site known as My ADSL.

Given that Telkom wants you to pay R680 per month for the privilege of downloading only 3 gigs a month (in the UK they're debating limiting customers to 1 gig a DAY), as well as arrogantly suggesting that ADSL users should be happy only surfing local sites when the monthly 'cap' is reached, a site seemingly made for Telkom is Customers Suck.

Read this article titled A Game Of Monopoly. Here's an article from 1998, looking at the fantasy which Telkom used to justify its monopoly -- A South African Dilemma. Then read this PBS report which came out before the Government used the law, its tame COSATU stooges and bogus 'historical inequalities' concerns to let Telkom carry on raping the consumer -- Expanding Horizons.

Read this hopeful and optimistic report from three years back, and then ask yourself what happened. The report is titled End of Telkom Monopoly Good for Economy.

I'm sick of this government profiteering and blocking any competition to Telkom, based on fraudulent and bogus 'requirements'. Telkom provides a substandard and massively overpriced service which is screwing up our economy and preventing us from taking our rightful place in the global online community.

Why pay over R800 rand a month (ADSL + phone rental) for something that costs $30 in the US? Telkom wants to maintain its annual billion rand profit. Telkom must die and be thrown on the scrapheap of history. (The whining from Unions about their members losing their jobs as a reason for maintaining this stupidity isn't valid. You don’t keep using horses when cars are available, no matter how sorry you feel for the horses.) And watching the recent French kissing and mutual admiration between Unions and Government tells me that local unions are now co-opted, ineffective, manipulated and merely the lapdogs of the capitalists-disguised-as-Comrades in this current government. Go support My ADSL, sign up and spread the word.

Well, shiver me timbers and baste my puddings, that be a heated rant says I, arrrr. There comes a time in every anarchists life, when the urge to wear an eye-patch and a stuffed parrot on the shoulder, and clutch a bottle of rum becomes overwhelming. If this happens to you, then luckily there are sites to help you achieve the surreal silliness required and Talk Like A Pirate.

Being a longtime fan of the Japanese art form known as Manga, and specifically the sleazy subsections of Manga known as Hentai (roughly translated it means 'pervert'), I thought it was time to introduce you to a whole new world of online cartoons that're delightfully perverse and read by millions. These links, needless to say, are adults only please, and if you have some weird phobia's about nudity -- stay away. Here's a thoroughly censored look, complete with commentary, at Volume One of The Bondage Fairies. (If you want more, do a search on 'Bondage Fairies', but remember that this'll take you into the lurid and painful world of porn popup advertising and fake sites, in your quest for uncensored BF images..). For fairies of another kind, you might want to put on a gas mask and have tissues ready at The Stool Fairies.

On to more useful things, and you've heard of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, right? However, I bet you may not have heard of the equally vital and important Toilets Of Babylon.

In case you're concerned that this column is all about utterly useless and often weird sites and information, let me be the first to put your mind at rest and point you towards Mothers Against Boomerangs. Alternatively, if you have some curiosity that hasn’t yet been beaten or peer-pressured out of you, and you have some time to kill, go stare bemusedly at some online multimedia at How Everyday Things Are Made.

One of the truly coolest and funny online satire magazines (seeing as the real magazine isn't available locally) is The Onion. With a dry intelligent sense of humor, it concocts fake stories and headlines that cut through the crap of reality in a way that's breathtaking. One of my favourite fake headlines at the moment is "U.S. Invades Non-Oil-Rich Nation To Dispel Criticism". Go be ready to spend happy hours at The Onion. Have a look at their fake history page while you're there. Note the 'Malcolm X: I also have a dream' article.

What do bibles, dagga, leeches and inflatable sex dolls have in common? Give up? Okay. They're all items that someone thought would be useful to sell from vending machines. Go take a look at the full scary list of Items Sold In Vending Machines.

All hell is breaking loose online as the US moves towards online computerized voting. Why? Simply put, come the next US elections, even though I'm no expert, I'd be able to access the equipment doing the vote counting in real-time, and alter it as I please. A company by the name of Diebold has the franchise for the voting software and their internal memo's leaked out, showing the massive security holes inherent. Diebold Memos. The company has launched major legal lawsuits to shut down sites carrying the memos and examples of their software -- instead of fixing the problem. Read Inside A US Vote Counting Program. Then read Diebold Voting Software.

After the last election when George W Bush (despite not receiving the majority of votes) was given the presidency illegally, it's alarming to say the least to discover potentially how easily it's going to be for anyone to steal future US elections. Read How To Hack An Election .

More required reading about this nasty brave new world that's sliding into view, can be found at A Very American Coup.

Gear change: Remember those naughty people known as The Taliban? They were the ones that, despite 15 of the 911 hijackers coming from Saudi Arabia, prompted Bush to decide that Afghanistan and the Taliban were in need of US firepower. Well, for those of you who'd like a taste of reality, some documents have just been declassified showing how the US created and supported the Taliban in the first place. Go download The Taliban File.

Side note: If anyone knows of a decent 24/7 net service alternative in the Johannesburg region, let me know and I’ll pass the info on to readers.

Finally, as the mad dictator of Zimbabwe continues his orgy of rampant fascism and the deafening silence from the ANC in this regard becomes more and more embarrassing to anyone with a brain, read this latest newsletter detailing what life is like to our North. I’m putting a link to a mirror of the latest letter from Cathy Buckle, as suspiciously, at the time of writing her own site appeared to be gone. Try the Newsletter and the original site page. Main Site.

[Jerrek]

The guy is an absolute retard:

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">After the last election when George W Bush (despite not receiving the majority of votes) was given the presidency illegally<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

[Chubs]

It's been a while since we have heard from you Jerrek. You seem to be a guy in the know, couldnt you help us by exposing the telecoms industry in SA to people over there, telecoms people?

[ASnogarD]

While not wanting to be negitive here, I must point out due to the articles writer ranting on other subjects may make the whole article lose credibility, especially (IMO) refering to the hentai statements ect, additionally considering the other sites linked in the article I am not sure MyADSL had good company (Stool Faeries ?!? [xx(] ).

[Peapod]

Irrespective of whether he is a retard or not, he writes for a newspaper that is very widely read in South Africa, and read online by countless ex pat South Africans. He has something we don't - column space. He is also, believe this or not, an active member of this forum. So lets see, active member, with column space, employed in national press, widely read....to me that makes him positively marriageable!!!!
Jerek, where have you been? Missed you lately.

[Quazzi]

I have to agree with ASnogarD. Although it's not quite our cup of tea, it is exposure none-the-less. ASnogarD, I was thinking the same thing [;)]

[cwayjone]

hey peapod,

you have got my support. But we do need to justify to telkom why it would be beneficial to improve their dsl service. ....and hope they actually listen.

[cwayjone]

one more point:
I don't think we can actually hurt a monopoly with bad press ...basically because there is no other option, if there was a SNO it would be a different matter entirely. ....All I am saying is maybe we need to approach telkom differently.

[dojob]

Hi,

Nice job :) Even though Telkom wont admit it, they are hurting

[desraid]

in my home country, there is an official government department who logs all the complaints from any customers out there.
once complaint is lodged, the department investigates the product/company.
do we have something like that in SA?

I think only government can change telkom.. not by telkom itself!

[cwayjone]

I think you are talking about an Ombudsman or "public protector" ...supposed to be independant of goverment etc. But, could be the same as ICASA. ...does anybody know who is the Ombudsman for telkom?