check you telephone account

<b><font color="red">check you telephone account as you are being charged extra every month for a normanl telephone line......</font id="red"></b>
in every advert i have come accross telkom offers an adsl line for R800.00 per month.
That would mean that you only pay R800.00 = the telephone calls that you used for that month....not an extra telephone line rental....
<b><font color="red">any coments</font id="red"></b>

Read this:

http://www.telkom.co.za/portal/page?_pageid=1435,93029&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

Thank you BUT......
My argument still stands ....I know you need a telephone line but thats in the cost of you adsl Rental...not a seperate charge for a normal telephone line....see advertizing in this months accounts from telkom...it states....<b><font color="red">adsl line R800.00 per month </font id="red"></b> ...
<b>not adsl SERVICE R800.00 per month plus your normal line cost</b>

The ADSL rental part is supposedly to cover the cost of the ADSL hardware at the exchange (over and over again in effect).

Why do they do it? Because they can.

Plus Telkom stated the higher rental was necessary because of the high cost of international bandwidth.

<b><hr noshade size="1"></b><font size="2"><font color="red"><b>You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.</b></font id="red"></font id="size2">

I'm not too familiar with the technical details of how the ADSL service works. I thought that you paid the ISP for bandwidth and Telkom for the provision of the line. The ISP then buys bandwidth from Telkom and makes that available to its users. Sure, you're still paying Telkom ultimately, but indirectly.

If I were to use a separate ISP would I still be expected to pay Telkom as much for that international bandwidth assuming of course that I'm already paying the ISP for that?

Any clarification will be appreciated

Hello Angstrom.

Your point is part of the MyADSL complaint to ICASA. Basically MyADSL are critical of the fact that Telkom are subsidising their costs on line rental. Telkom will not tell us how they derive a figure of R680 per month, but I can tell you this. One port on the DSlam at the exchange costs about, or used to cost R1500 per port. It's cheaper now. So you do the maths.


<b><hr noshade size="1"></b><font size="2"><font color="red"><b>You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.</b></font id="red"></font id="size2">

You pay Telkom for the connection to a DSLAM port

- Colin Alston
colin at alston dot za dot org

"Getting traffic shaping right is easy and can be summed up in one word: Dont." -- George Barnett

Thank you BTTB.

That has been confusing me for a while now. I'm delighted that this forum exists to educate users like me and to show us the true nature of the beast.

If Telkom needs to subsidise their international bandwidth from line rental revenue then surely no other ISP stands even a remote chance of being competitive. This must be seen as an intolerable state of affairs in that not only are we stuck with Telkom for provision of infrastructure, we no longer have a choice of ISP as they are all hamstringed. So in effect they have tacitly, albeit it cleverly, extended their monopoly.

My understanding at this point is still basic, correct me if I've made any obvious errors.

Is there a URL for the MyADSL complaint to ICASA?

Kind regards,
Angstrom.

Here you go. http://www.myadsl.co.za/ICASA.pdf

The fact that Telkom stated that it had to justify the high rental because of the cost of international bandwidth is what they used to say or might still be saying. I say this because I know RPM has this in his complaint to ICASA and I reckon Telkom will sidestep the issue when the time arises and make some other exscuse why line rental is so high. Telkom will say anything to appease the public and ICASA. Telkom will use statistics to justify its actions to parliament. Telkom will pretty much do anything at the moment to continue its luxurious monopolistic position at the cost of the peoples of SA's development and pocket. Behind the scenes they are closing holes so that nobody can enter "its" marketplace. Look at the Vans Operators. They have been in and out of ICASA and Telkom has a potential fine of R187 mil against it. But does that faze them. No it won't. And until such time that the state breaks down the legislation protecting Telkom, the pace of change will be very slow.

The server that hosts this forum is been hosted overseas for the simple mere fact that it costs too much to host it in South Africa. And as you know the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. So all in all, although we all like to sneer at Telkom, the state is the culprit behind the scenes. They are the artists that created "Hellkom" as "Mad" likes to refer to. See http://www.hellkom.co.za/. It's up to them (the state) to change the situation. One asks, why hasn't the ball started rolling? Well it essentially it has, but the putt is far short of the mark. One can question the state why it hasn't speeded up the process of the SNO and helped the man on the street by deregulating an essential service like telecommunications. Everyone has their theories, but I reckon the state are ill trained for the task and while every day passes another opportunity is lost to SA, they care less as their handsome dividend cheque of R187 mil and the yearly tax payment from Telkom funds their needs and why essentially should they bother. The state (taxpayer) pays for their phones and cells anyway. And if they need a high speed ADSL link the state would pay for that too. And I’m sure Mr White delivers it personally.
It’s a vicious circle. In years gone by in SA and the world, people started revolutions for lesser reasons.


<b><hr noshade size="1"></b><font size="2"><font color="red"><b>You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.</b></font id="red"></font id="size2">

Guys,
you are still missing the point,
we are paying for a normal telepnone line EXTRA

I hear you.

The telephone part of the signal gets split at the exchange. We are paying for this luxury I gather. How Telkom works its out, perhaps someone would care to elaborate on this matter. But I do agree with you it does sound stupid to pay for 2 rentals. But then its Telkom. They look for any reason to charge us. If someone wants ADSL, its highly likely that they would'nt want a normal telephone line. But the technology was designed this way Im afraid.


<b><hr noshade size="1"></b><font size="2"><font color="red"><b>You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.</b></font id="red"></font id="size2">

Roland, this is what Telkom charges you, plain and simple, firstly you are paying for line rental (the copper that terminates at your home), and then you pay on top of that the ADSL "port" charge (ie. to be connected to the DSLAM, etc.), then on top of that you pay your ISP charge. While I agree that it should be that your line rental is a part of your ADSL fee, this is not so, as Telkom explicitly differentiates between the copper line (connection) and the ADSL (port) fee and as such you pay for these separately.

This is why they require you have an existing telephone line prior to installing ADSL, as you have to have the copper in the first place.

I think the relevant pricing page is here:

http://www.telkom.co.za/portal/page?_pageid=554,72063&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&paramURL=/pls/portal/docs/page/pricing/content/adsl.jsp

It may be work a try phoning Telkom 10219 and asking if there are any *additional* costs. If there are, then a complaint to th ASA may be in order

Donn Edwards
http://privacy.4mg.com