What's behind ICASA's ADSL decision?

Do you think ICASA was pressured into softening the ADSL regulations?

  • Yes

    Votes: 48 94.1%

  • No

    Votes: 3 5.9%
  • Total voters
    51
duderoo

duderoo

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http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/columnists/doubletake/glazier060823.asp?S=Broadband&A=BRO&O=FPH

The second possibility is that ICASA has been secretly pressured by someone to not enforce any meaningful change
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ICASA is quite simply incapable of making the correct decisions. The organisation is riddled with scandals of mismanagement, limited expertise, and crippling understaffing. Its job is an important one, no one can deny that, and in the end I think it is just not getting it done.
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It was particularly aggressive towards the fixed-line monopoly's 10-person entourage. But, when it came to the final document, the regulator has let Telkom off the hook.
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What's behind ICASA's ADSL decision?
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Heres a flyer, prominent people and politicians with their hands in the cookie jar perhaps, or not!
 
welcomes Leitmotif to myadsl-land

it would be fascinating to know what really went on - what did the original draft look like and how substantially was it changed after it had been forwarded to the DoC and Telkom for comment?
 
So why did ICASA not force Telkom to remove one of its charges? I think there are three possibilities here.
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AFAIK the regulations do require Telkom to remove one of its charges. In terms of regulation 2.1 an ADSL tariff will only comprise of an installation fee, a rental for the provisioning and maintenance of the ADSL line and a bandwidth charge.

As telkom is currently charging twice for the rental of the line one of these charges would have to fall away!
 
mikef said:
As telkom is currently charging twice for the rental of the line one of these charges would have to fall away!
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Agreed. This story is way too pessimistic. It's the type of story that instills despair in readers and plays into Telkom's hands...

It is vital that consumers interpret the regulations in the correct way:

Abolition of the ADSL "connectivity" charge
Free, unlimited local bandwidth.
No hard capping, insofar as additional bandwidth can always be purchased.
No shaping.
Delivery of an ADSL service in ADSL-ready exchanges within 30 days.
A minimum service level agreement

Consumers must accept nothing less than this, and complain bitterly to ICASA, DoC, the Police, the Press etc against Telkom and/or their ISPs when any of these regulations/laws are broken.

Telkom would love you to believe that they have gotten off the hook. Its up to everyone else to ensure that they don't.
 
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Guys, ICASA cannot do a thing, so there's no point in even considering complaining to them or bitching at them.

Government have cut our regulator's hands off - because they are the biggest shareholder in Telkom.

This is Africa - monopolies are very popular amongst governments and receive a great deal of protection and favouritism.

The whole world can complain but our Government thinks they know best. But meanwhile back at the ranch..
 
MaD said:
But meanwhile back at the ranch..
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The average guy in the street cannot even afford to put a phone in his shack....thanks government, but then again they voted for them.
 
I made a buggerup, I'm blind, I clicked no, but my vote is yes, lol :D
 
I wonder what % of the money the gvt makes from Telkom lands up in someone's or a couple of someone's back pockets?
 
There is after all naught to be done about this.

With the high communication costs in this country it is amazing that there bussinesses at all. The overheads for communication alone is staggering and it is not only limited to large bussinesses.
 
Gatecrasher said:
It is vital that consumers interpret the regulations in the correct way:

Abolition of the ADSL "connectivity" charge
Free, unlimited local bandwidth.
No hard capping, insofar as additional bandwidth can always be purchased.
No shaping.
Delivery of an ADSL service in ADSL-ready exchanges within 30 days.
A minimum service level agreement
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I'm curious about this. Surely there is a cost associated with handling local traffic? I could understand a much lower rate for local vs SAT3 traffic, but free local...

And before I get shot down in flames for questioning free services, their associated costs are always stashed somewhere.

I suggest complexity is a major source of the regulatory problem, and a major contributor to this complexity is cross-subsidisation. The more scope for Telkom to use the "play with numbers" game, the harder it is to seperate "cost centre markup to final service charge" issues from "don't touch my monopoly" issues.
 
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I'm curious about this. Surely there is a cost associated with handling local traffic?
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If there is it should be minimal and easily covered by what we pay for ISP fee's already. I'm pretty sure the majority of SA's online content is situated in a few data centers around the country.
 
easily covered by what we pay for ISP fee's already
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Okay, no... local bandwidth is charged by Telkom, not ISPs. However, the cost should indeed be minimal.

And thanks, dominic ;)
 
Either they were pressured, or ICASA people are just totally incompetent and dont understand how ADSL works (even after all this time) and I suspect that is actually the case...
 
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