What needs to be done to sort out broadband in South Africa?

[MickeyD]

//negotiating with management for ipad3 for best entry in this thread

I was going to PM you my reply

[ToxicBunny]

I was going to PM you my reply

*points and laughs at McD*

[Mr.CookieMonster]

How would you like to see Telkom sorted out?

I dont know, i just want it to happen. I want the result of this "sorting out" to give us end users really good, fast broadband internet and at the same time very affordable. Also, Telkom should introduce Naked ADSL, even if the ADSL Line alone will cost more than the ADSL Line that needs a voice line. Of course this cant happen overnight, but they (government) should work over some time to get Telkom in shape.

[jackshiels]

Here are my opinions:

- Where do you think the problems are now?

There is a distinct lack of initiative in the DoC for the implementation and regulation of a competitive communications market. It seems as if the department is somewhat out of touch with the average consumer on issues like pricing, distribution and competition. To make matters worse the effect of such negligence is compounding at a steady rate, threatening to kill off the small IT industry we currently have.

Physically speaking South Africa's fixed lines communication market is lagging behind the rest of the world. There has been a severe lack of investment in this sector that has made it financially infeasible for the underprivileged to expand into the market. We are far behind and need to sort it out as soon as possible. If the DoC wishes to help aid and expand job creation in the digital sector it is imperative that they act now.

Lastly, ICASA needs to move faster when implementing their objectives. LLU (local loop unbundling) was promised to be completed last year. When the deadline was reached we were told to wait another year for full implementation. This is simply unacceptable and a trademark trend of the regulation of communications in South Africa. LLU should already be active and available to ISP's, yet another opportunity has passed the country by. Again, it is imperative that initiative is grown and fostered in the respective divisions of regulation in order to make up for the time that has been lost.

- How do we deal with these?

If the DoC wishes to see job creation, economic growth and a vibrant technology sector they should work to sort their initiative out. We need to see ministers that are passionate about technology, not completely unaware of how it works. The minister should seek to gain market opinions, both speculative and positive, regarding products and services in order to be better informed about the state of affairs when making decisions.

The second step would be to liberalise the fixed communications market. Currently prices are far too high due to the stranglehold of incumbent operator Telkom. This needs to be sorted out through ICASA regulations that are more forceful than in the past. IPC pricing should be dropped again by at least another 30% in order to equalise South Africa with most other countries in the world and release the ever present pressure on independent ISP's. This should be accomplished before the implementation of LLU in November.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the department should aim to present and implement a long term countrywide network overhaul that focuses on bringing high-speed fibre connectivity to urban areas. The aim of such an objective would be to lower the price of fibre for businesses, introduce the underprivileged to the concept of digital entrepreneurship and attract foreign IT companies to join the local market. It would also allow currently degraded network infrastructure to be modernised and more available (less congestion). This initiative would create jobs, boost economic growth and make South Africa a beacon of progress on the continent, not to mention completely eradicate the problem of copper theft.

- What is the most important intervention to be made to get cheaper, faster broadband to more people?

Telkom needs to cut ADSL line rental by at least 50% and make naked ADSL (not requiring a telephone subscription) a reality. This coupled with a reduction in IPC would allow low income demographics to access the internet at home for under a hundred rand a month. As well as this the "minimum speed of broadband" definition needs to be raised to at least one megabit a second in order to provide a suitably adequate medium of connection for consumers.

- How do we deal with the problem of broadband services in rural areas?

Wireless connectivity and satellite solutions seem to be the way forward here. In tandem with the fibre initiative the DoC should also aim to make rural connectivity of at least one megabit available to 90% of the country. There are a variety of ways to do this so the possibility is open to interpretation. What does need to be assured is a low cost and easily available subscription method, as well as readily available equipment and installation.

I hope this is of some assistance. Apologies for the length, but I felt it necessary to communicate my ideas

Jack

[Emperor]

Let's have a look at the problems that exist within the communications sector. Firstly, like the rest of South African business, we bear the brunt of what should be called "get rich quick schemes", whereby products manufactured in SA, are much cheaper in other African countries than in SA, this applies to electricity as well as telecoms. Whilst we have to pay exuberant consts for telecoms, our neighbours are enjoying faster and cheaper internet than we will ever be able to enjoy. In the past, Telkom was largly to blame for this, but more recently the independant telecoms providers have become the culprits. Logically speaking, fixed line internet should be more expensive than wireless internet due to the costs of maintaining infrastructure, the cost of deployments and the amount of staff involved in the process. This is however not the case, as wireless, without the high cost of maintaining copper wires and the installing thereof, still proves to be much more expensive than fixed line connectivity. The second problem is the cost of fixed lines together with the amount of complaints regarding it. Telkom's management inherited a modern network, but they were so busy awarding themselves bonus packages that they failed to do proper maintenance of the system and now they are faced with a telecoms system that is falling apart, technical expertise that is leaving the country and dwindling profits due to their mismanagement. The only way they know to recover, is to increase the prices of products way past what they should be. Telkom should be streamlined. They should get rid of all the excess bagage that they are carrying around. Telkom's customer base has shrunk considerably and therefore they do not need that many employees anymore, yet they insist on paying employees to sit on sidewalks doing nothing. This is what is keeping ADSL costs out of reach of many people. Then there is Telkom's management, who obviously think that everybody else is illeterate as they continue to claim that their practises reflect practises elsewhere on earth.

So how do we deal with these issues? Well, Telkom needs to lay off some staff, lay off all the thousands of staff that are not competent, cannot speak English or just sit around doing nothing. Lower the price of ADSL lines to about R250 per month, regardless of the speeds and do not charge telephone line rental in addition to ADSL line rental.

Cellular comapnies, lower the cost of your broadband to enable more people to use the internet. R2 per megabyte is NOT what you'd call a bargain or even affordable. Lower costs per megabyte down to about 5c per megabyte and you should have every Tom, Dick and Harry queing to do business with you.

Wireless broadband companies, introduce lower cost equipment, lower the price per megabyte and introduce proper affordable uncapped packages.

The most important thing that we can do at this moment, is to demand lower costs per megabyte, lower costs for lines and overall lower communications costs. The problem however is that people have become complacent, accepting everything as the norm and not asking for better services and lower costs.

Rural areas? I honestly do not know why every Tom, Dick & Harry is making such a fuss over rural access. Most people in rural areas do not have access to electricity or running water but we want to provide them with internet. This is a bit of a waste. Most of these people are also not anywhere near computer literate, besides not owning a computer. First provide them with running water and electricity, teach their children to attend school and once you have accomplished this, provide them with methods of broadband communication. Wifi would be better suited for situations such as this as it would make it cheap to access the internet using any wifi enabled device, but yet again, costs would need to come down for these people to be able to afford it. People earning less than R50 a day will not spend R20 on 10megabytes if they can use that same R20 to buy their families food.

[cerebus]

- Where do you think the problems are now?

-Lack of broadband penetration means that the IT industry remains in a fledgling, uncompetitive state. Online oriented business - retail, trading, hosting, development, as well as enterprise, cloud, and general IT entrepreneurship - is stunted because there is not a strong profitable web infrastructure for them to tap into. There is undoubtedly a huge market for it but bandwidth remains frighteningly expensive for most people. The eBays, Amazons, Oracles, Steams, Foursquares etc that thrive in the US and Europe simply don't have a foothold to scale adequately.

-Lack of IT talent, and drainout of the talent that does exist natively. In our department for instance we have over 30 unfilled IT spaces.

-Lack of funding for IT entrepreneurship.

- How do we deal with these?

-ICASA and DOC to be held liable for results, and not just more filibustering.
-Permitting companies to hire and promote (and if necessary fire) on a purely meritocratic basis.
-Create funding resources

- What is the most important intervention to be made to get cheaper, faster broadband to more people?

-Not just unbundling but eliminating the line rental component of ADSL pricing.
-Forcing Telkom to compete as a private enterprise, without special preferences, benedictions, parastatal status or any other kind of privilege. They are given too much slack when they fail, and too little incentive to pursue aggressive pricing and infrastructure.

- How do we deal with the problem of broadband services in rural areas?

-I can't help but feel that wireless penetration is more important than fixed line in rural areas due to huge last-mile costing problems. However, here the responsibility lies with the mobile service providers to build the infrastructure - towers, satellite etc. The DoC may talk, but I suspect that they simply don't have the resources to build cables out to the Poffadders and so forth.

[dominic]

good stuff - keep it coming

[Garyvdh]

- Where do you think the problems are now?

Telkom's de facto monopoly continues to negatively impact the Broadband market in South Africa.
They are a barrier to new and innovative entrants as they still control critical parts of the system in South Africa and are able to use their dominant position to stifle new players.
The regulator ICASA is toothless and clueless. If they do somehow manage to formulate a decent strategy, it is never implemented or dragged out into oblivion.
The department of Communications continues to show massive bias toward Telkom and protects their monopoly.
They are all big talk, but no action.
Key personnel were appointed not for their qualifications or experience, but for simple party politic favour or for self enrichment.
We need highly qualified and experienced people in this department to implement strategies that will grow the entire industry for the benefit of all South Africans.

- How do we deal with these?

Appoint experienced and independent personnel to the regulator and give them the power and punch to implement much needed change.
Force them to abide by deadlines and punish them for unacceptable delays.
Break up Telkom's retail and wholesale arms into different companies.
Force them to compete like everybody else on a level playing field.
Unbundle the local loop and implement strategies and requirements for all players to get access to the copper loop.
Pour some money into upgrading and expanding the grid.
Re-allocate much needed bandwidth spectrum to wireless players who will use it wisely.

- What is the most important intervention to be made to get cheaper, faster broadband to more people?

unbundle the local loop.

- How do we deal with the problem of broadband services in rural areas?

Re-allocate wireless spectrum to companies that will use it wisely.

[koeksGHT]

Local infrastructure needs to be improved, a lot more than international.. The last mile also needs some improvement, hopefully fiber rings all over and local fiber exchanges to support at LEASE 10MBPS

[Flidiot]

- Where do you think the problems are now?

IMO the primary problem is with capacity at individual exchanges (With regards to Telkom ADSL). Each exchange has X amount of line ports with potential for Y amount of throughput. Expansion on these exchanges does not happen fast enough to keep up with the demand for DSL services.

- How do we deal with these?

Telkom needs to start to work proactively, ensuring that they always have (even just a bit of) extra capacity, for the areas which show a strong uptake of services. Additionally, this process should be managed (strictly) by a regulatory body (ICASA?).

- What is the most important intervention to be made to get cheaper, faster broadband to more people?

Again, IMO, the biggest issue is cost - to just get internet access, via fixed line, there is still the overhead of having to pay telkom for a line rental as well as the DSL service on top of that. We should have an option of whether it would be voice or data, and pay accordingly - not twice. So, naked ADSL in itself could already be a huge help. To get broadband to the masses though, instead of letting a low-speed service fall away (E.g. as suggested that the 384k will be discontinued and automatically bumped to 1024k), rather lower the cost of that service to make it available for low-income households - again, without the overhead of having to pay for line rental if the voice service is not going to be used.

- How do we deal with the problem of broadband services in rural areas?

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/wirele...ppy-users.html

Is it not possible to provide something similar in rural areas? Not necessarily a high-speed option, but just basic connectivity.

Devices to access online services is a different issue, but ISP's/government could work together build mobile/fixed kiosks which connect to the wi-fi network. Providing each household with a (very) low-cost computer is even an option - low-cost computer offered as an option with every government subsidized home?

[Billy.Mc]

I can see from the draft document of the DoC they consider multiple angles. Especially consultation seems a good idea. They touch on matters like IPv6 and Cloud communication. The fact of the matter is that we have insufficient copper structure and Service Provision on fixed lines & mobile to provide the whole country with Acceptable standards of Broadband.

There is not enough fixed line provider coverage nationally. Yes , Telkom owns the majority of the copper structure and is busy with rolling out of their Fibre-to-the-curb Solution , but wil the citizens of Pofadder and Riemvasmaak enjoy this too? The Neotel network is in competition with Telkom , but outside major cities they are non-existent. Money is needed to purchase , trench , lay and terminate fibre nationally - we're talking billions to cover the whole of S.A.

There is not enough mobile coverage nationally either. The companies that do have masts and towers in rural areas , still cannot provide you with a single colour coverage map of S.A. There are still many grey areas that don't have 3G reception (4G/LTE is now becoming a standard and not just the future anymore) I just can't see the point in running around trying to cover the whole of Johannesburg with LTE when you can't even make a phone call from a small town?

I believe that money is the main factor. Too much of it with Controlling Authorities and too little available to the new Providers. Pre-paid Broadband (fully pre-paid) would be a good start for fixed lines. Re-looking at data prices in 1G increments instead of 10Mb for mobile providers and having a standard , would be a good thing for the mobile providers.

Ths is just my humble opinion and I think that Cloud computing and Cloud-based communication is just around the bend. Although there are still security issues with the cloud scenario , having decent broadband available to the majority of the citizens (if not to all) would be a great boost to our GDP.

[sajunky]

Unbundle ADSL and voice services by Telkom. It is like cellular networks offering 3G Internet services exclusively for voice contract subscribers. Cellular networks don't do that, so why Telkom is allowed? I don't advocate breaking up Telkom. By breaking up you achieve nothing. Telkom itself can be instrumental for bringing down cellular charges (as it does currently through 8ta).

[ichigo]

- Where do you think the problems are now? Very bad since Telkom is controlling everything and won't drop the prces for line rental and not caring about upgrading people to better lines by fixing the infrastructure
- How do we deal with these? Reduce the prices and stop the monopoly which mean bring a better opposition to Telkom which actually works
- What is the most important intervention to be made to get cheaper, faster broadband to more people? Kick out Telkom and replace with better ISP companies controlling everything
- How do we deal with the problem of broadband services in rural areas? Reduce the prices, educate the people and make jobs for them so they can afford adsl plus get better lines to them by making exchanges

[Sting]

- Where do you think the problems are now?

1. There is no clear vision as to where we want South Africa to be in terms of Broadband in the year 2020. The current Vision 2020 is not worth the paper it is printed on. Universal 384kbps by 2020 is a joke.

2. There is no co-ordinated National Broadband Plan enforcing the co-operation of all the network operators to achieve Vision 2020. Each Network operator is doing their own thing, causing overlaps in some areas and totally missing other areas.

3. The roles of the DoC and ICASA must be very clearly defined and they must adhere to them, rigidly. Both parties are currently too distracted by litigation on too many fronts.

4. The Government must decide on what role they want to play in the Telecommunications sector. They cannot continue to operate on all fronts with signifcant vested interests (shareholdings, board members, outright ownership, etc.).

5. ICASA must sort out the Digital Dividend (800 MHz frequency band), which is totally dependant on the analogue to digital migration of Broadcast services.

6. The Spectrum Assignment Plan (SAP) can only be finalised once the National Broadband Plan (NBP) has been approved. This is another example of Government, DoC and ICASA not being on the same page. The SAP must flow from the NBP.

7. Sentech's role in providing Broadband services must be clarified and explained in full detail.

8. Broadband Infraco's role in providing backhaul and broadband services must be clarified and explained in full detail.

9. SITA's role in providing broadband services must be clarified and explained in full detail.

- How do we deal with these?

1. Vision 2020 must be challenging, e.g. every household will have access to affordable broadband services. The term "broadband services" will be defined separately and be updated as new technology is developed. Right now we could peg it at 10Mb/s in urban areas and 1Mb/s in rural areas. However this could become 40Mb/s in urban areas and 10Mb/s in rural areas if new technology is developed in the near future. We cannot predict technology, hence the definition must not make mention of fixed line, wireless, radio or satellite.

2. The National Broadband Plan must be a very simple document. It must define the term "broadband". It must define the term "underserviced areas" and provide a very detailed list of these areas. It must define the term "affordable" and provide a method to determine an affordable price, which differentiates between serviced and underserviced areas. This method must remain constant to determine future annual broadband tariff increases. It must provide incentives to Telcos for investing in underserviced areas, whether it be discounts on spectrum licence fees or on the annual ICASA fees based on the Telcos' turnover. The annual rate at which Broadband services must be provided to achieve Vision 2020 should also be detailed. The rate should represent a graphical Bell curve or even upward trend and not a hockey stick with everything to be rolled out in the last year or two.

3. Government via the DoC and ICASA must clearly state it's intentions in the ICT sector and it must be legislated to ensure non-interference. The DoC and ICASA's functions must not overlap in any way. ICASA must put pressure on the DoC to put pressure on the DTI and DoJ to conclude all outstanding litigation a.s.a.p.

4. Government must disinvest from any direct shareholding in any Telco immediately.

5. The analogue to digital migration of Broadcast Services must be accelerated and given the highest priority. This will free up the Digital Divedend, which is essential for the Spectrum Assignment Plan.

6. The Spectrum Assignment Plan must be fair to all duly licenced parties. It must clearly stipulate performance indicators, impose a principle of "use it or lose it" on all parties (including Sentech) but also allow the licencees to resell spare capacity. The finalisation of the SAP is more important than LLU and must be finalised a.s.a.p.

7. Sentech must focus on Broadcast Services and disinvest from any form of Broadband provision. Any Spectrum allocated to Sentech not used for Broadcast Services must be returned to the pool for fair allocation as per the Spectrum Assignment Plan. This includes any spectrum currently resold to other operators.

8. Broadband Infraco must either be privatised or sold off to the highest bidder. Immediately. No further taxpayers' monies should be inested in BBI.

9. SITA's role in providing government's infrastructure services must be restricted to its original mandate. They may not break out of their own networks.

10. Back to the National Broadband Plan...

The Government must decide what they want from Telkom. Do they want it to provide affordable broadband to all or do they want it to be run as a profitable, listed company?

If they want affordable broadband then they must nationalise Telkom by buying out all the other shareholders (and obviously stop the KT deal). Telkom must remain self-funded (no taxpayer bail outs).

Telkom must then be split into various automous divisions, including: Core Network, Access Network, Data centres, Retail Services, etc.

Telkom Mobile (8ta) will form part of the Access Networks and will lease its network from the Core Networks at the same tariff as any other operator.

The Core Network includes everything up to the cable distribution frame on the Access Node (DSLAM, MSAN, ISAM, etc). The Access Network is from that frame to the customer's premises (a.k.a. the last mile).

Telkom can then absorb Broadband Infraco and consolidate the national backhaul infrastructure in the Core Network. This includes BBI's capacity on the undersea cables.

Telkom must be tasked with providing backhaul and POPs to all areas of South Africa, including the underserviced areas. The tariff at which they are leased to other licencees must be based on actual costs and be approved by ICASA.

All shortcomings in the backhaul network must be identified and a prioritised replacement program must be drafted, costed, approved, executed and tracked. This must be made visible to all parties including the public. Some of the congestion could be relieved by using the existing BBI infrastructure!

One of the biggest hurdles in the ADSL market is the last mile copper (Access) network. Notwithstanding the fact that it is a huge and vast network, a lot of the copper is old and in a poor condition due to lack of routine maintenance over the last 10 or so years. This is also one of the most expensive components in the cost to provide ADSL as it is labour intensive and prone to natural (weather) and non-natural (theft, damage, sabotage) elements.

This gives rise to Telkom's claim of an Access Line Deficit whereby they claim that they provide the physical cable to the subscriber at a loss, i.e. the cost to provide a copper cable to a customer is higher than the line rental received from the customer.

Another cause for poor ADSL service provision and high costs is the long distances between the customer and the Access node (DSLAM, ISAM, MSAN). This will be alleviated through the expansion of the Core Network, viz. the replacement of the DSLAMs with ISAM/MSAN equipment, which can be installed in a street cabinet closer to clusters of customers. Simultaneuously the copper access network is rehabilitated or upgraded to its original capabilities.

This will bring real FTTC to South Africa and go a long way to facilitating full LLU. Other licencees will then be able to lease ports at these Access Nodes from Telkom at reasonable rates as approved by ICASA. They will also have the option of leasing the copper line from Telkom or providing their own copper or optic fibre cable from the Access Point to their customer.

The MSAN/ISAM roll out must be made public. This will enhance transparency and enable all parties to plan accordingly. It will also eliminate plenty of energy wasted replying to queries and complaints.

The bad news is that the term Broadband does not automatically mean that everyone must have fixed line access. Financial constraints will limit the fixed line rollout to metro areas and some major towns.

The rest will be serviced via wireless networks or satellite services, unless Government steps in and either incentivises or subsidises fixed line access (last mile) networks in these areas. These are typically areas where a LTE network will be the preferred choice of the network operators.

As the national backhaul provider Telkom can provide optic fibre POPs in the rural areas, which can be accessed by any other network operator to connect their own access network with the technology of their choice. As Telkom is nationalised in this scenario, the other network operators can be incentivised to provide rural services via subsidies from the USAF (Universal Service and Access Fund).

In the metro area the MSAN/ISAM equipment can also be used to provide FTTH. Here any network operator can step in and build their own access fibre network (fibre to the home) at their own cost. They can either use it exclusively or lease it out to other operators. This will initially be financially viable in gated communities and small business centres but the medium to long term objective must be FTTH in the metro areas.

All of this does not preclude any other network operator from building their own Core or Access networks.

[Sting]

- What is the most important intervention to be made to get cheaper, faster broadband to more people?

• Nationalise Telkom now and remove their obligation to generate shareholder value (in terms of monetary profits).
• Stop taxpayer spend on Broadband Infraco and Sentech (non-Broadcast Services).
• Merge Broadband Infraco and Telkom.
• Finalise investigations regarding the Access Line Deficit.
• Determine a fair and reasonable "all-in-one" ADSL service rental cost (naked ADSL).
• Finalise all the legislation required to implement full LLU.

- How do we deal with the problem of broadband services in rural areas?

• Sort out Digital Dividend.
• Finalise Spectrum Allocation Plan.
• Finalise National Broadband Plan.
• Nationalise Telkom.
• Telkom to provide optic fibre POPs to rural access nodes.
• Network operators to build LTE networks in rural areas (shared access model).
• Use the USAF to incentivise rural access network build.
• Broadband via wireless or satellite services in rural areas.
• No copper to steal.

- general

Many folks do not realise the extent of Telkom's network (Core and Access), full range of services or the strict regulatory conditions under which they operate. Just see how Neotel has struggled to get where they are now and they are far from where they would want to be.

Telkom is also at fault for not marketing themselves better by utilising their network and products. This has also been their weakness as they stretch themselves too thin in terms of product/technical expertise for the geographical area in which they operate. And then there are the Telkom Call Centres