South Africa: Rules of the game changing

...SAT3 bandwidth prices are now nearly down to the critical US$1000 a meg for volume buyers.
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Ummmm okay. Maybe I'm not reading that right or something.
 
Telkom Media will need much higher speeds to make IP-TV work in the way it has been promoting it: at least, 1-2 gbps will be needed and it will need to stop ratioing bandwidth through capping use.
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:D

However, Telkom is busy rolling out ADSL2 as quickly as its workforce and contractors will manage it.
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that prob means a very long wait
 
Whilst it is currently offering 4 mbps, Mybroadband tests show that average achieved speeds are 343 kbps. This will only allow a limited number of IP-TV offerings.
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0% IPTV at that speed.
 
Telkom Media will need much higher speeds to make IP-TV work in the way it has been promoting it: at least, 1-2 gbps will be needed and it will need to stop ratioing bandwidth through capping use. In case, the future is behind schedile, it has taken a side-bet by also having a satellite offer ready if ADSL 2 not available within its time scale. However, Telkom is busy rolling out ADSL2 as quickly as its workforce and contractors will manage it. Telkom Media will also brand itself differently to get away from the stigma attaching to its parent company with consumers.
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Surely he ment 1-2 mbps...
 
56kMan said:
0% IPTV at that speed.
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HAHAHA! you switch on your T.V and you pay for usage aka... what you watch!! :rolleyes:
BTW where the heck is telkom going to get 1GB/s speeds? they can't even give you 512k uncapped let alone that!!
 
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This guy seems overly optimistic to me. We've never had anything resembling a competitive market, and Telkom has proved itself rather immune to market pressure so far so unless they're forced or face competition I don't see why this will change.

As for IPTV, ADSL2+ doesn't support 1-2Gbps so unless Telkom's planning FTTH that'll have to be a mistake or the total per exchange etc. Just because they're providing bandwidth for IPTV anyway that's very different than providing internet bandwidth. Firstly its only local bandwidth which has never really been in such short supply and presumably they'll be using multicast anyway which would significantly lower bandwidth requirements. Even if the physical infrastructure is there it doesn't mean that it will be provided to consumers in a monopolistic environment. Come on, that's Economics 101.

Despite serious competition issues, there is high-level political backing for the MTN deal which would see MTN acquire its wholesale and data services as Government wants MTN to become the "African champion".
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I'm so sick of this government mantra that's obsessed with the rest of Africa, shouldn't we sort ourselves out first?
 
feo said:
I think they mean 1-2Gbps to provision everyone, not per person.
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If they only had a few thousand viewers maybe. I'm sure the author meant mbps, per viewer.

Glordit said:
HAHAHA! you switch on your T.V and you pay for usage aka... what you watch!! :rolleyes:
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No. It will be a flat-rated monthly subscription, which includes all bandwidth charges.

The article paints a good picture of all the forces at play. No doubt great changes are afoot. But with Telkom milking us for all they can, it could still be a fair while before consumers see the benefits.
 
Gatecrasher said:
If they only had a few thousand viewers maybe. I'm sure the author meant mbps, per viewer.
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Yeah you may be right but I still find it incredibly pathetic that JOURNALISTS still don't know the difference between M(ega) and G(iga) and also bits and bytes.
 
ld13 said:
It's US$1000 per month (Huge volume/wholesale) for a SAIX 1mbps fiber link from Sesimbra to Johannesburg.
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Those are still monopoly prices set by Telkom. We need to get closer to half that figure before any real benefits get passed on to consumers.
 
Ekhaatvensters said:
How many people would you expect to sign up, a few thousand isn't a bad initial estimate.
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I think TM would be very disappointed with a few thousand IPTV viewers. That's less than a million rand revenue per month. Doesn't compare well to their R7bln investment.
 
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