A million lost, and counting

it's not a good thing that we are losing fixed lines and nobody is maintaining them. Fixed lines have their place in the market. As long as there is some fibre or something to take its place.
 
According to Goldstuck this gives a clear indication that Telkom is realising the value of wireless services and that more consumers are buying a wireless broadband service as an alternative to Telkom’s ADSL offering.
Click to expand...

How long before they realise that bad customer service and inflated prices cause customer losses?
 
Telokom Cutomer retail outlets simply not intrested

I recently went to inquire re. getting a 4096 Kbps line installed purely for internet connectivity, at their 'Tyger Valley' (Western Cape) retail branch outlet...
(This after getting fed up my countless stuff ups by iBurst and their incompetent accounts department..)

Firstly I was told that I needed to have a Telkom Voice line installed....
I do not require this service and do not want it (but understand that their ASDL service cannot run without it..) In addition I would be billed a monthly 'Voice' rental fee (which I never intend to make use of...)

Once this was done I would then have to submit an application to have my 'Voice' line upgraded to an 'ADSL' line..

I informed the person that I was not interested in their 'Voice' capabilities and purely wanted the line for ADSL purposes... Surely this could all be done on a single application...?

'Certainly' she replied 'Are you thus prepared to pay the 'Installation Costs' up-front of about 'R1,000.00' ?

For a Telephone line enabled with ADSL?
I told the lady to please take a hike..

What a rip off...

No wonder their fixed lines are decreasing year by year...
 
If Telkom did a proper audit, they find even more lines disconnected. Been 9 mths in my new flat, and the previous prepaid line is still active - even though I had my old (and now departed) line moved to my flat....
 
The only reason I have a fixed line into my house is for ADSL....

Nobody even knows this number anymore, ppl ask if I have a telkom phone number and i just say no... its useless.. and the sooner I can lose the R100 odd a month for the "voice" rental.. the better.
 
Just take a look at the size of the white pages. It looks like an anorexic version of its former self.

Not to mention most classifieds in newspapers now have cellular numbers listed. Its been a few years since I spotted a land line number listed as contact reference.
 
Subtract the number of Voice Lines forced due to ADSL Users and its probably closer to 2 Million.
 
Good move from them hope this will drop prices even more...
Seems they have given up on copper but just hope that fibre will replace it. Or else we gamers will suffer bad under the high latency of wireless(well until the technology is strong enough to support low latency)
 
The reason why people are getting rid of their fix line or not even applying for a new one is because of one reason and one reason only....TELKOM.

There is nothing wrong with fixed lines and it will always be the best type of connectivity. Wireless is great but can never have the security and stability of a fixed line. The problem is only Telkom is running the fixed lines and their service is beyond terrible.

We desperately need LLU to pick up drastically as this is what transformed markets in the rest of the world.

With seacom landing and the all important win for VANS over poison ivy lets hope 2009 will bring what we all have been waiting for. Good competition with cheap uncapped options.
 
The faster this happens the better. In an ideal utopia for SA, Telkom's subscriber base is reduced to 0, Neotel has uncapped, 24 meg lines (for now 24) for R199 a month.

/me wakes up and realizes this ain't happening anytime soon :(
 
I think the problem with fixed lines in SA is
1. Cost! wireless costs close enough to the price of fixed line connections such that you could say its worth paying a bit extra it for low usage mobility convenience.
2. Copper Theft which still happens and leaves people without lines for a bit, you never have that problem with wireless
3. SA culture is more inline with moving/roaming around than staying in one place. Cellphones fit that model quite well especially with work and homes being far apart.
4. Cellphones don't have in your face 'line rental'.<technically it does worked into the system>
5. Fixed line performance is not significantly cheaper nor does it out perform fixed line drastically enough!

If voda + mtn decide not to chase prices(very realistic as their margins is definitely getting smaller(low usage) and with usage based models, cheaper bandwidth prices flaunted around won't please them. Its a fine line to walk) and adsl bandwidth prices drop down drastically next yr there will be an increased need for fixed line again.
 
2011 is getting closer and closer yet i have still not heard of a single exchange that was unbundled yet. Whats the penalty again??? nothing
 
What about ISDN

If Telkom were to drop "Voice" Line Rental do you think this would make a difference in the number of people either taking up the service of a Fixed Line or not cancelling.

The classic one for me is ISDN.
I have ISDN on my Business Line which is used solely for the purpose of a digital signal for the PABX System.
My question here is why should I still pay "Voice" Rental over on top the ISDN Line Line? The line cannot actually be used for Voice Connections without the PABX Filter. To explain further > If we have Load Shedding I do not have a telephone line unless my PABX is connected to a UPS.

ADSL is different. You still have a "Voice" option when the power is off.
 
CrzWaco said:
Good move from them hope this will drop prices even more...
Seems they have given up on copper but just hope that fibre will replace it. Or else we gamers will suffer bad under the high latency of wireless(well until the technology is strong enough to support low latency)
Click to expand...

well.. have you ever tried MTN Hsdpa?

I played a game with someone who had an adsl 348 kbps. I had 200 ping he had 400.

I think wireless is alreaddy beating adsl because its unshaped.
 
Tweak said:
well.. have you ever tried MTN Hsdpa?

I played a game with someone who had an adsl 348 kbps. I had 200 ping he had 400.

I think wireless is alreaddy beating adsl because its unshaped.
Click to expand...

Impossible, he was most likely downloading something also. I have 4 mb adsl and i get 25-35 ping.

When i was on 384k i got 65-75 ping. So that dude most likely had the connection blues that day.

Wireless will never work for low latency, too many variables. But lets hope it does improve.
 
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