ADSL Regulations.

ToxicBunny

Oi! Leave me out of this...
Joined
Apr 8, 2006
Messages
141,545
Reaction score
99,431
Location
Crimetown
Maybe I'm being very dense about all of this, but I'm wondering if anyone has actually seen the official gazette because I have spent a good long while searching for them, and don't even see them appearing on the Sabinet list of gazettes for last week.... Does anyone know what the gazette number is?
 
Yes, that would be exactly what i am after.... I just wanted to see it with all the official logos and crap, also worried me that i couldn't find it on sabinet, and of course ICASA can't seem to update their own damn site.....
 
mmm,

Well....I’ve just went through the Regulations a few times.
This is what is really bugging me:

Local Bandwidth usage” means the data that can be transferred from South-African based internet protocol addresses.
3.4 Local bandwidth usage shall not be subject to the cap.

What exactly does this line mean in Legal Terms?

I can see 1 explanation for this line:
1) Local bandwidth usage will NOT BE CAPPED. Note,they do not say ‘free’.

*Pondering*
 
Uhhmm. If local is gonna go the pay as you go route then isn't it odd that they would say that intl can be topped up. In other words they're all basically pay as you go accounts (local and intl) with the first 3 gigs free.

I however read it to understand that local is free and the first 3 gigs of intl is included in the rental fee with pay as you go available for it. Its the only thing that makes sense..no??
 
I think it is the intention of these regulations for local access to be free, full speed, unshaped and not subject to any bandwidth restrictions. Have we become so browbeaten that we can no longer see that this is the way it should be?

When you purchase bandwidth from your ISP it is for unshaped, international traffic which you must be able to top-up as required.

Further, Telkom (or SNO) may only charge an installation fee, plus a single monthly fee to cover maintenance of the line.

Okay, so that's my interpretation, but I think it is important that as many people as possible interpret it the same way.
 
The biggest problem I see with these regulations is that there is alot of assumptions on the part of ICASA, or bowing to Telkom. But they leave ALOT of loopholes for Telkom to interpret them whichever way they see fit really, so basically at best I see things staying exactly the same as they are right now really... with Telkom scoring big time, and other ISP's who use IS or Verizon as their upstream provider being screwed over.

Of course I'll be pleasantly surprised if I'm wrong, but I've dealt with Telkom and the SA guavamint enough times to know if there's a loophole, it'll be used and it'll take forever for it to even be hinted at being closed....

So as other people have said, its time to go and buy a little more lube in preparation for Telkom's shenanigans...
 
I think it is the intention of these regulations for local access to be free, full speed, unshaped and not subject to any bandwidth restrictions. Have we become so browbeaten that we can no longer see that this is the way it should be?

When you purchase bandwidth from your ISP it is for unshaped, international traffic which you must be able to top-up as required.

Further, Telkom (or SNO) may only charge an installation fee, plus a single monthly fee to cover maintenance of the line.

Okay, so that's my interpretation, but I think it is important that as many people as possible interpret it the same way.
This would be a good interpretation if so - telkom previously stated they can't differentiate between local and international?
 
Have to agree with Gatecrasher.

Thats how I understand the whole debacle.

Isn't all the hoo haa blah blah blah blah in the gazillion threads on this subject basically because there are a lot of assumptions being made.

When I read the regulations it doesn't seem that difficult to understand but after browsing through the threads it seems that a lot of people are making a lot of assumptions instead of working with the facts as we know it.

I'm looking forward to the next few months to see how this actually all plays out, wether or not these regs will actually be inforced, wether nor not the sat-3 issue will change anything and wether or not SNO and LLU actually materialize and what will come of BPL and the 4mbps & triple play rumours/conspiracy.

Geez, wee have a lot to speculate on and drive each other crazy.

Definitely interesting times for thread reading for us telecoms ethusiasts....especially if some forum members actually end up as part of ICASA.

SHOO THATS A MOUTH FULL!!
 
Why doesn’t ICASA release a document explaining exactly what these loosely worded regulations actually mean, rather than leaving everybody to speculate on the contents - Yes, I know the regulations should be clear, but they're not.
 
I believe we shall have clarification of these issues from the ICASA soon. They have already done some explaining with regards to the new ADSL access charges - No more line rental charges, yay! Link here

One thing though, with reference to section 3.6 - What does this mean to consumers that have been waiting over 1 month for their install? Really would like to phone Telkom up and threaten them with some legal action! :D
 
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X