(ARTICLE) 10 year wait for decent internet

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by MyLowBandwidth</i>
<br />http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2004/0407021133.asp?O=TE

The article mentions Africa being one of the most inaccesible places to get bandwidth to....

I imagine Telkom standing guard with AK47 would be a bit tough to get around.

Cape Town 128K 16% Tower 22(Salt River)
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Interesting article but it also has a good deal of BS in it:

<i>Expect disappointing bandwidth for years
BY RODNEY WEIDEMANN, ITWEB TELECOMS EDITOR
[Johannesburg, 2 July 2004] - South Africa will not see the type of bandwidth that the people who write in to the myadsl Web site are after for at least another five to 10 years.</i>

Translation: ZA will continue to fall behind the rest of the world, both 3rd and 1st worlds. They aren’t going jog on the spot so that we can catch up.

BTW I pay ABSA R100 pm for a 64k data connection that runs at 55-64k ALL THE TIME. Many MyWireless customers are paying R650 – R1500 for 40-50 k. CAN YOU SPOT THE PROBLEM?

<i>Rotter said despite the best intentions of Telkom, Sentech and the government, the level of bandwidth that such people are seeking is still a long way off.</i>

Telkom has never had best intentions and have hoodwinked the government into buying into their BS. Why is it a long way off? Because of deliberate decisions by the government to continue deny ZA telecoms the free and open competition it so desperately needs. There are NO technical hurdles to revolutionise telecoms in ZA. A revolution which is desperately needed to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and pull all people in this country into the 21st century.

<i>“Competition between the US and Europe in terms of connectivity has brought bandwidth prices right down, but one cannot use that as a comparison in African terms, as this continent is the hardest and most inaccessible place in the world to deliver bandwidth to.”</i>

This is such a ludicrous statement that I just have to laugh. Mr. Rotter have a look at a world map. Notice Australia and New Zealand placed slap bang in a VAST ocean expanse? They're wedged between the Pacific and Indian oceans. Calculate how far they are from submarine cable landings in Europe and the USA. Notwithstanding, as we speak, they are well on their way to providing universal broadband telecoms to their entire populations. <b>ZA is NOT the "hardest and most inaccessible place in the world to deliver bandwidth". The straits of Gibraltar are about 15 km wide. We need a FSCKING 15 km long submarine cable to plug the whole of Africa straight into the European Union.</b>

<i>Asked his opinion on SA's bandwidth problems, Rotter said there is enough bandwidth in SA, but it is the price that is the real problem.</i>

Who determines the price Mr. Rotter? TELKOM.

<i>“This is why we need price competition at all levels of the value chain. The issue is not as simple as just saying that Telkom is being unfair, but perhaps it is time that they are held accountable and perhaps ICASA should be given more power to enable it to regulate better.</i>

Perhaps? Perhaps! PERHAPS?! Pull your head out your rear Mr. Rotter. The current government policies that deny tens of millions of people in this country affordable (&lt;R100 pm) basic data communications were arrived at by CHOICE.

<i>“There is still room in SA for the prepaid Internet subscriber market, even though WiMax, 3G and EDGE technologies will undoubtedly impact on the high end of the market. It will, however, take years before it begins to affect the lower end of the market.”</i>

No there is room in ZA for the government to catch a fscking wake up and do what India is doing right now!
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/07/01/2346245.shtml?tid=126&tid=95

[}:)]

-Professional information anarchist-
I support:
www.hellkom.co.za
 
Another thing Mr. RODNEY WEIDEMANN, ITWEB TELECOMS EDITOR, well done for confusing two COMPLETELY separate issues:

(A) Parlous state of telecoms in ZA ... already discussed above.

(B) Non delivery of service by Sentech to their current clients, even GIVEN the current (unnecessary) constraints imposed on telecoms in ZA. If ABSA can happily provide me with an effective 64k of bandwidth for R100 pm then Sentech can reasonably be expected to do rather better than 40-50k for 6X to 15X that amount.


-Professional information anarchist-
I support:
www.hellkom.co.za
 
Another thing Mr. Weidemann, while were at it:

Telkom hoodwinked the government into giving them a 5 year extension of their monopoly in exchange for providing 2.5 million telephone lines to previously disadvantaged citizens. To date less than 500k of those lines remain active. Why? Because they were TWO EXPENSIVE. If the government had terminated the Telkom monopoly 6 years ago they could have listed Telkom at the height of the dotcom boom. The revenue generated by that sale would have been enormous, at least 10x the paltry figure the government recently received for Telkom. That money would have been a windfall of stupendous proportions that, wisely used, could have created tens of thousands of jobs in ZA. Foreign telcos would have poured hundreds of billions of Rands into this countries telecoms infrastructure. Telecoms would have been vastly more affordable than they are now. More ZA citizens would be empowering themselves by their own efforts … they would be able to afford the tools to do so.

Contrast the above to the current situation and it’s clear that the government’s policy has been criminally negligent and has set our countries (desperately needed) development back by at least ten years. This is truly one of the greatest scandals in our history that has hasn’t received 1/1000 th of the press coverage it deserves because it clearly puts the lie to Telkoms fascist pretensions at being “the wise steward” of our telecommunications destiny. They are the dead weight that is leaving us in the dust as our 3rd world competitors’ race ahead of us.

That Telkom even had the temerity to associate itself with the “Proudly South African” brand is quite sickening. They represent everything that ZA needs to leave behind to reach its real potential.

How truly misguided the governments policies were, and continue to be, can be clearly illustrated with a simple example … taxis. Yes … Taxis! Virtually all people in this country faced a lack of effective public transport that would take them to their place of work and home every day. The public transportation service provided by the government was singularly ineffective and DID NOT MEET THE PEOPLES NEEDS. Fortunately, the government made no attempt to strangle the nascent taxi industry and as a result … fast forward 10 years … it provides an extremely effective, very affordable transportation service that meets its users needs 100%. That is what the absence of strangling legislation achieves, Mr. Mbeki … take note!

Free ZA’s people and companies from the shackles of the current telecoms regulations and I guarantee you that we, the people of ZA, will find effective solutions to our own telecommunication needs. We will find solutions and opportunities that the fat cat bureaucrats in your moribund administration couldn’t even dream of.




-Professional information anarchist-
I support:
www.hellkom.co.za
 
Hey h4rth, your on the move today, your posts make for good reading, very good points you raised. I think Mr Rotter's brain is decomposing as we speak, what a load of tripe. Telkom has enough $$$ to provide bandwidth for the "supposed" life on mars!

Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away
if your car could go straight upwards."
--Sir Fred Hoyle
 
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