Article in buisness day

[SK33T]

Read this a bit earlier sounds encouraging

South African telecommunications legislation is stifling the deployment of wireless technology, which could open up internet access to the entire population.
A major stumbling block is that, as it stands, a communication link between two buildings separated by a public road is not allowed unless the Telkom network is used.

But government is looking at creating a new legislative environment to accommodate the convergence of IT, telecommunication and broadcasting.

Government realises that the existing legislation is outdated and has to be changed radically to bring broadband to everyone, says Ronnie Seeber, government relations manager at Motorola Southern Africa.

""There is a realisation that if this does not happen SA will fall behind the rest of the world.""

 

[ckleynhans]

If it wasn't for the fact that Telkom has been offered all this protection, we would have been much further down the line. It is possible to run a (or several) completely private networks in very build up area by linking them with infrared, microwave, wireless and even optic fibre and copper technologies. In that way it is still frightening to think that we have to wait for a SNO while small businesses can actually achieve a lot on their own if given the opportunity. Hopefully it is true that the government are considering to change it. []

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| Christiaan |
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[microfast]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by SK33T</i>
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""There is a realisation that if this does not happen SA will fall behind the rest of the world.""
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Unfortunately we are already way behind the world - catching up is a dream and by the time the penny drops (in high places), I am afraid it might just be too late.

We face strong competition from India, Malaysia, South Korea (all incidently on the same
undersea cable & with a much larger user base). The greed and lack of real service and delivery by Telkom is costing us dearly. Our competition is wide awake and streets ahead of us.

If the DTI were to do a study I suspect they would discover that the lack of cheap
international internet communications is costing this country BILLIONS every year in lost export revenue, not to mention jobs.

I reckon that if the government were to "invest" (by deregulation) in the goal of massive cheap internet access to EVERYONE we would see a BOOM of small enterprises entering the export business ---- because they will be able to.

Government: "Create a massive international link" and your people will do the rest and bring great riches to this end of the world. Do not hesitate, do it now .... please

 

[ASF]

I concur with microfast - the bloody idiots actually don't realise the value of the intellectual capital that is in this country. Technlogically there are VERY savvy people here who can compete 1:1 with any foreign company when it comes to Internet stuff.

Also there would be a significant boost to the local Internet economy because more users = more potential sales / productivity / whatever metric = more companies will invest in the Internet strategy and start using the medium to it's fullest potential.

But I guess there are more important issues at play like making sure Telkom boosts profits and positions themselves to make it very hard for a competitor to take them head on. Personally I blame Dr Ivy for the mess we have at present. What do you expect from a technophobe with a track record of monumental screwups?