Broadband prices should drop drastically

[bekdik]

What else can be done? Vodacom/MTN is hamstrung by a lack of transmission capacity – causing all sorts of problems. I am all for lower prices and better services, but without backhaul capacity this is unlikely to happen.

Allegedly Infraco is sitting on a large capacity. Any idea of how much is actually in use?

Yes I am aware hat Neotel is marked as the main user, but making use of a national asset in the short term could alleviate the short term problem.

 

[Ghost02]

Well I just want Vodacoms prices to come down so i don't pay R250 for 500mb that doesn't roll over and I don't get any local.

 

[marine1]

Some people will believe anything the hear or read and if it is on the internet then it must be fact, right ?

 

[LancelotSA]

Some people will believe anything the hear or read and if it is on the internet then it must be fact, right ?

No some of us drive around the areas we live and work in (we have lives outside of the internet) and see the roads getting dug up and the cables being laid and we believe that this is not just a publicity stunt but actual fibre being laid...

 

[marine1]

And you also believe that in the near future you will actually see the benefit of this? Rofl

 

[eltherza]

We should be happy that we can actually see this infrastructure being put in place in front of our eyes.

Building infrastructure doesn't mean a price decrease.

But the fact that MTN, Vodacom, neotel and Telkom can all be building every type of infrastructure (wimax, digging cables, 3G) shows that there is far to much money in those companies pockets. Not that it's a bad thing (i can imagine the bureaucracy if they needed each others help), but you can see the "well, i make enough profit to actually do this alone".

Having said that, making sms 20c anytime (heck, it's less than 1c per message on mxit) may put strain on your network for a week or so, but then people will go back to normal. I'm not about to rush out and send random sms just because it's now cheaper. Basic service such as interconnection fees, sms charges and overall rates are still far to high.

 

[Lino]

If this eventually does happen, it would be fantastic. However like most people I'll believe when I see

 

[LancelotSA]

<shakes head>

 

[UnoPanelvan]

Broadband prices should drop drastically

Yeah, How long are we here? How long does MyBB exist? We heard it all. We shared the dream and rejoiced the achievements. Then Telkom became even greedier.

Whatever any company large or small want to achieve and no matter what they do to achieve that, Telkom will do whatever they can and what is in their might to reverse course and stun the diminishing CASH COW REVENUES they steal from us the consumer. We will see when the fibre networks arrive what delaying tactics TELKOM will dream up in the likes of court cases.

@RPM. I can see you are very optimistic just as you were about the PAPI affair. But we saw it went from bad to worse.

I have no new expectations until legislation change in favour of the mass uptake of broadband and freedom is allowed for other players to get in the game. THUS The GOV must stop protecting the old and dying CashCow TELKOM. Remember they have a few CashCalfs now to protect too, while they are growing, in the names of Neotel and others

 

[UnoPanelvan]

<shakes head>

Obviously, be carefull of damage. Please.

 

[pkid]

Masie said that he expected South Africa to go from one of the countries with the highest bandwidth and broadband pricing to one of the lowest in the next few years.

Where is he getting this from???? Umm. Where are the local Google services that you were going to launch. It would be so cool to be able to access Gmail using local bandwidth. *hint* *hint*

 

[LancelotSA]

Obviously, be carefull of damage. Please.

I have no problem as with my large brain it is a pretty tight fit in there... others out there should be more careful... would not want something important, albeit tiny, to fall out!

 

[saffakanera]

Do we even have the network infrastructure to handle a 60 percent drop in telecommunications cost?

On Christmas I see networks clog up nation-wide like there is no tomorrow. Would that not be the same result if broadband prices dropped by 60 percent overnight?

I believe players like Vodacom are perpetually, and increasingly expanding their backbones, its evident by all the roads being dug up in major cities. This is a very good sign. I think all we need is some patience, the backbones will go up, the prices will, ultimately, go down, but its not going to happen overnight.

 

[LazyLion]

I do believe prices will drop pretty drastically, we all anticipate that ... but not anytime before July 2009 when Seacom goes live. Maybe a few months after that. Until then... articles like these are just repeating the same hopes we have been talking about for years.

 

[Captain Beer]

No some of us drive around the areas we live and work in (we have lives outside of the internet) and see the roads getting dug up and the cables being laid and we believe that this is not just a publicity stunt but actual fibre being laid...

Exactly, every day I see more orange pipes going into the ground where I live, keeping the fingers crossed

 

[Devill]

Broadband prices should drop drastically

I really want to believe this but I will have to see it first.

did he say when?

2085

I do strongly suspect that we get news leakages from a parallel universe, and this confirms it all the more...

*sigh*

ROFL

I think guys like Vodacom, MTN, Neotel and even Telkom are indeed trying to solve the problem. They are all building new/better fiber networks to solve the current problem of a lack of affordable bandwidth. The problem is obviously here because of Telkom’s previous monopoly, but what else can these guys do now apart from building their own fixed line networks? This is unfortunately something that takes a lot of time...

At our expense.

Maybe they should pay their CEO less and use that money to pay 1000 workers for 6 months and get the job done faster and without us paying for it.

 

[Gatecrasher]

I really don't care what the arguments are about backhaul capacity, there is absolutely no excuse for Vodacom to charge R200 per additional gigabyte on their packages, or R1.20 to R2.00 per MB out-of-bundle. Those prices are just exhorbitant. It is sheer profiteering. They cannot blame them on Telkom.

Remove the moat from your own eye, Mr Knott-Craig....

 

[mancombseepgood]

Yes, prices SHOULD drop, but they don't.

 

[ic]

The Google SA manager further said that he expected there to be between 10 and 12 million broadband users in South Africa by 2010/2011.

Ok, and when all the foreign visitors leave SA after the Soccer World Cup, how many broadband users will be left in SA?

I agree that when SEACOM and EASSy are online, prices will start to drop drastically, and broadband uptake by locals will also increase drastically, but I don't see 10..12 million South African broadband users in SA by 2010..2011 - more like 2 million - maybe 2.5 million.

 

[Rynomster]

Jeez i was wandering wtf was going on at the Campus and what internetix was
There were 100s or 1000s of extra cars which aren't usually there...