Cheaper telecoms on the way

the imminent approval of the new telecoms act
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Grr... :mad:

How long is the DoC going to toy with us?

These people are COMPLETELY missing the point! What use is all the "bells and whistles" and Video on Demand and IPTV on a 3GB account??? :mad:

“the average consumer will spend at least a third of his or her waking day on the internet, using a cellular phone (for both voice and non-voice applications), or watching television”.
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On a 3GB account? They must be f**king mad :mad:

The FIRST step toward this is so obvious, but yet seems to elude everyone: LOWER BANDWIDTH PRICES!!!! NOBODY IS GOING TO WATCH TV AT R60 PER GIG!!!
 
Telecoms analyst Dobek Pater of Africa Analysis says the Electronic Communications Bill will require Telkom to allow other service providers access to the “local loop” – the line from homes to the network – at wholesale prices.

“According to the bill, any service provider with a licence to provide data (internet) will have access to wholesale rates. As far as carrying voice services is concerned, any company that has been allocated a number range will also be able to connect,” explains Pater.
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Yes, but who sets that wholesale rate in an environment where competition to the wholesaler is [currently] completely lacking?

Telkodemonopolies would make the wholesale rate for accessing the LLU U$D5trillion if it thought it could get away with it, we will still need a strong telecoms regulator - something that ICASA has never been & still is not - mostly IMO bcos of her Poisonous Ivyness having veto powers to sit on anything ICASA tries to do :mad:.
Mark Baptiste, director of service provision director at Cisco Systems South Africa, says that until the president signs the bill, there is “not much you can do to get prices down”.
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I still have all 10 of my fingers pointing directly at Mbeki - he alone, as president, has the power to give Ivy the boot, and yet he continually leaves the most incompetent minister in place to mess with the ICASA Amendment Bill - without which he [Mbeki] refuses to sign the ECB into law - Mbeki is currently this country's catch-22 and the only way out is for him [Mbeki] to do some decision making and take decisive action.
 
Words like "immenent", "soon" and "with in weeks" have come too be meaningless when it comes too our telecoms.
 
Vio said:
Words like "immenent", "soon" and "with in weeks" have come too be meaningless when it comes too our telecoms.
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yep, soon means nothing. with in weeks, weeks can be 100 weeks?
 
ic: It also seems Mr Mbeki is dragging his feet - according to Carte Blanche, the ECB has been sitting on Mbeki's desk since the end of December!

Companies and consumers are quickly realising that broadband is a building block for big things, and that it should thus be a utility: “There should be no distinction between water, electricity and broadband connectivity. The debate is – should a utility be expensive, and the answer is obviously no. Basic access must be affordable. The only things you should be paying for are the value-added services that are transmitted via broadband, such as video on-demand.”
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Exactly! Broadband should be as cheap as an electricity or water bill - the more you use the more you pay. [That's with caps, obviously uncapped is a different story]
 
By the time they sign it, the 2 yr waiting period for LLU will be over, i mean we heading for what 6months down already? Is this their strategy ?
 
Same ****, Different Day.
They're just rehashing it in the hope that somebody's gullible enough to believe it
 
[insert appropriate music now]

here comes santa clause,
here comes santa clause

[end music]
 
by decree the minster will now be formally introduced as ""Her Imminence, the Minister of Communications"

the policy directive will cover
- vans self-provision
- local access unbundling
- ISM usage and other frequency issues
 
dominic said:
by decree the minster will now be formally introduced as ""Her Imminence, the Minister of Communications"
...
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:D

'Her Imminence, the Hinderance of Communications'
 
i am getting sick and tired of these articles.... Gov, Telkom, ICASA, SNO and ever other person in power out there are completely illerterate... Theyre shooting this country in the foot! I actually hope nothing happens. I hope that costs stay the same! And when 2010 comes South Africa is the biggest laughing stock in the international community!!! That would be ideal!!

Then all these so called leaders of our country well get the boot! Coz as things stand now there is absolutely no reason for them to get of the gravy train and actually start doing their jobs in terms of running this country. And this applies to joe in the streets right up to Mbeki our president!!!!

THIS IS F*CKING Rediculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Telecoms aint f*cking rocket science!!!!
 
everytime we see something of overseas' providers it reads "launches" or "starts" or "provides"

everytime we see something of SA it reads "soon to be launched" or "within weeks" or "is coming"

then they wonder why we dont give a damn about empty promises.
 
Rofl Ana Monteiro, using words like that is just plain nasty. :p
Take it back :D
 
Report Card

It amazes me how politicians bend things to suit their own cause. It doesn't matter which political party one is affiliated to - they're all the same. The one thing a political party did that I pleased me was when the DA came up with the plan to produce a 'Report Card' to gauge the effectiveness of the ruling party. I can't recall offhand if it was on a national or local level, but it seemed the start of something promising.

As a democracy, the people should have a say in how the country is run. Success and failures affect us all, yet for some bazarre reason, SA consumers seem to be ignored in our pleas for effective, timeous, affordable reforms in the ICT industry. Instead of journalists merely rehashing the same old story over-and-over again, how about some taking a stand and drawing up an impartial Report Card on the players involved. List the good and the bad / the achievements (VOIP / Competition soon to enter the market / Regulations implemented to tackle the correct issues / etc.) and the failures (long delays in getting Bills signed and enacted into law / wastage of tax payers money holding talks without any constructive outcomes being implemented / lack of action to address anti-competitive practices / etc.).

Make it a multi-tiered report, showing a rating for suppliers, government officials, everyone that has a role to play. By making something of this nature public, the ability for slackers to hide is deminished; the opportunity to cover the facts with empty-promises and lies is removed; the inability for players to live up to their mandate is exposed - and hopefully the voice of the SA Consumer will be heard and reforms come about NOW and not in five years time. Enough money has been made off the consumer - those holding this country back should get off the gravy-train. It should be decommissioned and sold for spare parts.

We've all seen the ad where SA celebrities 'wake up' to change and see that "South Africa is alive with Possibilities" - that feel-good ad makes me proud to be a South African. It's just really sad that the only possibilities we seem to have experienced is the possibility to be overcharged, to suffer 5th-world service delivery, to be placated with empty promises and long delays. Is this the legacy the world will look back on? I hope not.
 
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the way i see it we basically shafted.

1) no way is the gvt gonna get rid of their shares in telkom (i mean what if that tsunami hits us?) so there is always gonna be a conflict of interest there.

2) as long as Telkom can get away with it they gonna rip everyone off. when snot comes in there might be a brief two minute struggle before they realise that if they both charge the same then they both make a killing.

i also hope things take so long that by 2010 everything is still the same. maybe when the rest of the world connects at 10gbit and we finally get to 2 mbit then guavamint might go "ahh bugger, shoulda listened to the consumer" although you will pardon me if i dont hold my breath about that one.

Just waiting for the wife to qualify then im off to the uk. im tired of waiting. why the h*ll should i as a consumer have to wait until 2009 for affordable communications because the govt is scared of a tsunami? So I am gonna stop complaining and do something about it, maybe once ALL the skilled ppl have left then they might wake up a bit and realise just where their profiteering has gotten them.
 
No matter what happens, in 2010 SA will be a laughing stock when it comes to basic communication services (amongst other things..)

Until such time that South Africans in general actually start helping one another in a big way and making their consumer voices heard, nothing will happen to make communications function at even an 'acceptable' level..

Phrases like 'Challenge, Zero Tollerence and Service Delivery' are meaningless and bandered about as if just buy uttering these 'magic' words things will sort themselves out while the big knobs sit back and pat themselves on the back for making a speach containing special muti words..

If I am ever in the presence of someone in governmunt who says 'it's a challenge.. ' I WILL spit in their face.. I'm sick to ****ing death of hearing that phrase (along with 'struggle', but that has died out fortunatly..)
 
yup

@albert123 difference from overseas and here is that overseas the consumer is king, and the amount they willing will pay is fixed and diminishing, so the providers have to -gulp- provide the best possible service they can for the amount people are willing to pay or more hence the componies invest in development of new things to out do the compettion. Here there is little competition except maybe in the cellular/mobile sector and even there they collude to make money of people so why develop better things esp when people are prepared to pay for service at an ever increasing rate(for the SAME service nogal!). The gov is not interested and since people don't reflect their disatisfaction in voting or just people protesting and saying enough is enough the lack of interest continues.

Essentially their frame of mind is, they demand x amount of service for $$ where as in SA we like i guess i'll have to use less and seem to accept what is put in front of us without much question(except a minority of people) because of lack of options, and companies are taking advantage.

@friedpiggy yeah i'm seriously gonna do the same, since the people don't want to effect change on a large scale and the gov doesn't give a hoot i don't see the point of being here except on holiday ;) Mind you i have heard thru the grape vine that a form of 'community service' will be implemented shortly for Engineering and IT related courses so i'm just glad i'm getting done. like med students are forced.(I think for engineers you need to do 1 yr already to register as one in SA)
 
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