DSL - Trying to be positive?

[BillT]

TK&A have followed the great SA DSL/Broadband debacle for some time – with despair.

Rather than just being another dissenting voice in the wilderness we have decided to try and be constructive – please see http://dsl.tka.co.za Making xDSL Work in SA. The down side is, it does require some reading (I have tried not to make it too technical).

I will be updating this site over the next few weeks to include all the other ‘bits’ (DSLAMs, Aggregation, IXP etc.).


Any comments would be welcomed.

Bill Thomson

 

[Inertia]

Good idea, although I don't see the point of it other than to give information about how the local loop is and 'should' be unbundled. Will this information be relayed to ICASA and/or DoC officials, and if so, do you expect them to read it and 'follow' your recommendations?

Don't wanna come across as being too cynical or pessimistic, it's just that the SA telecoms environment has this effect on ppl

 

[BillT]

I have forwarded this info to ICASA/DOC/SNO etc –

My concern is that all this ‘beating-up’ of Telkom is exactly what Telkom wants. And after enough beating they (Telkom) makes some magnanimous gesture – which will be debated and a 20% discount will equal 10% and indignation will reign and we will huff, hold our breath and stamp our feet - and Telkom will smile .

Practically everything I’ve seen on this site points to a symptomatic fix – which boils down to ‘give Telkom a laxative and all will be well – and now Telkom is being a spoilt-sport by not consuming large quantities of said laxative’.

We need to move beyond this and cure the patient – which is DSL access in a manner that ICASA and the DOC can understand and put a regulatory wrapper around. And to do this requires separating the ‘components’.

Bill Thomson

 

[BobJones]

Someone *doing* something, what a change!
Good luck, though I get the feeling that making coherent, researched recommendations in the current political environment is a bit like taking a long deep breath from inside Paris's shoes... all you end up with is a head-ache and a bad taste in your mouth.

 

[BillT]

The question begs – how much has been achieved to date? Regardless of the underlying mathematical base – be it Calculus or Chinese – the answer is the same, somewhere between nothing and zero.

So at least the starting point is well defined.

Some clever fellow once said “Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option”. It’s this “allowing” bit that gets to me.

Bill Thomson

 

[Inertia]

The question begs – how much has been achieved to date? Regardless of the underlying mathematical base – be it Calculus or Chinese – the answer is the same, somewhere between nothing and zero.

A lot has been achieved. This forum is highly regarded and it and its founder are regularly mentioned in the media, with our views and opinions regularly being published. We have company representives for almost all the wireless service providers and some of the ADSL ISP's. We succesfully got the ball rolling for the ADSL Draft Regulations Bill. We have close to 11000 members... The list goes on...

Telkom will not change, and they are not MyADSL's main concern, because at the end of they day, if one broadband provider drops their prices be it wireless or wireline, the rest will follow

 

[cybershark]

Telkom will not change, and they are not MyADSL's main concern, because at the end of they day, if one broadband provider drops their prices be it wireless or wireline, the rest will follow

Telkom ARE the problem they control the local loop and they control the cost per GB which has a direct bearing on what ISP's can or can't afford to charge.

 

[BillT]

Firstly – the focus of my post is initially on the ‘xxSL’ (Subscriber Line – aka Local Loop/Last Mile) and how to get a technical/logical/legal wrapper around this bit (it already has a PVC wrapper around it so we needn’t worry about that bit ).

With respect to:

A lot has been achieved. This forum is highly regarded and it and its founder are regularly mentioned in the media, with our views and opinions regularly being published. We have company representives for almost all the wireless service providers and some of the ADSL ISP's. We succesfully got the ball rolling for the ADSL Draft Regulations Bill. We have close to 11000 members... The list goes on...

Although I do hold ‘the founder’ in high regards and admire the efforts of all concerned I stand by my statement – ‘nothing has been achieved’ especially as far as liberalizing subscriber line regulations.

In order to ‘try’ and achieve ‘something’ – let me try a different tack: A “RFRC -Request For Regulatory Comment” – a SA regulatory version of an RFC. The objective being to give ICASA a technically defined and legally concise document that will just require, in theory, their ‘rubber stamp’.
E.G. -
RFRC 1000 – Customer Premises to Exchange twisted pair subscriber line connectivity regulations.
RFRC 1001 – Customer Premises to ‘Street Box’ twisted pair subscriber line connectivity regulations.
RFRC 1002 –
RFRC 1003 –
.
RFRC 2000 – Exchange to Service Provider inter-connectivity regulations.
RFRC 2001 – Street Box to Service Provider inter-connectivity regulations.
.
RFRC 3000 – Edge connection regulations …..
RFRC 3001 – IXP connection regulations …..

Let’s hope my point comes across.

I think ICASA would prefer this route – their work gets done for them, they can absolve themselves in the event of anything going wrong and we benefit by knowing what on earth is going on.


Bill Thomson -

 

[MrG]

Wow, goes into detail. Gonna read when i got time.
Well done!