EASSy Project Enters The Final Lap

[rpm]

http://www.mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=2856

 

[Sneeky]

All the little piggies around the trough fighting for the biggest share while Africa is pushed aside and starves to death. Amazing.

 

[Peter7]

All the little piggies around the trough fighting for the biggest share while Africa is pushed aside and starves to death. Amazing.

Exactly. And let this be an indication to those who think the governments and telcos care about you, the citizen, the consumer ....

 

[bwana]

Telkom South Africa has succeeded in angering the South African Government through its failure to deliver a full copy of its SAT3 agreement.

Simple really government - tell them if they dont deliver it you're going to use your right of eminent domain and level the landing station to put a lamp post in.

But realistically - we must all know the government has a copy, right? After all they were telkom when it was signed.

Think I'll move to Kenya.

 

[biltonguy]

All the little piggies around the trough fighting for the biggest share while Africa is pushed aside and starves to death. Amazing.

Thats how im understanding it

According to Sub-Committee Chair, Shem Ochuodho, there is a consensus on certain key issues:”One of the things agreed across the board by everyone is Open Access. But it means different things to different people. The operators have accepted the concept but that this project must also make commercial sense.

Yes telkom also believe in open access - anyone can buy bandwidth from them.... at a price!

I dont get it. Whats the cost of building a cable? $300m-$500m maybe? Thats peanuts for the benefits the cable will bring. Why do we need like 20 countries + World Bank to raise the money? I still think SA should build its own cable... I just dont trust greedy gov to do it properly.

 

[pupa]

Think I'll move to Kenya.

Is it not strange that the Kenyans shows more savvy and maturity regards to telecoms and Telkom ways than our own GVT. Maybe they read this forum?
Like Privatisation, Second operator, etc. They don't seem to wait for evolution to exellerate like our GVT? Just wonder when the corruption disease will take hold there in this, prolly as soon as Telkom gets exclusive rights to the cables there too!

What format is Eassy going to take on now? Another Telkom, did they eventually get involved?

Holding my Breath!

 

[pupa]

All the little piggies around the trough fighting for the biggest share while Africa is pushed aside and starves to death. Amazing.

Very GOOD South African/ Africa analogy in all respects.
Greedy
Breed
Population explosion
Mannerism
Intellegence
Empathy
Respect
humallity
regard for life
All covered in one sentence!

 

[LifelongGamer]

Underlying reliances

It is perhaps worth remembering what everyone involved should be doing. Government (and bodies it appoints like regulators) have the task of creating a policy for the public interest and a competitive market that will attract investors and create low prices for users. They should not be tempted to run or play a part in running the cable once it is complete.

This is already being done in South Africa. Government put in place the opportunity for Telkom to become a monopoly. For years they've reaped the benefits for being the largest shareholder. Now that pressure has been placed on them to make telecoms more affordable they finally license a second national operator to distract us while they continue to reap the benefits being the single largest shareholder in both operators!

The problem I see with our current situation is that our regulator doesn't have the strength to tackle the task of actually regulating the industry and to create the competitive market we need. In fact, our politicians are currently bickering amongst themselves over who's going to be allowed to employ / dismiss the staff and whether or not it should in fact be truly 'Independent' or not.

That's like having a traffic officer standing in the middle of a busy intersection (with the traffic lights inoperable) but instead of directing the flow of traffic to avoid collisions, ensure the safety of motorists and pedestricians and prevent grid-lock, the officer is rather fussing with his belt and deciding whether or not to change caps, or what time lunch-break will be. Occasionally, the officer might shout a warning to speedster, but that's about it

 

[Nickste]

What happened to anyone being allowed to buy access to EASSy?

 

[cybershark]

the Kenyan Government has broken ranks and announced that it will build a Mombasa-Djibouti cable without any Government money, blaming a “South African Club” for obstruction along the way.

Yea they don't want Kenya to offer cheap access.

 

[kilo39]

the Kenyan Government has broken ranks and announced that it will build a Mombasa-Djibouti cable without any Government money, blaming a “South African Club” for obstruction along the way.

Wow. Kenya trashing SA - Good One! (though got to say - there was a big 'fracas' a couple of months ago involving mass corruption in the kenyan government. And the wife of the PM seems a bit cracked - the elite seem little different to here.)

 

[pupa]

Wow. Kenya trashing SA - Good One!

Look @ my points in post #6. Exactly? The corruption, well this is Africa after all!

 

[kilo39]

But the consortium did not really expect to find themselves in a position where what they see as their project was in effect taken away from. After the meeting, NEPAD announced that its proposals “would be submitted for approval to a ministerial meeting to be held soon”.
-
The existence of so many parties has meant a complex and often slightly chaotic negotiation. As one person closely involved in the negotiations told us:”No-one’s in the driving seat. Everybody’s issuing orders from the back seat”.
-
The Governments themselves under NEPAD have formed themselves into a body called Inter-Governmental Working Group that represents the 23 countries covered by EASSy. This grouping came into being at what one can only describe as “five minutes to midnight.” From the April 2006 meeting in Pretoria, it appointed a Sub-Committee to address what it sees as the outstanding issues:

a) Review the viability, functions and scope of a proposed Inter-Governmental Assembly (IGA), whose purpose will be to ensure that NEPAD principles and the policies of the Governments of the region are upheld by the SPV,

b) Define the scope and functions of the SPV,

c) Review recommendations on the policy aspects of the CTO report (see below), taking into account the additional work to be done by the CTO to incorporate the EASSy (undersea) cable,

d) Conclude dialogue with the EASSy parties and DFIs, including the development of a joint project promotion strategy,

e) Raise funding for the interim work leading up to having the SPV Management Team in place,

f) Produce the draft report (on all these issues) for the meeting of Minister, and

g) Take all actions necessary to move the project forward, including the registration process of the SPV.

ie, repeat all steps and F#ck Up as necessary. Thanks to NEPAD these guys will still be talking about it in 10 years. How is the above SA recipe for stalling???!! I mean - all they want to do it build a cable - now this is an expedition to Cygnus Minor - the SA government is determined to destroy anything good.

ANC = Another Negative Contribution
ANC = Another Night of Collusion

 

[pupa]

I thought the are in the final lap? RPM? they are in the final nap maybe. from that list nothing was done, Raise fund for interim work? Set the scope? Geez sound like Icasa and the Doc. Same incompetence!

 

[kilo39]

I thought the are in the final lap? RPM? they are in the final nap maybe. from that list nothing was done, Raise fund for interim work? Set the scope? Geez sound like Icasa and the Doc. Same incompetence!

No dude - read my post - it is now back in the "review" stage - the cable has been highjacked by telkom and the SA Gub - under the auspicious of NEPAD.

/cry of desperation there pupa?!/