Emails to ICASA

[st3ve]

It will be pointless to e-mail Thabo Mbeki if you have his address.

[email protected]

 

[Peter7]

Received a reply from ICASA (can imagine other complainants have been receiving these):

Dear Mr <removed name>,

Ref.: <removed ref #>

Thank you for your comments dated 3 October 2005. As you can imagine the public outcry over Telkom's proposed changes has been overwhelming to say the least. Please accept my appologies for the delay in responding.

Our legal department has made draft submissions on ADSL Services to the Chairperson and we are currently awaiting approval. Said submissions are aimed at resolving some of the controversies in Telkom's intended package.

Sincerely,

Consumer Protection Department

Independent Communications Authority of South Africa
Tel. (011) 321 8200 Fax. (011) 448 1369
Pinmill Farm, 164 Katherine Street, Sandton.
Private Bag X10002, Sandton,2146

 

[VQuest]

As you can imagine the public outcry over Telkom's proposed changes has been overwhelming to say the least. Please accept my appologies for the delay in responding.

Proposed changes? How far behind times is ICASA? We're nearly 2 weeks into the "proposed change blues".

 

[GoGGA]

ICASA = Telkom

EX telkom workers now work at ICASA, same fvcking mentality!!

Put on hold for hours. Straight to voicemail, no response or use.

Absolutely useless. Icasa is setup by telkom to waste our time & divert our attention.

 

[ctudor]

I am so totally frustrated with Telkom, its position on almost everything, the regulators like ICASA and this whole, sorry state of affairs.
TELKOM IS KILLING THE GROWTH OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN ECONOMY. Simple. ADSL is more than 10 (yes TEN) times the price of the same products in Europe and North America (when you take into account shaping and capping). International phone calls range between 3 and 8 times the price. It is time that the government took job creation seriously and finally killed Telkom's monopoly so that the country can have the telecommunications services and infrastructure it needs to compete internationally. Telkom hides behind the comparisons to Brazil and other equally-backward telecommunications industries to defend the lunacy/inefficiency/gouging instead of comparing itself to the first world or even third-world countries like India. Add to that the total incompetence of ICASA and the government to effectively regulate and tame the obfuscating Telkom beast.
The simple truth is: South Africa is at least 6 years behind the rest of the world (at least the moderately efficient part of it) in telecommunications services and pricing. That puts the entire country at an enormous disadvantage competitively. Call centers, international services businesses, software development companies, international web business etc. etc. all go elsewhere and those of us in any of these businesses are incapable of competing for international business.
I've heard Mbeki speak about this in the last 4 state of the union addresses and still nothing has happened. Telkom is allowed to operate inefficiently as a private company with a government-mandated monopoly - total lunacy. The company's lack of innovation, poor efficiency, terrible customer service, poor management and ultimately extremely high costs are one of the top 3 reasons (along with exchange control and protectionism) that the South African economy will remain a marginal performer, with slow growth and meager levels of job creation.
ADSL pricing is the tip of a very large iceberg that needs some urgent attention. It's time the politicians took a stand and really did something on this issue. KILL TELKOM's MONOPOLY NOW and let the country grow. The rest of the world is experiencing a telecommunications revolution and South Africa is stuck watching paper being pushed between ineffective regulators, senior Telkom management obfuscators and parliamentary committees. Enough already. Someone actually do something about this.

 

[bekdik]

@ctu

Paragraphing your posts would make them more readable

 

[ctudor]

Paragraphing....

someone reads this?! I'm amazed I managed punctuation in my rant - next time I'll try to add the return key.
Regards,
ctudor

 

[Vrotappel]

@ctu

Very well put. It appears though as if government pretends to be concerned and is only paying lip service. They are most probably only concerned about the return on their Telkom shares and in typically Africa fashion fails to comprehend the bigger picture.

 

[Game_boY]

@ctu

Very well put. It appears though as if government pretends to be concerned and is only paying lip service. They are most probably only concerned about the return on their Telkom shares and in typically Africa fashion fails to comprehend the bigger picture.

Well said...u got me thinkning

 

[MrG]

Has any of the e-mails actually made any difference I just get the same replies over and over. We cant help you mr. so and so, cause Telkom gives us money etc

 

[snoopy_inc]

The more emails that get sent the more they going to consider doing something


I started this thread to get something moving into the right direction.

as i say " Rather try to achieve something then just sit back and say it will never happen"
Who knows it might just be picked up by someone that can make A DIFF

lets hope so.....