Enough is enough

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Matthysk

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The year is 2011.

It costs R140 for line rental - which you dont use.
It costs R290 for 1 Mb/s ADSL line - for what exaclty I dont know.

We complain about this a lot but at the end of the day we bend over and take it.

Lets publicly break those laws that, unconstitutionally, protect the interests of Telkom.

( Constitution mandates government to uplift the poor, but telecom laws make internet, a very basic and integral commidity, unaffordable to the majority of South Africans. A law that violates the constitution is invalid and therefore does not need to be obeyed. )
 
Matthysk said:
The year is 2011.

It costs R140 for line rental - which you dont use.
It costs R290 for 1 Mb/s ADSL line - for what exaclty I dont know.

We complain about this a lot but at the end of the day we bend over and take it.

Lets publicly break those laws that, unconstitutionally, protect the interests of Telkom.

( Constitution mandates government to uplift the poor, but telecom laws make internet, a very basic and integral commidity, unaffordable to the majority of South Africans. A law that violates the constitution is invalid and therefore does not need to be obeyed. )
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I remember getting my line enabled in the UK around about 2003. There was a once off fee to BT to make the line compatible, and after that, you just paid the line rental which was the same price as before.

Here we pay two line rentals. The monthly ADSL fee I'd imagine is pure profit.

Complete utter total rip off. Once the line is enabled, what is the additional fee for?

You are dead right. It's a disgrace that the government don't step in.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
 
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Don't know if the constitution mentions broadband internet as being a "basic and integral commodity". Think that's limited to water, sanitation, housing, education and employment. Not that I don't agree that we're being ripped off but this is similar to the argument that it is unconstitutional for national sport to be only on pay TV.
 
Matthysk said:
Lets publicly break those laws that, unconstitutionally, protect the interests of Telkom.

( Constitution mandates government to uplift the poor, but telecom laws make internet, a very basic and integral commidity, unaffordable to the majority of South Africans. A law that violates the constitution is invalid and therefore does not need to be obeyed. )
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So what do you propose? Which law do we start with?
 
So many people tried, but realistically it would take a SNO (Neofail) to actually provide a infrastructure. But Telkom will never let go of their copper that we have paid for, over and over again.
 
zizo911 said:
So many people tried, but realistically it would take a SNO (Neofail) to actually provide a infrastructure. But Telkom will never let go of their copper that we have paid for, over and over again.
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Want to explain that to me?
 
@MickeyD

OT but do you know who that yellow cable belongs to that they're digging up half of PE for?
 
Sting said:
Want to explain that to me?
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Surely the copper lines are not that expensive? How long have we been paying the R150 for ADSL. My family from UK laughs at how our ADSL is structured. They just pay for the one line.
 
zizo911 said:
Surely the copper lines are not that expensive? How long have we been paying the R150 for ADSL. My family from UK laughs at how our ADSL is structured. They just pay for the one line.
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That's not quite what you posted but that ties into economies of scale. The whole of England fits into the Free State.
 
.. But Telkom will never let go of their copper that, in some areas, they keep replacing over and over again.
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MickZA said:
Fixed - don't forget we all carry the cost for those areas,
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You don't have to worry too much about that anymore because Telkom decided that enough is enough too and now has a rule that if a piece of cable is stolen or w/e three times , they will NOT replace it anymore. I'm sure what your subsidizing now is all their failures i.e Multi Links etc
 
latro said:
You don't have to worry too much about that anymore because Telkom decided that enough is enough too and now has a rule that if a piece of cable is stolen or w/e three times , they will NOT replace it anymore. I'm sure what your subsidizing now is all their failures i.e Multi Links etc
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In that case why aren't Telkoms competitors providing fixed line voice & ADSL services to these areas at more completive rates, nothing forces them to use Telkoms local loop?
 
MickZA said:
In that case why aren't Telkoms competitors providing fixed line voice & ADSL services to these areas at more completive rates, nothing forces them to use Telkoms local loop?
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Great question. I suppose they're scared of losing money the same way Telkom is. Only thing that's going to alleviate this issue is to do something about the theft in the first place.

Sorry for going off topic OP.
 
The point about the theft is completely valid as Telkom has to pay for replacing the copper. However, this does not completely excuse the state of affairs. For years they have been reducing staff while raking in absurd profits on the back of monopoly protection and market position. In this time they could have invested in a better network and better service. They could have invested in anti theft measures like cable-marking, alarm systems etc.

The laws I suggest "breaking" or rather, view as illegal, are those that protect the commercial interest of Telkom and other operators from competition. I'm not sure if the law that makes it illegal to lay cables over a property boundry without a licence is still in effect, but that is the kind of law I am thinking about.

If it can be shown that these laws are to the detriment of the poor, it will not just be a legal issue but a political one.
 
Matthysk said:
The laws I suggest "breaking" or rather, view as illegal, are those that protect the commercial interest of Telkom and other operators from competition. I'm not sure if the law that makes it illegal to lay cables over a property boundry without a licence is still in effect, but that is the kind of law I am thinking about.
Click to expand...

Read this timely article, IMO the closing paragraphs sum up the situation nicely. - http://mybroadband.co.za/news/columns/38501-uncapped-adsl-llu-and-all-that-was-%E2%80%A6.html

But things are happening see my query to MickeyD in this thread. They're laying this cable all over PE, residential areas included.
 
Just use that 8ta 10 Gb thing if you do not use more than 10GB of Internet every month.

When will they offer Naked ADSL? I remember reading articles here about Naked ADSL then I saw a November.
 
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