From e-rate to irate

[Skip]

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=273155&area=/the_teacher/teacher_features/

Long-awaited legislation to allow schools cheaper access to the Internet has been approved -- more than four years after the Department of Education and the Department of Communications introduced the idea in a policy document.

A bungle involving the departments and telephony parastatal Telkom has delayed the introduction of an e-rate, a discounted rate for Internet services. This has deprived a generation of poor young South Africans of the benefits of the Internet, ranging from using e-mail to learning how to access and organise the information available on the Web.

 

[Skip]

Four years to carry out a simple billing procedure (set rate = discount rate where organisation == school) that could've probably been done in an afternoon.

 

[rooijan]

There is another angle

Apparently ISPs does not like this one. It seems that the discount comes from their pockets. They still have to settle with Telkom at the going rate.

Once again, something well-intentioned descends into a complete farce. No ISP will want business from schools, leaving them disconnected.

 

[krycor]

uhm ok, now they just need to budget for bandwidth Then again, municipality connections are comming so, soon they may as well just wait and join those.

 

[Skip]

"Apparently ISPs does not like this one. It seems that the discount comes from their pockets. They still have to settle with Telkom at the going rate."

That's stupid when you consider call charges (if they're on dialup) and line rental (ADSL) are probably just as expensive if not more than ISP charges.

 

[doobiwan]

Ah but who would've paid the committee to organise the discussion to present a proposal for the recommendations for a billing agent outsourcing BEE partner . . .

 

[arf9999]

In reply, Telkom said it had “provided an e-rate to schools for which we have received official documentation that qualifies schools to receive the e-rate in terms of the Telecommunication Act as amended”

huh?

So...how many schools exactly?