Guns Drawn Over Prices

And the SA Foundation is right. My Girl and I have stopped phoning cel phones from a Telkom line and visa versa. This has cut our telephone bills (including cel contracts) by as much as R250 per month.

These are simple -"how ya doing"- phone calls.

I say:

1) Unbundle the local loop
2) Cut interconnection down to cost price
3) Declare the SAT3/SAFE national asset
4) Open the market
 
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Excessive Telephone Calls

Companies must spend huge amounts of Telkom,MTN,Vodacom,Cell C
calls to their mobile employees (sales, technical, admin departments)
& customers. Matbe we should start installing VoIP handsets to our
customers and start curbing the $$$ in profits that these
telecom companies are putting away.

Their must be an alternative system for the mobile users
and not all of us are located close to Wifi spots to connect
our VoIP Wifi phones.

Maybe we should all go back alphanumeric Pagers
and hand our cellphones back or setup up a massive hotspot zones
so and issue everyone with Wifi VoIP phones. I see some cities
and towns in the USA have started implementing complete WiFi coverage.

Once off costs for WiFi and VoIP - WiFI handsets, possibly a rental fee
for the WiFi running costs.
Cisco 7920 VoIP WiFI phones must cost $$$
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/ps5056/
all connected back to your corporate VoIP PBX.
 
Ditto your 4 suggestions LaRoosTa.

5) Allow VANS to self-provide.
6) Sort out peering link problems between ISP's.

Then we will see the prices come down...
 
Dave Gale, business development director at niche telecom service provider Storm, says Icasa should adopt a "measured" and "controlled" approach to cutting interconnection fees. A rapid reduction, he says, may be disruptive to the market.
Click to expand...

Yeah, disruptive to their 300% percent profits

But Vodacom says the foundation's suggestions would simply suppress competition and reduce the range of options available to consumers.
Click to expand...

Of course they would say that. they are Telkoms baby after all

All tariff plans and prices are already strictly regulated by Icasa, it adds. Further regulatory intervention will not reduce prices, but will drive private investment away, Vodacom says.

It warns that "once lost, [investment in telecoms in SA] will not easily be restored. Then we might debate how to have a telephone again, as opposed to what we pay for a telephone call."
Click to expand...

No, in fact it would increase private investment, just not into their fat cat companies.
 
Have had 5 years direct experience to interconnect in SA telecoms, I can say that interconnect is a 'money for nothing' game.

The defence posed by operators is purely based on a legacy cost structure, the equipment for which has long since been paid off. In addition, the operators are continuosly trying to increase revenue and decrease expenditure. It's a BIG deal in these companies.
I just don't see them dropping prices. Well they can, but if you were the MD, would you be prepared to lose R2m of your bonus to benefit the rest of South Africa? I don't think so. You wouldn't have made it to MD if you actually had a conscience.
 
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