How Telkom squandered its fixed-line dominance

[Jan]

How Telkom snatched defeat from the jaws of victory

Telkom has squandered its competitive advantage in the fibre-to-the-home market after several strategic blunders which allowed Vumatel to become the premier provider of fibre-to-the-home in South Africa.

To understand the significance of Vumatel’s achievement, you have to turn back the clock to 2014 when Telkom ADSL was the only fixed-line broadband game in town.

 

[newby_investor]

inb4 someone says "naked ADSL"

 

[eddief1]

Was obvious to me when they started rolling out VDSL instead of going straight to FTTx. As the article mentions they had all the expensive routes already in place

 

[LCBXX]

I thought that breaking monopolies was a good thing?

 

[2026]

Paying for a 10Mbit line but unable to sync more than 2Mb because of all the noise on the line.

So you call telkom and wait in one of the worst hold lines for hours to be connected to someone who is really bad at their job and doesn't even know what DSL is. You then get told the tech will show up at some time this week. He never does so you call again and go through on hold hell again, only to be told you weren't at home when the tech came....

wait, what were we talking about again?

 

[My_King]

 

[r00igev@@r]

DFA is trying its best on Vuma's behalf to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

 

[r00igev@@r]

View attachment 1542899

You should have couriered a bottle of branna as well...

 

[ghaye]

The answer in one word? Incompetence.

 

[ShaunSA]

The answer in one word? Incompetence.

Remember that Telkom dude who claimed 3 gigs was enough. It's thanks to dudes like him. Short sighted pricks

 

[Lupus]

Now vumatel is becoming like them, expensive and useless

 

[BCR]

It has, therefore, created small fibre monopolies across South Africa and continues to do so through its aggressive network rollout.

Frogfoot the same, and that's why haven't made my installation point active yet - better value in LTE for now.

And, as if this is something for these networks to be proud of or brag about ; only in SA.

 

[Sapphiron]

Saying Vumatel has won is like saying they won the rugby match 3-0 with 3 players red carded on one side and 4 on the other.

 

[TelkomUseless]

Remember that Telkom dude who claimed 3 gigs was enough. It's thanks to dudes like him. Short sighted pricks

That.

And incompetence.

 

[mypetcow]

Paying for a 10Mbit line but unable to sync more than 2Mb because of all the noise on the line.

So you call telkom and wait in one of the worst hold lines for hours to be connected to someone who is really bad at their job and doesn't even know what DSL is. You then get told the tech will show up at some time this week. He never does so you call again and go through on hold hell again, only to be told you weren't at home when the tech came....

wait, what were we talking about again?

Oh yes. The panpipes hold music…

 

[Grubscrew]

Today I phoned 1026 from my land line. It still works.

 

[Swa]

inb4 someone says "naked ADSL"

Naked fibre.

I thought that breaking monopolies was a good thing?

Breaking monopolies is good, not companies.

 

[LCBXX]

Naked fibre.


Breaking monopolies is good, not companies.

Unless it MultiChoice, right?

 

[SubtleBeast]

Frogfoot the same, and that's why haven't made my installation point active yet - better value in LTE for now.

And, as if this is something for these networks to be proud of or brag about ; only in SA.

This sh*tf*ckery will come back to bite them in the *ss later on.
Octotel guilty of it in this case:
Friend received a free upgrade to 50Meg, but now unable to downgrade. Got told by cc that lower tier only available to new customers.
This why LTE will remain the only viable option for many for a long time still.