iBurst versus Telkom - the same?

[ara]

On the one hand you have your land based provider trying to protect their monopoly and on the other hand you have the iBusts and the MyWireless people trying to build their own monopoly.

I know they have to rent lines from Telkom, but I still wonder what profit margins they are making. If I just look at the price of iBurst modems (IntelliCell technology) overseas, I wonder? A modem ranges everything from 149AUD$ to 249AUD$, which translates into a price ranging between R 700 - R 1100. Add another 20AUD$ to that and you still end up at maximum R 1500. They have already made a profit. but now in South Africa we make an additional 40%.

If people are prepared to make a profit like that on the modem already, where else are they trying to make exuberant profits. I know we would like to advocate "Proudly South African", but while I can buy anything cheaper from the rest of the world (and I mean sometimes by between 30%-60%), I will do it. Now I'm just waiting to see how quickly the next post is to say that the modems aren't compatible.

Don't worry, I'm still waiting for the service provider that realise that the quickest way to reach critical mass and make good profits is to have "fair" profits and not exuberant profits.

I guess the search continues, for now....

 

[DFantom]

I know we would like to advocate "Proudly South African"

Well all the companies that are PSA pay 1% of there profits to PSA every year, so even PSA milks everyone. Just remembering that Telkom is also PSA. 1% of Telkoms profits every year got to PSA, does PSA they really need more??

 

[ic]

No comment on PSA.

I think it is worthwhile finding out the exact import duties on a shipment of iBurst UTs.

Anyone know if it's public record, how you go about it?

 

[stoke]

Nice - didnt know about the 1% for PSA - thanks DFantom.

 

[ara]

Import duties on computer equipment 0%

About April 2004, new budget speach all import duties on computer equipment stopped to exist. Look at Trevor Manual's budget speach and look at all the .gov sites in SA.

finance.gov
dti.gov
sars.gov
etc.


And we sure saw it in all our computer prices , but it is not that well know, that's why they still get away with it. To get a CF card of 1 Gig imported with delivery cost about R 500.00 compared to R 1000 in SA. Rule of thumb is that everything less than R 500.00 don't attract import duties.

 

[alchamy]

The 1% thing is news to me. Makes me wonder what they are proud of? Raping the public?

 

[ic]

Straight from the horse's website...

<ot_about_psa>

SourceURL: FAQs on proudlysouthafrican.co.za

What is Proudly South African?

Proudly South African is the campaign launched by Government, business, labour and community organisations to boost job creation by promoting SA-made products. By buying South African, we drive increased production of local goods which means more people need to be employed.

How much does it cost?

The cost of membership is 0.1% of sales. This applies only to the sales of those products which will carry the logo.

The minimum fee is R500 and the maximum is R500,000.

As sales structures vary from company to company, eg retailers and franchises, the 0.1% is a guide and a fair and appropriate fee structure that can be negotiated depending on the nature of the products, sales and use of the logo.

Non-business organisations (NGO's and industry associations) pay a nominal fee.
You are only invoiced for your membership fee when your application has been approved.

<my_comment>

IMO, another stealth tax for the micro..small enterprise to pay, only really beneficial to big players. IMO, PSA is really a mechanism to protect the big SA players from cheap imports, which is fine by me, I just object to the insistance that everyone downto their pet's fleas must have PSA membership - even when the fleas feed (buy/use/etc) directly off of local blood, i.e. they don't feed off imported blood.

Ara: I either forgot about the lifting of import doo-deez on computer equipment, or I fell asleep during the speech, or I had something better to do at the time. Having said that 2004 was a very tight year & I didn't directly try importing anything, otherwise I would've noticed. Just to clarify, does this only apply to items worth<=R500? If so, how does that work when you are importing a whole crate full of UTs that probably are valued>=R500 at customs?​

</my_comment>​

</ot_about_psa>

 

[Mercury]

Ara: I either forgot about the lifting of import doo-deez on computer equipment, or I fell asleep during the speech, or I had something better to do at the time.

Page 14 at http://www.sars.gov.za/media/budget/budget_2004/A5 GUIDE.pdf It was actually in 2003.