ICASA ADSL Draft Regulations

What is your overall opinion of the Draft Regulations?

  • Very good

    Votes: 74 24.3%

  • Good

    Votes: 152 49.8%

  • Average

    Votes: 46 15.1%

  • Bad

    Votes: 21 6.9%

  • Very bad

    Votes: 12 3.9%
  • Total voters
    305
bwana v.6 said:
I think 2.5 covers this. I do however think that "request of the parties" be changed so that only one party needs to request the review.
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Not really bwana because what constitutes a dispute over wholesale rates? If all ISP's were to get the same rate there would most likely not be a dispute. We know all ISP's do not get the same rates but this will never be admitted in public due to Telkom's non-disclosure clauses.

If Telkom sells bandwidth to ISP's at (lets say) R30 per gig of international bandwidth. 10gigs would cost R300 per month before an ISP profit margin is added. We are already paying around that for a 3gig account with local capping!

Telkom will have to bend a helluva lot to make no local capping and minimum intl cap of 10gig possible for the ISP's to provide...

I simply don't see Telkom as that "generous" even though we KNOW FOR A FACT it can be a lot cheaper still...
 
antowan said:
Not really bwana because what constitutes a dispute over wholesale rates? If all ISP's were to get the same rate there would most likely not be a dispute. We know all ISP's do not get the same rates but this will never be admitted in public due to Telkom's non-disclosure clauses.
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What constitutes a disagreement? Wouldnt an ISP wanting a lower rate than telkom is prepared to offer would constitute a disagreement?

If ICASA is asked to make a determination Telkom will surely have to justify its rates.
 
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They spent 2 months drawing this document and there are MORE Weather dept adverts in it! It might be a draft but I dont believe this makes the grade.

Its a step forward, but a Draft cant be implemented.... another 2 months for final?
 
I think Anotwans suggestion of pricing based on an International Basket of comparable products is a very good idea. We should definitely push to have that included in the regulations. Potentially make this for wholesale bandwidth prices rather than ADSL explicitly, or Telkom will find some way to screw the ISPs. Consisting of places like South America, Australia, some other African countries, to be "demographically fair".

My favourite line in the document is:
"3.5 Subscribers that have entered into ADSL contracts prior to the promulgation of these regulations may have the option to substitute the existing contracts, at no cost to such subscribers, with the new contracts that comply with the new framework"
 
kaspaas said:
Telkom's answer could be short and sweet:

We agree. The new rates for ADSL under the proposed regulations will be R14000 pm. for the minimum lisencable package.
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Hi Kaspaas

We will definitely address the pricing issue in our reply.
 
RichardP said:
They spent 2 months drawing this document and there are MORE Weather dept adverts in it! It might be a draft but I dont believe this makes the grade.

Its a step forward, but a Draft cant be implemented.... another 2 months for final?
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2 months i am afraid is widly optimistic...i would put it at 6 at the minimum...there will be very heated publc submissions to be scheduled (say feb/mar) and then time for ICASA to consider these and come up with a final version

the process followed is laid out as follows http://www.internet.org.za/telecoms_act.html#Enquiries_by_Authority

then HUGE problem...unless i miss my guess these section 27 regs will have to be approved by the minister
 
dominic said:
then HUGE problem...unless i miss my guess these section 27 regs will have to be approved by the minister
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Yes! And as we know her office equipment is sponsored by the best bed makers in the country! Sealy and King Coil! :D
 
So, dominic, what you're effectively saying is: let's get the MoC fired within the next 6 months, otherwise we haven't got a chance... ;)
 
Does this mean you still need a Telkom voice line to have ADSL (i.e. R100 pm)? Is that the only cost towards Telkom for ADSL? <Confused>

I can see them saying, OK here is 10GB a month and you owe us R650 (R65 a gig).
 
ic said:
I think that would be premature - reading through the draft regs and this thread - it is clear that these draft regs need refining, and endorsing them fully - at this stage would not be a good idea, at most we should say that we welcome the guavamint gazetting of the draft regulations, and will be working on public submissions to have ambiguities and loopholes removed.
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Exactely what i said :D
 
I am royally disappointed in this document. There are so many holes in it. It is a clear indication that hardly any time was spent on this issue. ICASA has simply released a quick four-pager to show that they've done something (how could it take this many months to do this?).

Telkom, and any lawyer with even half a brain cell is going to rip this draft regulation to pieces. It's not even draft. It's not even good enough to be called "Alpha". It's not even good enough to be called a "discussion document". It's not even good enough to be called gazette toilet paper.

After seeing ICASA produce this, after so many months, I have zero confidence in the process of them making any kind of regulation that will stop Telkom's monopolistic practices.

I foresee about 2 years of arguing around every single point in this "draft", by which time, it's going to be too late for it to be of any effect anymore. If this is the pace at which we're going to see ICASA regulate things, then there is really no hope.

If this document was meaty, long, detailed and accurate it would have been an indication of a strong regulator. At the moment, it's simply a farce, and a token gesture by a regulator that is so obviously out of their depth it's not even funny.

We can only hope that the DoC wakes up and starts introducing more competition. It's obvious that the regulatory route is going to take us nowhere fast.

Note: No Telkom lawyer or any other third party is allowed to quote this post, whatsoever without my express written permission. The above is my opinion, and not that of my employer, affiliates or any other associated organisations.

Edit: I voted "bad" on these regulations.
 
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Let's see what the reaction will be? Maybe they'll find another way to rip off users by charging for something else... :eek: :mad:

Now I'll be disbelieving Icasa themselves...
 
Rodent, my thoughts exactly. It's as if ICASA has just regurgitated what was presented to them.
 
There is a very simple way to guage whether these draft regulations are any good. Wait for Telkom's response. If they are toned down and laid back we know it is crap...
 
I predict a press release from Telkom saying that "Telkom is very perturbed, and that they reject the draft regulations". Back to square one.
 
TheRoDent said:
I predict a press release from Telkom saying that "Telkom is very perturbed, and that they reject the draft regulations". Back to square one.
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That was a hard prediction to make. :rolleyes:
 
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