<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Brian Neilson, BMI-T:
There are two sides to this argument.
Telkom was the investor in SAT-3. Therefore as a commercial organisation, it should have the right to recoup this investment and get an ROI over a period of time. However, the length of time for the ROI could for instance be dictated by the Competition Commission. Instead of for example, a 5-year period. This could be extended to say 15 - 20 years. Telkom may have a more difficult time to arrive at a budgeted ROI in an increasingly competitive environment over a longer period of time, but the country would benefit through lower tariffs in the meantime.
The good of the national economy should take priority, especially as Telkom was still a majority state-owned entity (and did not pay taxes) when it committed funds to the SAT-3 cable. That is, Telkom was in a privileged position to invest - thanks to the SA nation as a whole. But now, it appears to be the only entity reaping benefits from this investment. The Competition Commission should, therefore, regulate the resale of SAT-3 bandwidth, in order to force down prices of bandwidth to more reasonable levels, and use this capacity as a driver for the national economy.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
This has been basically my argument all the time. Telkom bought into the SAT3 and should be able to recoup its investment, but remember that Telkom did this at the time when it was still a state run entity. Thus SAT3, was basically a public investment and should be shared with the SNO or whoever else needs to connect to it at the cost of the initial investment in SAT3 and not at Telkom's own pricing or rationing. This would be fair and would spur competition in the market and help the SA economy. The state has the ability to make this happen as the major shareholder and ICASA should recommend it. It would also make the SNO more viable up front.
Telkom always forgets who put them on the map and should be reminded often as they think telecommunications in SA is their own fiefdom.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Brian Neilson, BMI-T:
I think affordable international broadband in SA is a reality within the medium term. The SNO and Sentech will offer capacity, independently from Telkom (the SNO possibly even directly on the SAT-3 cable through Telecom Namibia), and will presumably expand their current bandwidth capacity to cater for future demand. Telkom's prices will come down, due to the competitive environment (other players will have their own competing capacity and will not have to rely on Telkom's bandwidth only) and as Telkom achieves its ROI over the next few years. Even international bandwidth will become a commodity in the medium-term future, and competition will shift to services (bundled services, in which bandwidth will be tossed in for very little).
SA has enough bandwidth (both domestically and internationally) - and will have even more, once SNO is launched - for smooth data communications. Telkom's rationing out of bandwidth and high prices is what limits bandwidth usage in SA. The SAT-3 capacity can be expanded further through technologies such as DWDM. Therefore we should have sufficient capacity for at least the next decade.
Linking to international sites on the Internet is horribly slow and all the benefits of ADSL are vapourised. Only by linking to "big local sites" does ADSL yield anything near to its 512 kbps download speed. On numerous occasions I have complained only to be told that to protect Telkom from "ADSL abuse" the ADSL international pipe is small....to protect it not eating into T1 line revenue. I have seen piles of correspondence aimed at getting Telkom to lift restrictions, to no avail.
As CommuniTel has Namibia Telecoms in its consortium if it becomes the SEP, the SNO should be able to use their SAT3 connection to get "near broadband". Unlike elsewhere in the world that has a glut of bandwidth, SA has too little, and especially so when "rationed" out by Telkom.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
This man knows what he is talking about. MyADSL could benefit from his input.
<b><hr noshade size="1"></b><font size="2"><font color="red"><b>You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.</b></font id="red"></font id="size2">
but i think ill be dead before they come