-
Join the MyBroadband community
South Africa’s biggest forum. Discuss, discover, and connect with thousands of members.
-
Question of the Day: Do you think Bafana Bafana will win tonight?
Is Telkom Breaking the Law?
- Thread starter rpm
- Start date
Telkom simply puts the blame at the door of the ISPs and claim innocence.. which is what I said would happen a year or so ago before the new ADSL system was put into place.
Telkom will always worm their way out of a situation, one can take poison on that.
Telkom will always worm their way out of a situation, one can take poison on that.
bekdik
Honorary Master
ICASA needs to take action. A very simple action would be to fine Telkom at say R1 million per day as of 17 August.
No doubt Telkom will immediately go to court to dispute this action. If this happens, ICASA can simply cite Telkoms own policy of demanding payment before engaging in a dispute with their clients, as the reason why payment needs to be made prior to legal argument.
If Telkom does not comply, their license should then be revoked. However, with the service the elkom monopoly supplies being essential and loss thereof being disruptive to the economy, Telkom should be placed into judicial management with suspension of its management until such time as the dispute is resolved.
No doubt Telkom will immediately go to court to dispute this action. If this happens, ICASA can simply cite Telkoms own policy of demanding payment before engaging in a dispute with their clients, as the reason why payment needs to be made prior to legal argument.
If Telkom does not comply, their license should then be revoked. However, with the service the elkom monopoly supplies being essential and loss thereof being disruptive to the economy, Telkom should be placed into judicial management with suspension of its management until such time as the dispute is resolved.
kaspaas
Expert Member
What law?
We all know that Telkom is a law unto itself.
They will just tell the court they will discontinue ADSL to stop breaking the law.
We all know that Telkom is a law unto itself.
They will just tell the court they will discontinue ADSL to stop breaking the law.
friedpiggy
Expert Member
the only two parts of the regulations that I am interested in are the local uncapped and the no shaping ones. I suggest that as of today anyone who gets capped for local traffic or experiences shaping should lay a complaint with the police's commercial crimes unit as Telkom then face criminal charges for breaking the law tee hee. the law states that there should be no shaping or capping. the big T has had a couple months to sort this. so now lets charge em for breaking the law. maybe a couple thousand police dockets will dissapear but if every single adsl customer lodges a complaint, they cant all dissapear (mind you this is SAPS we talking about) maybe if there are 100k complaints the govt will eventually notice and do something to reign in their cow.
denial/ignorance from customer relations
In the course of handling a recent complaint I posted on Hello Peter (it took them > 20 days to upgrade me from 384 to 512
), I got increasingly frustrated with *customer services*. Eventually I started going off on the representative (not a call-centre agent but someone who I assumed was higher up - responding to my HP complaint) about how the ADSL service is unacceptable and how it is in-fact illegal. She *informed* me that ICASA had only issued draft regulations on the subject and that no laws were in-force. I said I was sure that they had been published in the government gazette, but was told that I was wrong !
To be honest, I don't have the strength anymore - I'm just sick of all if it. Is the only way to get decent broadband to leave this country?
In the course of handling a recent complaint I posted on Hello Peter (it took them > 20 days to upgrade me from 384 to 512
), I got increasingly frustrated with *customer services*. Eventually I started going off on the representative (not a call-centre agent but someone who I assumed was higher up - responding to my HP complaint) about how the ADSL service is unacceptable and how it is in-fact illegal. She *informed* me that ICASA had only issued draft regulations on the subject and that no laws were in-force. I said I was sure that they had been published in the government gazette, but was told that I was wrong ! To be honest, I don't have the strength anymore - I'm just sick of all if it. Is the only way to get decent broadband to leave this country?
Last edited:
GavinMannion
Executive Member
RPM spelling mistake there?
I also don't understand why they have not been taken to court for refusing to allow local bandwidth freely..... Even someone like IS is selling a capped local only product. Isn't that a really easy one to take them on. I know it is Telkom's fault in the end but unless the ISP's start taking action as well we will never get anywhere
MielieSpoor
Expert Member
Ok but won't it also work if everyone starts putting pressure on our ISP's. If they really feel the pressure then they should start acting on their wholesale provider.
As a individual, we don't have enough money to take on a company like Telkom in the courts but surely IS would stand somewhat of a chance with that.
So if we can put enough pressure on our ISP then they should at some stage begin to act because at the end of the day, they should be in compliance of the law as well.
I know they only resell their bandwith but they should be inline with the regulations and the only way I see that happening is to start putting pressure on them so they can start providing the services they should. Then they can start putting pressure on Telkom and IS to provide to them the service they should be providing as prescibed by the regulator...
As a individual, we don't have enough money to take on a company like Telkom in the courts but surely IS would stand somewhat of a chance with that.
So if we can put enough pressure on our ISP then they should at some stage begin to act because at the end of the day, they should be in compliance of the law as well.
I know they only resell their bandwith but they should be inline with the regulations and the only way I see that happening is to start putting pressure on them so they can start providing the services they should. Then they can start putting pressure on Telkom and IS to provide to them the service they should be providing as prescibed by the regulator...
I like the idea of fining Telkom for their failure to deliver on the regulations ...
Whilst clarity would be great, some things are fairly clear IMO ... for example no 24 hr resets that seems to be clear-cut, plus unlimited local (they can roll back to previous system). Installation times are also a clear directive.
Whilst clarity would be great, some things are fairly clear IMO ... for example no 24 hr resets that seems to be clear-cut, plus unlimited local (they can roll back to previous system). Installation times are also a clear directive.
IMO it shouldn't be a fine but should be put into a fund of sorts, such as setting up schools or internet centres in underprivileged areas.. no use in the money going to ICASA as it will either be stolen from the safe or spent on buffets.
bekdik
Honorary Master
1000%, Telkodemonopolies should not be allowed to worm its way out of the ADSL regulation clauses that are not ambiguous, and Telkodemonopolies doesn't even appear to be saying that some of the clauses might be ambiguous - the beast just lies and says that it complies with most of the regs, which Telkodemonopolies certainly does not do
.
I still think that an IncompetentCASA forced to survive mostly on revenues derived from substantial fines imposed on the likes of Telkodemonopolies, instead of oodles of tax payer's monies, would force IncompetentCASA to become a lean & very mean IndependentCASA that would make Telkodemonopolies' Papi crap his pants on a regular basis - like everyday when shareholders bail out and the share price drops even further than it has so far...My thinking on the fine was initially for ICASA funding, with the idea that the longer they stalled and broke the law, the longer would they be footing the bill against themselves.
Unfortunately MAD is most likely more correct, the piggy trough would just get filled faster.
The fact that IncompetentCASA decided not to include any punitive clauses in its ADSL Regulations, is IMO a clear indication that IncompetentCASA had no real intention of ever enforcing these regulations, and that ICASA's head councilor, Paris Mashile, was definitely not concerned about whether he would get paid oodles of money at the end of each month for allegedly snoozing in his office and being ever more incompetent - IMO what's needed is a decent salary that is derrived mainly|purely from fines imposed on regulatory transgressors like Telkodemonopolies, although there is the danger that IncompetentCASA might have to wait 5 or more years to get any money out of the beast like Telcordia and then have to wait for a constitutional court challenge...
I agree, I complained about Telkoms installation timelines last month (http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=58680). You can lodge a complaint with Icasa [ as per Ic's comment on page 2 ] but unless you can get media/press coverage it falls on deaf ears. I am still waiting for my installation (since August 2006) to take place. My area is ADSL enabled since a neighbour has his in. I have to call once a week (including the mandatory 25minute minimum of annoying telkom hold music)
I would hate to think what the consequences would be if i was trying to start my own business at home.
G
I would hate to think what the consequences would be if i was trying to start my own business at home.
G
LordMerlin
Well-Known Member
The question is not, "is telkom breaking the law" - since breaking the law in South Africa is a full time job these days, and it pays better to break the law (but that's another topic....)
The question is, who's going todo anything about it? Who's got the balls to stand up, take them to court (get ICASA involved as well), and sue them for what they're doing, what they're not delivering. But, who's got the money, time, and balls todo it?
The question is, who's going todo anything about it? Who's got the balls to stand up, take them to court (get ICASA involved as well), and sue them for what they're doing, what they're not delivering. But, who's got the money, time, and balls todo it?