Is this the end?

[BravoDrie]

Yesterday on my complex's gate notice board it was written that Telkom is coming here to take some orders.

It is a relatively new extension in Centurion. So today I left work early, jumped on my bike, thundered home through joburg traffic so I can catch Telkom to place my order for my 4mb ADSL.

When I got there, it turns out that they are here to get orders, but not for fix line ADSL. They are selling that new 3G HSDPA or whatever service of theirs. It also seems they have sent the most ignorent sale's person that does not understand what I am talking about.

btw. there is no hardlines yet here, though the complex/estate next door does.

Now, I have been down the 3G/HSDPA route before with Vodacom and I really really hate that service, even when having good signal without dropping the whole time, the latency suck, and for me latency is almost more important that bandwith since I play alot of games online, second only to having a stable connection!

My question is, does this mean the end of the era of fixed lines? Are Telkom never going to have fixed lines in new areas again because its cheaper to push a mediocre technology (outside their main business)?


Your thoughts?

Thanks

 

[LazyLion]

No, not the end of fixed lines... but you are going to see a lot more fibre laid in the major metro areas. Copper will be phased out. Africa is ripe for wireless, because of heavy cable theft and the cost of laying down fixed line. But with the recent court decision maybe that will change. Maybe we should all demand more fixed line services and they will have to build it.