Moneyweb Interview with Sentech's CEO

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http://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb_radio/mny_power_hour/880155.htm

MONEYWEB: But where do you get your broadband from – Telkom?

SEBILETSO MOKONE-MATABANE: No, we have been trying to get access to Sat 3, the undersea cable, with some difficulty, so we use satellite, which is highly expensive and we have to pay in dollar terms. But we have been engaging government and the regulator to have a policy on open access, so that we compete on services as opposed to depriving other players access to the …

MONEYWEB: So let’s just understand this. You are not allowed to tap into the cheaper form of broadband on the undersea cable, but you have to go for a more expensive satellite route?

SEBILETSO MOKONE-MATABANE: That’s correct.

MONEYWEB: And why is that?

SEBILETSO MOKONE-MATABANE: Because Telkom is part owner of the undersea cable, and so Telkom determines who they allow to use that infrastructure.

MONEYWEB: And they don’t want to allow a competitor?

SEBILETSO MOKONE-MATABANE: They have excess capacity, but they don’t want competition and so they don’t.

Saying it like it is.

 

[Ekhaatvensters]

This is great, puts what everyone on this forum says five times a day into simple english for a whole lot more people to understand. With al this positive work going into getting a real/cheaper broadband solution I am actually starting to believe something is going to happen soon.

 

[love56k]

broadcast on Fri, 03 Feb 2006 at 18:00 .. after the opening of parliament... wonder if any of our ministers were listening?

also wonder what they do after the opening .. party all night?

 

[JStrike]

Sentech seems to be such a cool company. I remember the issues they had a while ago, but they seem to have sorted them out. Yet no one is rewarding them. Most people in this forum seem to use ADSL (Myself included. Damn 24 month contract), even though Sentech seem to be bending over backwards comparativly (Pretty low fees, high cap - R499 total price for 10gb softcap) and they are taking the fight to Telkom
I really dont understand SA consumers

 

[Gunny]

I would use them but i need to be mobile and the coverage isnt that great right now i`ll look at them again when my 3G one contract is over but by that time we will have HSDPA and i dnt realy use more than 1 gig so we`ll see

 

[pupa]

Four to five Years? Then we will again be another ten years behind the rest of the world, even the rest of Africa??