Hi Guys
I have been out of touch for a long time and only coming back to the board now. Late last week I thought I might get back into the ISP business again, and only just then started looking at Seacom. ( bit late but not too late). I am looking at maybe trying to get a piece of the action too, as a little ISP, but to do so, there are some entry level requirements, which at this time are too big for me. I thus invite any other ISPs who have not yet got a piece of the SEACOM action to look at possiblility of us forming a consotium of independent ISPs to combine and buy our own bandwidth on the cable.
Facts as I believe, but I can be far wrong, are
This calbe was put in for various reasons, one of which was a philanthropic motive to help uplift Africa. ( Hence TENet involvement)
there are 3 main SA players currently owning largish pieces of Seacom. Neotel, IS and TENet
TENet is Dr Duncan Martin et al.. who some time ago, was given $US 100million by Dale Carnigie/Kellogs/Ford foundation for Tertiary education, and I assume that will be main focus of TENet.
Neotel is the the other ex-quasi govt BBBBEEEEE to "break" the Telkom monopoly and tied up with Voxpro and anyone non- SAIX/Telkom.
IS is the largest commerical interest with previously over 80% of business market??. Maybe I'm wrong but I would guess Neotel or/and IS would have offered TEnet connectivity to the various tertiary institutes to keep them happy ( community spirit etc and maybe indirectly put a bit of pressure to confine them to tertiary institutes only)??!?
Now when we look at the prices of Seacom, and how it can bring prices down, I dont think Neotel/Saix/IS are going to rush out and drop thier revenue streams (and gross profits) by 90%. it would be in their interest to keep prices high.
Lets look at Price for Secom. (I will keep pricing approx and a bit vague at this forum is used by ISPs and end users.)
Lets take entry level you need to buy which is STM1 (155M 1:1 bandwidth) for price of approx $US 3mill. It seems quite high until you do the maths. This price is for is 20 year contract , 155M ( STM1=155M). This comes out at about US$ 90 per month per MEG or about R 750 per meg.
Currently Telkom are selling approx R 25,000 /meg. (4:1 From SAT3).
Other "vendors" are selling Secom per meg. I have been offered about R 6,500 - R12,000 per Meg. Small ISPs enquiring directly to SEACOM are directed to "the consortium" who offered me R8500 /meg ex JHB only. Plus hugh "joining fee?/" .
So, now back to maverick......
At best, jackpot would be if we get a bunch of us "poorer " ISPs together and buy at least an STM1 then we can pay R 750/meg ex JHB. ( or less).
This can (but not necessarily) have some real problems now as this is ex Jhb. I say NOW as this will be resolved when we can get some thing going with DFA or Infraco who are rolling out SA.
Somewhere in between, for a small to medium size premium we can also get this delivered to all the main centers. (CT DBN PTE PE etc.) as managed bandwidth. Now depending on the qty, this ranges from approx R 5000/meg ( downwards towards R750/m--- not upwards.)
The other main restriction is that you need to be an ISP, not an end user... for lots of reasons.
The main advantages as i see them are: you can have a piece of the action for 20 years for 20% or less for what you are currenly paying.
I do not want to elaborate any more for now, but first lets see if there any interest???
