November price changes and ICASA

w1z4rd

w1z4rd

Karmic Sangoma
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Okay, I dont know what the latest on everyone phoning into ICASA is, so I decided to give them a call to find out. After several phone calls ,and attempts to fob me off.. the one they use the most is "send us and email" (I explained that myadsl members had emailed them enough information by now, and they must catch a wake up)... I managed to get through to a couple of people.

It seems, even a month later, that ICASA has no idea as to what they are doing. First I was told to speak to a Mr Boqwana on 011 321 8461. I tried phoning him the whole morning until I learnt that he is on leave.

So I phoned back again.. got asked to send an email again, told them that was not satisfactory, and got given other numbers of people to contact. The numbers I were given were:

Senior manager (Didn't catch his name)
321 8228

Lee-anna - Manager
321 8425

I was put through to the switchboard again, and transferred to someone who deals with the tariffs. He apparently is a senior manager... who`s on leave until the end of October (how convenient).

Once again I was asked to send an email, and once again I told them they had more than enough information to work with, and if they wanted I could fly up to them and paint some pretty pictures so they can understand the matter better.

I spoke to a chap called Malawa (who didn't want his name to go into the media), who told me they were going to "talk" about it this afternoon, and it was going to be "discussed", and that he was going to "get back to me on monday".

None of this is satisfactory. Its absolute bull. People from this forum have been phoning in for well over a month, and ICASA can no longer claim ignorance on the matter. If they are still ignorant after a month of people calling in, sending emails, and informing them, then they are too incompetent to be a regulator.

I advise everyone, to phone in, and post your replies, and responses you get from ICASA here. Any numbers or information you get is definitely useful. Phone, Phone, Phone. Either that, or accept the November price changes.

ICASA switchboard is 011 321-8200

Also.. what is MyBroadband doing in regards to this? As a 'voice' for the broadband market they should be phoning in daily, and informing us as to the progress they are making. This price change is going to be very real, and effect a lot of people, I honestly think it requires more mass and focused attention.
 
I think Telkom might have had words with them, cause it sounds like they are playing dumb. How on earth can they just 'forget'? And the guy on leave? Why is he on leave at the EXACT time that he is supposed to cover our butts with the november pricing?
 
Maybe we can get hold of his cell phone no because it is a matter of emergency, just not suer how we would go about getting this :D
 
Relax!

You guys may as well all relax. The reason that this little issue has not recieved much attention is because it doesn't affect that many people.

The majority of people with DSL only use 3gigs per month. These people will see the changes as welcome because there connections will be faster now and more bandwidth will be available.

The 3GB cap has always been part of South African DSL and now its back and its hard!

So myASDL, with all respect to Rpm, is doing a good job, but its a bit like a waste of time because telkom run the service the way they want too. The regulator has 1/1000th of the legal budget telkom has. So what if Mbeki tunes them **** every now and then, the dust always settles.

In africa we *** and betaal, that is the bottom line, ICASA is useless.

Look at it this way. There are few people with a little bit of power, getting in the way of telkom's billions of rands profiteering machine. The machine will just pass over like a bulldozer leaving corpses in its wake.

Telkom are still legally entitled to run the telecomuntications industry in the best interests of the country. Unless you can prove that it is in our best interests to run month after month without caps for DSL, I'm sure ICASA would love the help.
 
I think a bit of a reality check is needed.

So much time and effort has gone into trying, pleading, listening, waiting. Where do you draw the line? What do you do beyond that line? It's clear that Telkom, the government, ICASA, are aware that people are not happy, but not willing to do anything about it.

It would be illegal to summon up 10 000 people and cripple Telkom with a couple of nifty scripts until they meet set price targets. That I am fully aware of. In the apartheid era, it was illegal for black people to attend white universities.

Just because it's the law, doesn't make it right.
 
plasmapudding said:
It would be illegal to summon up 10 000 people and cripple Telkom with a couple of nifty scripts until they meet set price targets. That I am fully aware of.
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Sounds like a very good idea though :D
 
The majority of people with DSL only use 3gigs per month. These people will see the changes as welcome because there connections will be faster now and more bandwidth will be available.
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That statement is incorrect in my opinion. I have had a look at a whole lot of the ISP`s user stats, and a minority use the 3gb option. The example I am having a look at now, is 140 people on the 3GB option, and 1340 people on the 30GB option.

So how did you come up with your figures? Do you work for Telkom? The whole "give up" and "these are the figures" smells funny to me
 
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w1z4rd said:
That statement is incorrect in my opinion. I have had a look at a whole lot of the ISP`s user stats, and a minority use the 3gb option. The example I am having a look at now, is 140 people on the 3GB option, and 1340 people on the 30GB option.

So how did you come up with your figures?
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Nice one w1z4rd, I cant see that majority use only 3 gigs, I think with hard capping, they are going to feel it. Before it was only international that they could not surf, now they will not get their mail once they are hard capped. That sucks
 
I also used to think it was fine because most people only use 3 gig a month, but then I realised we are going to shoot ourselves in the foot and cripple the use of new technology in SA if we allow them to get away with 3 gig hard caps. Things like internet radio, iTunes downloads (when the finally get to SA) and Google Earth come to mind and I am sure others can mention other very legitimate uses that need bandwidth, and who knows what new ideas and technologies will unfold in coming years.

I know of one company that develops a 3D web browser, its designed to revolutionise browsing for computerphobes by making it like walking down a street. The irony is that some of the development was done from SA but they cant even offer it in SA because if the bandwidth problems.
 
Reality Check!

I don't work for telkom. I just pay them lots of money. The reason you should relax is that those price increases / changes will be implemented.

To be honest I did not realise that so many people utilise more than 3gb. I use about 10 or so. But the point is no matter what is down, until proven otherwise, you cannot stop or change what is about to happen on 1 november so you may as well deal with.

Is it a step backwards? yes
Does it suck? yes
Will it cost us more? yes
can we do anything about it? no
does it help to complian? maybe, but probably not.

Nobody is forcing people to use this product. is it take it or leave it.
 
Even ICASA knows that the 3GB cap is insufficient. This was in their recent findings document. They wanted to either drop the cap altogether or introduce a higher cap. I want to phone ICASA and complain to them about this per GB billing system and it's implication. I have contact my ISP though to ask what they were doing about it, but the guy told me ICASA has already approved the billing changes. However, I'm not sure what they have approved, or if they are aware of the implications to consumers. This per GB billing does cover the cap issue presented in the ICASA document, however, the pricing is the issue.

When I phone ICASA what complaints/facts should I be raising? Please add to my list (so that other forumites can get active with this as well):
- In your ADSL findings document you agreed with consumers that the 3GB cap is insufficient. However, now with the Telkom per GB model they have accommodated higher caps, but at prices outside the reach of average consumers. Telkom has made them available, but use their high pricing to take it out of the reach of average consumers, effectively moving us back to square one, forcing us to settle for 3GB caps because of pricing.
(It's like Telkom has allowed the higher cap accounts but strategically moved them into price brackets that make it unaffordable for most users)
 
daysleeper said:
To be honest I did not realise that so many people utilise more than 3gb. I use about 10 or so.
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When you start using broadband for what it was intended for and not just web browsing and email you'll see the insufficiency of 3GB. Most people are on 192kbps or 384kbps (because of Telkom's bloody pricing). When they start moving up to ACTUAL broadband speeds 512k (entry level broadband) and 1Mbps, 3GBs is ridiculous. Most content providers (things like streaming TV) won't start offering content unless connections are in the area of 4-10Mbps. Now just imagine a 3GB cap in this scenario - highly unpractical.

daysleeper said:
But the point is no matter what is done, until proven otherwise, you cannot stop or change what is about to happen on 1 november so you may as well deal with.
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Correction: You cannot stop or change what is about to happen, UNLESS you do something to stop or change it and don't accept it.

daysleeper said:
Nobody is forcing people to use this product. is it take it or leave it.
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Correction: In my area there are no other broadband providers like iBurst or myWireless, so effectively I'm forced to use TELKOM ADSL. I work for an international company so in order to remain effecient/effective I have to have a BROADBAND connection. Wouldn't be so bad if the rest of the world was still on dial-up, then I'd go back to dial-up.
 
Okay everyone, after another round of phone calls, and complaining, I managed to get a little further. The chair of ICASA would all the information you have on this. Lonegunman...you still around?

If everyone could email [email protected] , be polite please. Explain in the email address how Telkoms sick pricing changes are going to negativly effect you and those you know.

Explain what how much you are paying for you service now, and explain what its likely to be on the first of november. The more people who do this, the better chances we have.

I will then give them enough time, and contact them on monday for their official standing on the Telkom price change. I will then be going to the media with the information ICASA gives me.
 
Well let's complain and complain. Then the government can hold *Another* colloqium (Spelling!) on the high cost of communications in the country. Guys like MWEB and RPM will shout until they are blue in the face that we need more competition in South Africa. Everyone will make the right noises, promise action, leave and do *Nothing*. Then we can have another one in a few weeks time...

So it looks like they care but in the end they do nothing...
 
... pkid.. i know exactly what you are talking about... but I cant handle been a 'victem', so even if I am the last person doing it, I will keep fighting back. In the mean time there are others who are extremely involved, and who ARE doing something.

You are more than welcome to join us, and do something about it. Or you can just complain and accept what you get for doing nothing. Choice is yours.
 
Hi Peter!

The big joke is that ADSL is still better than these services in most cases as far as latency are reliability are concerned and the other wireless services also cap even Sentech. I was just wondering if you see a patten in the capping, so how is moving to another service provider going to help you if they were available?

Okay, so we you make a big noise, phone ICASA, post thousands of posts here. What difference does it make to the pricing?

Mercedes, BMW and Ferrari, don't really car if you think there product is too expensive. Because they cater for a certain market and its not their problem. Telkom although being a monopoly believes that it is in competition with MTN, Vodacom and Cell C and other data providers and they believe there pricing is determined by people like you and I that have university degrees. They are just like any other business.

I still don't see how complaining is going to make a difference in the prices. Telkom have to balance the interests of the shareholders with the interests of people like you and me.

We are on the same side, where I differ from you is that, short of a court order, those prices are going to be applied on 1 november
 
Also done.

@Daysleeper: The kind of attitude that says "Lie down. You can't change anything." would mean the world would be nothing like what it is. Black people in Africa and America would still be little more than slaves if people like Martin Luther hadn't had the courage to actually do something. The world would be a different place if the Allies had taken a look at Nazi Germany and said "We can't do anything. Let's not try."

Yes, it is a choice we make to use this service but we still have a right to complain if we feel we are being unfairly treated. And yes, it is your right to crawl back under your rock and pretend the world is a different place.
 
@AntiThesis

Minor correction.

Martin Luther had nothing to do with the freeing of slaves. That was the American civil war (North vs South). Martin campaigned against segregation.

peace.
 
Agh close enough ;) My point stands firm even if my history doesn't :D

*scratches head* I think I possibly meant he had to do with liberation? ^_^
 
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