Openserve has joined ISPA

Jan

Jan

Who's the Boss?
Staff member
Joined
May 24, 2010
Messages
14,766
Reaction score
13,404
Location
The Rabbit Hole
Openserve finally joins ISPA after 25 years

Telkom's wholesale division Openserve has joined the Internet Service Providers’ Association of South Africa (ISPA).

This comes as the association celebrates its 25th year of existence this month.

Founded on 6 June 1996, ISPA was established when a handful of ISPs met in an office in Rosebank and agreed to form a new industry body focused on ensuring fair competition and improving local peering.

Its early activities were focused on preventing Telkom from using its monopoly position in the telecoms industry to unfairly compete against the country’s fledgling Internet access providers.
 
They have fallen far from their once all powerful monopoly. We all are the beneficiaries of their unbundling. It has been nothing but good news since other operators were allowed to build fixed lines. I am so happy that they have now come down to interconnect as equals. Long may it continue.

PS. I've been on OS fiber now for 3 years and not one problem.
 
Gimli said:
They have fallen far from their once all powerful monopoly. We all are the beneficiaries of their unbundling. It has been nothing but good news since other operators were allowed to build fixed lines. I am so happy that they have now come down to interconnect as equals. Long may it continue.

PS. I've been on OS fiber now for 3 years and not one problem.
Click to expand...
You have no idea how long YOU have depended virtually entirely on OS infrastructure for ALL your Internet access.
Amazing how many still have almost zero understanding of how telecoms works.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Yuu
Geoff.D said:
You have no idea how long YOU have depended virtually entirely on OS infrastructure for ALL your Internet access.
Amazing how many still have almost zero understanding of how telecoms works.
Click to expand...

You are obviously too young to know how hated Telkom was for abusing their monopoly for so long. Eventually the fight was won and competition in all forms were introduced into the market, benefiting all of us. If it wasn't for that we would still only SAT3, only they would own fixed lines, and fiber to the home would be in the distant future. Don't talk about something you know nothing about.
 
Gimli said:
You are obviously too young to know how hated Telkom was for abusing their monopoly for so long. Eventually the fight was won and competition in all forms were introduced into the market, benefiting all of us. If it wasn't for that we would still only SAT3, only they would own fixed lines, and fiber to the home would be in the distant future. Don't talk about something you know nothing about.
Click to expand...
Geez, your ignorance is worse than I thought.
 
Jan said:
Openserve finally joins ISPA after 25 years

Telkom's wholesale division Openserve has joined the Internet Service Providers’ Association of South Africa (ISPA).

This comes as the association celebrates its 25th year of existence this month.

Founded on 6 June 1996, ISPA was established when a handful of ISPs met in an office in Rosebank and agreed to form a new industry body focused on ensuring fair competition and improving local peering.

Its early activities were focused on preventing Telkom from using its monopoly position in the telecoms industry to unfairly compete against the country’s fledgling Internet access providers.
Click to expand...
Would be real interesting to understand the thought processes on both sides which led to OS applying for membership and how ISPA wrestled with itself in accepting the application.
Must have happened over a few bottles of really good red wine.
 
Grubscrew said:
Soon...
Click to expand...
Ja, we always told management not to try and ignore ISPA but to actively support and pursue their views with the sole purpose of taking them over and effectively shutting them down. No one listened .....
The SBU was far more interested in the litigation route.
 
Geoff.D said:
Ja, we always told management not to try and ignore ISPA but to actively support and pursue their views with the sole purpose of taking them over and effectively shutting them down. No one listened .....
The SBU was far more interested in the litigation route.
Click to expand...
The arrogance of being in a monopoly, and not having to compete is evident in your post. I imagine some at Escom still have the same delusions of grandure. Untill they are broken up and other competition arrives in the market. It will be humbling for them too.
 
Gimli said:
The arrogance of being in a monopoly, and not having to compete is evident in your post. I imagine some at Escom still have the same delusions of grandure. Untill they are broken up and other competition arrives in the market. It will be humbling for them too.
Click to expand...
You are still stupidly blind. Divide and conquer by being better than the competition is always a winning strategy.
And I can assure you if the old team was still in Escom, we would not be in the mess we are in now.
And watch OS wipe out the competition in the next few months. They don't stand a chance.
And might I remind you that of all the SOEs Telkom now OS is still around, still profitable and still a force to be recond with. It is basically the ONLY SOE so far to survive the ANC and its crap. And that is because of the almost impenetrable foundations we built. The new lot tried their best to f@ck it up and failed so far.
 
Last edited:
Is your argument really that because the ANC fcked everything up, monopoly is a good idea? Both are bad. Monopolies are never good. And why would openserve suddenly wipe the floor with all of them? If they do so, competing fairly, then we'll done.
 
Geoff.D said:
And watch OS wipe out the competition in the next few months. They don't stand a chance.
Click to expand...
Doubt it, for something like FTTH it's mostly a first to market wins if the price difference isn't too huge, so they'll only be able to usurp e.g. Metrofiber due to shoddy network, or Vumatel to way too pricey.

OpenServe is not that profitable, they are sitting on too much legacy stuff, tons of employees that they do not need but will never get rid of, etc.

It's really a case of OpenServe is competitive in FTTH because previous wayleaves and often can reuse the infrastructure, so roll-out is way cheaper. That's not a bad thing.

Gimli said:
You are obviously too young to know how hated Telkom was for abusing their monopoly for so long. Eventually the fight was won and competition in all forms were introduced into the market, benefiting all of us. If it wasn't for that we would still only SAT3, only they would own fixed lines, and fiber to the home would be in the distant future. Don't talk about something you know nothing about.
Click to expand...
Geoff.D is far from young, he's retired.
Tbh, don't think we'd have stuck on copper either way, just due to theft.
Most of the world, even in monopolies, has moved to fiber, though often doing FTTC (to the curb), or to the basement of apartment buildings (here in Vienna for example).
Geoff.D said:
You have no idea how long YOU have depended virtually entirely on OS infrastructure for ALL your Internet access.
Click to expand...
You need to be careful with that comment, since time frame is dependent there. Lots of us have jumped from OpenServe post 2012 or so already, personally was 2015. That's quite long in the tech space tbh.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X