Letter to Mail & Guaardian, Noseweek and to the SAFRIA's (South African Freelancers Association) newsgroup requesting coverage. I am not attemping to sit here and just gripe, as some might interpret this article, but I believe that it's important to get this together to improve the lot of all. Little rants here and there aren't necessarily going to do it, but maybe articles like this might!
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8th Jan '04:
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<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Good day, I am writing to you to (hopefully) provide (further) the desperate need to cover an article on Telkom and our extremely disgraceful state of affairs with regards to the telecommunications industy with it's monopolisation. The general abuse we as a public face daily with regards to costs (terribly prohibitive) and provision of service (disgraceful support of staff employees and queue waiting times). Not to mention the bullying we face - cut-off's on your line if one cannot make a payment - no terms offered / no outgoing calls allowed during this period to emergency numbers / charges for an engineer to test a line if it seems (or is suspected) of being faulty!
Not a new topic but one I really am hoping can be covered in a critical light. One that really delves into this company and our government's pathetic inactivity to allow small business to thrive, better education through cheap internet access for the youth to learn and grow further, and for massive amounts of revenue to be made in near future through e-commerce and the likes.
An article / coverage could cover so much. I could personally write reams, and am willing to contribute much in the form of factual reporting with regards to my general experiences, mainly with phone and internet connectivity: 'dial-up' and 'ADSL', the latter of which I've cancelled recently after being told my connection, which for three days was slower than a dial-up modem, was (and is) actually 'acceptable' for the mighty cost of R800.00 per month --- more than a third of my monthly rent! I am still waiting on my refund, of which I had to beg for --- what threat can one make? Any alternatives as to a service provider that doesn't generally use the same infrastructure in one way or another?
I now am forced to use either M-Web (more expensive) or to go back to using a dial-up connection. My monthly bill with the latter was R 1,500.00 pm for minimal use! I honestly am trying to get my little business off the ground and without preferably a reliable high-speed connection (I'd even pass on the luxury of a reasonably-priced offering at present) makes it all pretty tough to cope with.
Let's face it, the telecommunications industry here is a disgrace. I often wonder why I don't read critical and well-informed articles to just enlighten people as to the daily corporate greed and abuse we are faced with. I do think it time that a paper and a highly enthusiastic individual takes this on-board and runs with it...!
As stated previously, I am able to provide a lot of technical information - the rabbit-hole with Telkom really does go deep. They (and SAIX, ZA's bandwidth providers) are, I sincerely suspect, not reinvesting into the service enough of their earnings to potentially offer of a decently-run service (as of right now, and in the long-term the more users onboard, the worse it can only get). They offer 'no guarantees' on ADSL, and so therefore they're able to do as they wish.
To improve in the current state of South African corporate communications, it takes competition. Telkom have no incentive to do 'right' for the consumer other than through moral ethics, and, as of this moment, that trait is (and has been) distinctly lacking.
FACT: (1) They only provide one gateway internationally with the rest of the world in London. There are bottlenecks at times, slowing down our general access to the global internet. This should be improved upon with more international gateways built.
(2) They have a limit on what ADSL users can download in a month, and therefore access to watching video on the net (as in the Mandela concert recently), downloading legal MP3's, listening to internet radio is minimised, some might say nearly impossible. Steve White on behalf of Telkom labelled anyone whom uses the internet for anything other than email and surfing the web, as 'abusing' the system. They are passing the buck by the attempt to discredit others. Whom is to say what the internet is supposedly used for? I mean, isn't the whole point of the internet to exercise one's freedom? A lack of answering to anyone as to what is freely available to you personally?
(3) Telkom use 'port shaping' which blocks certain incoming data. This totalitarian measure minimises the amount of bandwidth you use, and enables them to purchase less, and naturally, make more profit. Ever wondered why 'Kazaa' is slow? Telkom have de-prioritised you to the realms of a modem user in and around 1995. There is much, much, much more unfair company practice involved here. Take a look at: http://www.myadsl.co.za and then the 'forum' link should you need further proof.
I am sincerely hoping that coverage could be provided as soon as possible to knock heads and get progression on it's way. If not for all out there in South Africa, irrespective of race, age or gender, then for me personally. My girlfriend is threatening to leave for a life of peace and tranquility!
Yours sincerely
Andrew Badddeley.
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Andrew Baddeley
Fusion.01 : Internet, Print & Motion Graphics Production
e-mail: mailto:
[email protected]
w/site: http://www.fusion01.com
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