I'm not a Telkom fanboy by any definitition, but it occurred to me that their latest announcement regarding 10Mbps linespeed by 2011 and disregarding of caps / pricing in the short-term could very well be a clever tactic on their part.
Think about it. For years Telkom has been trampling on customer service, quality of provision, cost of service, delays in installation and repair, purportedly neglecting infrastructure maintenance and enhancements, etc. Today Telkom has one of the worst public reputations around from a consumer perspective. No matter what Telkom claims regarding improvements the majority of consumers will simply not believe them. I think that is the key the marketing guys (and perhaps management team) have finally stumbled upon to reverse their negative publicity.
IF (and that's a very big IF) Telkom fools 'competitors' into disregarding Telkom from the equation and to compete only among themselves, Telkom will have an opportunity to quietly improve their network and product offerings in the background. Nobody will suspect them of doing so because they've 'announced' they won't!
So when everyone has driven their business models to the finest edge in terms of what they can offer and the lowest prices they're prepared to charge ... Telkom will be able to 'suddenly' come out with guns blazing offering faster connections, large caps, SLIGHTLY better prices than all other competitors and overnight become the 'darlings' of the SA ICT industry by "beating their own previous targets". The fact they'll drive competitors into the dirt as a consequence will be overlooked by the (finally) lower prices, accessibility for the masses and improved quailty of service everyone is looking for!
Strategically, this clever ploy could work but it requires a complete change of attitude from Telkom regarding customer centricity and disregarding total focus on shareholder returns in the short-term to make all the fixes that are required.
It's the only way I can foresee Telkom keeping me as a customer in the future once competition arrives in force and legislation and market forces work hand-in-hand to make broadband the necessary utility it should be and not the 'luxury' current high prices dictate they are.
If on the otherhand, this sort of vision and planning is still beyond Telkom's capabilities, then Telkom will simply go the way of the dinosaurs. Either way, a good thing for consumers in the long-run
