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Question of the Day: What's the most interesting small town you've visited in South Africa?
Pricing Telecoms Right
- Thread starter rpm
- Start date
dominic
Legal Expert: Telecoms
excellent article
barely - there looks likely to be some liberalisation at local or district municipality level as a result of the convergence bill...VANS and others will be able to get class licences to provide infrastructure at this level but there are restrictions where there is "significant economic or social impact"fm said:
difficult - imho the basis is there it is more a question of how it is used;fm said:
yes, except for the fact that these have to come from the Ministerfm said:
this is exactly what we should have been doing since it became apparent in 2002 that the managed liberalisation and extended telkom monopoly policy adopted in 1995 was an absolute failurefm said:
true...we want to use telecomms to push up GDP by 2% - not sure what that equates to but it is in the billions - but we cannot spare another R169 million to double ICASA's budgetfm said:
ettubrute
Expert Member
Agree with dom: excellent article!
ernstn
Expert Member
certainly they do not deserve another cent. Fire ICASA and open up the marketplace. The chaos will sort itself out in a short span of time and we will end up with a truly competitive market that will cater exactly for our needs and might even anticipate developments instead of always dragging us to lower standards as Telkom has done throughout its lifespan, mainly with the assistance of ICASA, which has no guts to regulate Telkom but are always willing to stop smaller fry from operating musch needed and common services. Even when ICASA reached some sort of decision such as with the SNO, then the minister steps in and overules them in anyway. So get rid of them.
LOL, Very nice. ISPS must now go to the high court for any Telkom related issues as ICASA does not regulate "the dominant (Telkom) players". If government cannot do anything about Telekoms pricing, perhaps the courts can. Telkom will get very tired of constantly being taken to court.
dominic
Legal Expert: Telecoms
i hear your frustration but don;t share your viewsernstn said:
i think they should first be given a fair chance to actually do anything instead of trying to fight telkom with one hand tied behind their back and the other putting out the Minister's fires...for example at the time of the 2000/2001 rates review ICASA had an economic analysis staff of exactly three as against the huge resources of telkom...how do you achieve anything like that
for now i will go with that icasa has largely functioned as a diversion attempting to generate an image of a fairly regulated industry but i think there have been plenty of indications lately that their attitude is changing
as for doing away with them - do some comparative studies and see the role played by independent communications regulators throughout the planet...anarchy and industry self-regulation may sound doable in theory but i see it as survival of the biggest and fittest which is not helpful when the contestants in the ring are a 900 pound gorilla and a bunch of hamsters of varying sizes
Nice idea but can you give me an example of a country with a good telecommunications structure that doesnt have a regulator? (http://www.cellular-news.com/regulator/ will give you an idea how many countries there are with regulators) ICASA needs an arsenal of sanctions and more importantly the will to use them.ernstn said:
IMO a major problem is we seem to have a government that places the needs of business above that of the people. If this wasnt the case I wouldnt have any objection to who funds ICASA. But unfortunately the government seems intent on empowering themselves first.
@dominic – I wasnt sure if it was a statement or a question – thats all.
Last edited:
dominic
Legal Expert: Telecoms
finite moore's law for communications regulators - double in number every 5/6 years...afaik up to 132 last yearbwana v.5 said:
what it was was a question without a question markbwana v.5 said:@dominic – I wasnt sure if it was a statement or a question – thats all.
ICASA is unable to do its job because of Government interference through the DoC. And as stated in the article, they lack the resources to actually carry out the job they're supposed to be doing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but for most countries where the telecoms sector is booming and a regulator exists, these regulators are both TRULY independent from the government and they have enough resources to manage the sector. This is clearly not the case with ICASA.
To shoot down ICASA for its inability to manage our telecoms sector is not really a solution. We should be shooting down the government as they're the ones who are restricting ICASA from performing its duties. Until we see a massive withdrawal of the government from the Telecoms sector (with its shares in Telkom, Vodacom, etc...), nothing much will change. They're still enjoying the billions they're getting from these telecom companies while at the same time criticising them for their high prices. That defies logic.
To shoot down ICASA for its inability to manage our telecoms sector is not really a solution. We should be shooting down the government as they're the ones who are restricting ICASA from performing its duties. Until we see a massive withdrawal of the government from the Telecoms sector (with its shares in Telkom, Vodacom, etc...), nothing much will change. They're still enjoying the billions they're getting from these telecom companies while at the same time criticising them for their high prices. That defies logic.
Basically the goverment should put all its weight behind icasa , and not have a hand in both icasa and telkom , if wont fund icasa , because more funds mean it will hurt the goverment/telkom more . The goverment is trying to put and maintain a leash on both .
Solution , simple take the goverment's shares away from telkom , that way it has no interests in it other than those of the public , fund icasa more to give them some bite rather than just a bark , then the government really has the peoples interests in mind .
Solution , simple take the goverment's shares away from telkom , that way it has no interests in it other than those of the public , fund icasa more to give them some bite rather than just a bark , then the government really has the peoples interests in mind .
A typical local phone call of 1 minute uses 60*45kB = 2700kB at 60cents = 2.637MB. So for a gig of local telephone call (all 388.32 calls), would cost the consumer R232.99 per gig! So Telkom is shafting phone users as well as us. If typical teenagers can cost you so much, the consumers would surely force ICASA (I Can Always Sip Alcohol instead of actually working) to shut Telkom down
That's what it worked out on my pc when I set my soundcard to "Telephony" setting and recorded one minute's worth of audio (2700 kB file). When I played the file back, it did sound very tinny (except for the absence of crackles).