Reply from E-TV....let's hope something comes from it.

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P0tenc

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To 3RD Degree

I have read through the ICASA ADSL findings report and
found it to be excellent news. I have also read the replies
from Telkom on this matter and found it very disturbing
that they think they can do as they wish and throw their
weight around. They plan to increase 30 gig packages by
over 900% or even disconnect all ADSL users if ICASA pushes
forward with their regulation. This will be a massive hit
to the economy, with many implications.

I have watched 3rd degree a few times and know that it's
always hard hitting. The whole of South-Africa need to be
informed of Telkom and their dishonorable monopolistic
behavior. The whole of South Africa suffers because of
their greed.

The rest of the world is laughing at us.

For much more info please visit:
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=549
www.myadsl.co.za
www.hellkom.co.za
www.antitrust.co.za
http://www.adslpetition.co.za

Reply-->
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear ********

Thank you for your email, and your interest shown in our channel is appreciated.

We have forwarded your email to our News department as well as 3rd Degree. If you want to contact them directly, here are the contact details:

Newsroom:
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: (021) 481 4630

3rd Degree:
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: (011) 880 8883

If you have any other enquiries, Please do not hesitate to call our Customer Care Line: 083 1222

Kind Regards,
Etv Customer Care
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I will keep all of you informed of any further replies. I'm hopping something will come of this. :(

It might be a good idea for more ppl to also email 3rd Degree & the news room.
 
What have we become? Someone does something constructive and all we can do is point out the hopelesness of the situation? Kudos to P0tenc for trying! I think it's a great idea. Follow it up through the contact details provided and see how it goes.

Juice
 
I am not sure how you can say there is a 900% increase in the 30GB pricing. Until now, there was no official 30GB product or pricing. ISP's were using a loophole in the RADIUS configuration to provide 30GB accounts. Telkom/SAIX only invoiced them for a 3GB account since there was no 30GB product. So any ISP that was charging more for a 30GB than a 3GB account was just increasing the price of a service that they had no increase in cost. IN otherwords, the ISP's should have been charging you the same for a 30GB account as they did for a 3GB. It required nothing more on their side, just a change in a couple fields in the RADIUS side.. The ISP's were taking advantage of the loophole with telkom and with the client and the need for more BW. They could have passed the loophole thru to the client, instead most used this as an opportunity to take more of your money.. We decided not to offer the 30GB accounts for the main reason that we didn't want clients screaming at us when the prices increased.. All ISP's were aware that they would.

I am not taking the telkom side of this, but the facts need to be straight to have a valid argument.
 
The fact is that if that amount of bandwidth could be provided at those prices, surely it can continue to be provided with no fuss. call it loophole, call it whatever you like, the bottom line is that the increased bandwidth usage didnt have any negative impact on ISP's or telkom, contrary to what telkom may have you believe. we all know about their lies and how they love to twist the truth. i for one didnt hear of any cables melting due to higher bandwidth usage. i didnt hear of the sat3 undersea cable malfunction due to increased international usage. this whole perception that bandwidth is expensive is a BLATANT LIE created by telkom as an excuse to charge more.

i dont think that we have a "valid arguement" sir, as you point out because frankly there is nothing to argue about - the fact is that we were being ripped off, and when we finally started paying prices that we should have been paying in the 1st place, along comes telkom to put us back in the stone age.
 
And what about the new tv-on-demand? Where is Telkom getting the BW for that if SA is so short of it?

Telkom has ample BW, but like a spoilt child will not share.
 
Jsut a case of getting there attention.

Full points for doing something P0tenc. Sure it's a form letter, but at least you know they got it. Best thing is to keep annoying them, email every two days or so ;)
 
Paarlberg - I agree with you, confusion in the whole higher cap is due to the isp's offering more, and yes dont feel sad for these isp's.. Anyone charging more for 30gig than for 3gig were raking in huge profits as Ive said over and over before.

Then you get people posting here, thanks for higher caps etc etc.. What for? Obviously isps would offer higher caps if they can make double or tripple the markup.

Anyways, everything is slowly turning to ****, if this november thing happens then Im sure SA internet would crumble and come to a halt. How do you run a business or a couple of businesses on ADSL? Its unthinkable.
 
Until now, there was no official 30GB product or pricing. ISP's were using a loophole in the RADIUS configuration to provide 30GB accounts.
Click to expand...
I disagree paarlberg, there is most definitely an official 30 Gig product - if you weren't offered it by your Telkom account manager I suggest you take it up with them.

The fact of the matter is that the 30 Gig accounts came about as a result of certain ISP's taking advantage of a loophole - Telkom then stepped in and offered the 30 Gig accounts as a compromise and were then obliged to offer the same compromise to all self-authenticating ISP's in accordance with their ICASA license.

I re-iterate, the 30 Gig account is legitimate.

We decided not to offer the 30GB accounts for the main reason that we didn't want clients screaming at us when the prices increased
Click to expand...
We also considered holding back on these accounts, but in the end decided to offer them to the public as we weren't sure when Telkom would institute their new billing - from past experience it could have taken years - our thinking was "give the clients the benefits while they can get them" - I would rather have 180 Gig's in 6 months than than 18 Gigs at a similair cost !

---
Pedantic
www.saol.com
 
Paarlberg, why do you have a gripe with the ISPs charging more for 30GB than for 3GB. They were smart enough to find a solution to a very big problem. The client gets ten times as much bandwidth as before, so what's wrong with charging them a little more for the service?

Sure, they did not pass on a monetary saving on the *original product* but they lowered their price per gig significantly, allowing guys like me, who would previously not be able to justify the cost of two or three 3GB accounts, to afford 20GB or 30GB per month. I am getting a lot more for the money I was going to pay in any case, which makes me a very happy customer.

If you lost out on the extra business, sorry for you.
 
In a balanced environment I would agree that you should get what you pay for.

But frankly we know what Telkoms infrastructure looks like, we know that what we're paying for 3G a month would cover the cost of 100Gb+ per months. If it's such an issue now why didn't Telkom slam down earlier? They could have done it with the August prices changes.

Because it really doesn't effect them, they've had no degredation in service, no lost revenue, they probably didn't even notice an increase in usage because of port shaping. Now they see it as an opportunity to make bucketloads, but they're basically evil idiots.

I buy the most I can afford. 30Gb costs me X. If 2Gb is going to cost the same X then that's what I'll have to use.

Think of it like a concert. They've got all the plebs queueing up, going through a single door, but the VIP's get to drive in up a double driveway, but there are no VIP's it a ruse, so the plebs are walking in up the driveway.

. . . Okay, that s#cked as an analogue, I blame BF2 for lack of sleep . . ;)
 
Juice said:
What have we become? Someone does something constructive and all we can do is point out the hopelesness of the situation? Kudos to P0tenc for trying! I think it's a great idea. Follow it up through the contact details provided and see how it goes.

Juice
Click to expand...
Sorry, I was not taking a swing at Po10cy for putting in the effort. It was aimed at the answers one would receive from a typical media company.
 
doobiwan said:
But frankly we know what Telkoms infrastructure looks like, we know that what we're paying for 3G a month would cover the cost of 100Gb+ per months.
Click to expand...

We do? I'm not all that sure, but I don't think so. We don't KNOW. Telkom has been keeping some of this information a closely guarded secret. Even during the ICASA hearings, I don't remember Telkom once producing figures to illustrate how much it actually COSTS to provide ADSL services. Yes, I think we're all right when we suspect that we are getting ripped off, but we don't KNOW.

Juice
 
I suppose it's true that we have no concrete evidence that it's costing Telkom a lot less to provide services than they are letting on.

However, given the way they keep bouncing around with prices, rules and other aspects of the broadband service, the only way to make sense of their apparent business plan is to assume that we're right.

Either that or Telkom decisions are made by a team of evil monkeys with the brains of jellyfish.
 
Heh. The fact that they don't produce figures to prove us WRONG makes me suspect we're right. The fact that they can post a R6 billion profit means that they are charging more for their services than what it is costing them. I am fairly certain, quite convinvced. But we can't prove it. It's all circumstancial. And not even ICASA can call Telkom to play their smugly hidden cards.

Juice
 
Don't forget that they can afford that profit, even with the Multi - million dollar salaries and bonuses they're paying their execs.

They're making a killing, and we're the fodder.
 
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