SA must reform ’dreadful’ telecoms, says consumer group

[ettubrute]

SA must reform ’dreadful’ telecoms, says consumer group.

Congratulations to Ewan Sutherland!

 

[rpm]

Excellent article! We hope to bring you more about Ewan in one of our next podcasts.

Regards,

RPM

 

[stoke]

Yay - somebody else belatedly jumping on the "We must reform telecoms" bandwagon.
Oh well - better late than never.
But look at these quotes:

<Q> "Operators are sitting there living off the earnings of the past instead of innovating," said Sutherland. "SA is just not at the cutting edge ... It is delaying the move into an information and knowledge-based economy."</Q>

and

<Q> Sutherland said SA needed to smash state-owned fixed-line firm Telkom’s virtual monopoly by allowing Internet service providers to build their own infrastructure, and opening the international gateway and local loop to competitors.</Q>

Now - there's 2 quotes to live by, melikes.

 

[AntiThesis]

Nice Glad to see there are folks out there paying attention

 

[ebis]

The whole world agrees that economies will have to be more information-knowledge based in order to stay competitive. Even our own government is aware of this. However, I think somehow that perception hasn't yet filtered through to the Dept of Comm (which is ironically part of the same government). Cause if that was the case, I think we would be seeing much more urgency in them addressing this telecoms crisis we are in.

Anyway, the comments from Ewan Sutherland are spot on. Brilliant article.

 

[BTTB]

Communications regulator ICASA is investigating high prices charged by mobile phone operators and may either set price caps or licence a fourth operator. It also said it may cut broadband Internet prices by banning Telkom from charging an access fee.

The companies are resisting both moves.

Grrrr

 

[bb_matt]

There must be so much more to this than meets the eye.

We have to ask ourselves exactly why Telkom would hold us back so much ?
Surely we consider ourselves as a country on a par with Morocco or Egypt in terms of infrastructure, if not better ?

The only conclusion that I can come to is that Telkom is holding us back for political reasons. On first thoughts, one would assume that it could only be for financial gains, however, that doesn't make a great deal of sense. The upgrading of current infrastructure and a massive rollout of affordable services, surely would see the profits soaring ?

I can't help feeling lately, that this is far more of a political decision than anything else. Affordable Telecomms means access to information for more people. It means access to a medium that is hard for the governmint to control - the internet.

Why else is it that South Africa, once a hive of IT expertise, is lagging so badly behind ?
Why would Telkom not roll out services at a furious pace in order to reap far bigger rewards than they currently are ?
Why wouldn't they tap into a massive market currently only being serviced by overpriced pay-as-you-go cellphones ?

I may be being overly paranoid here, but my suspicions are that there is political motivation to keep Telecomms costs artificially high and to keep the monopoly of Telkom running for as long as possible.

 

[mccrack]

Everyone knowledgable knows this however our government have more pressing matters at hands such as loans to Zim, Land Redistribution & Renaming Cities. Education, Health and Technology is the last thing on their list.

EDIT -> Interesting conspiracy theory bb_matt, would high telcomms ensure that the masses aren't educated and thus keep uneducated voters voting come election time so they can get their free t-shirt ?

Somewhere along the line i head someone say something along the lines of "African Leaders are causing the digital divide" .

 

[doobiwan]

It's scale of service / investment protection.

Even though it's more cost effective to roll DSL en mass, Telkom are reaping bucketloads of cash by catagorizing usage by service. So if your a busines that needs stable connective you have to bleed for Diginet. If you're a low budget home internet user, then you can have ISDN.

ADSL makes both of these products obsolete, which would be loss of revenue.

 

[RoosTa]

There must be so much more to this than meets the eye.

We have to ask ourselves exactly why Telkom would hold us back so much ?
Surely we consider ourselves as a country on a par with Morocco or Egypt in terms of infrastructure, if not better ?

The only conclusion that I can come to is that Telkom is holding us back for political reasons. On first thoughts, one would assume that it could only be for financial gains, however, that doesn't make a great deal of sense. The upgrading of current infrastructure and a massive rollout of affordable services, surely would see the profits soaring ?

I can't help feeling lately, that this is far more of a political decision than anything else. Affordable Telecomms means access to information for more people. It means access to a medium that is hard for the governmint to control - the internet.

Why else is it that South Africa, once a hive of IT expertise, is lagging so badly behind ?
Why would Telkom not roll out services at a furious pace in order to reap far bigger rewards than they currently are ?
Why wouldn't they tap into a massive market currently only being serviced by overpriced pay-as-you-go cellphones ?

I may be being overly paranoid here, but my suspicions are that there is political motivation to keep Telecomms costs artificially high and to keep the monopoly of Telkom running for as long as possible.

I have to agree! Thats why we are fighting the wrong people (Telkom).
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=25052&page=5&pp=15
South Africans need to learn to fight for their Democracy!

I do not think that a newspaper/magazine ad is the most optimal way of expressing our frustrations. I think there are a few options left to us, although it may require some parallel thinking. The option of placing a newspaper ad will cost quite a bit of cash, and then one hope that we will reach the correct person/business (a person have to notice the ad, decide to read the add, and also think about the add, and the add must mobilize that person to make it effective). These 4 factors are important to determine the success of an advertisement.

Unfortunately, as any marketing person will tell you, repetition is also the key. One ad has been proven to be really inefficient, so, my opinion is that such an ad will be a waste of money. Not that I do not support the initiative (I am writing this, aren’t I J).

So, I recommend not taking on Telkom. They have more money (nice R11 billion) to use on lawyers and spin-doctors, so, whatever ad we place, next Sunday you will have a bigger, better ad in ALL the newspapers refuting the statements we made.

I would like to propose a second option. And, it is quite extensive, so please bear with me. This idea is just basic, as I do not have the time to do research now, but, perhaps other members can help.

We have a few acts that we should use in our favor. We also have something that all government ministers hate … bad publicity. So, instead of taking on the monopoly, we take on the ministers, claiming that they are not doing their jobs, that they cannot enforce their legislation, and that they are incompetent. Yes. We sue them.

First a bit of background is in order. (example)

Competition Act, 1998, Section 7.
A firm is dominant in a market if--
a) it has at least 45% of that market;
b) it has at least 35%, but less than 45%, of that market, unless it can show that it does not have market power; or
c) it has less than 35% of that market, but has market power.
Competition Act, 1998, Section 8.
It is prohibited for a dominant firm to--
a) charge an excessive price to the detriment of consumers;
b) refuse to give a competitor access to an essential facility when it is economically feasible to do so;
etc.

Consumer Affairs Act, 1988
Defines "unfair business practice" as
means any business practice which, directly or indirectly, has or is likely to have the effect of--
a) harming the relations between businesses and consumers;
b) unreasonably prejudicing any consumer;
c) deceiving any consumer; or
d) unfairly affecting any consumer.

Respondent: Minister of Trade and Industry

I say Telkom is a dominant firm (Sect 7), and is charging an excessive price to the detriment of consumers (Sec 8(a)). They are engaging in unfair business practices. There has been reports previously stating that Telkom’s actions is costing the country growth, employment and investment. Should be relatively easy to show (if we get all the information together). The Minister is therefore not implementing these act (his responsibility or work) and by not doing his work, we claim he is incompetent to do that. We are asking for a high court interdict to have him removed.

OK, just wanted to check something, but the government servers is down, so I cannot get the telecommunications act, and a few other acts. I will add on to this over time. Few further issues of importance.

I.t.o. their licence Telkom have to provide basic access to the South Africans. We have to define what is considered basic access … is internet considered basic access (think Constitution and Education Acts – In a developing world the internet is almost a necessity to get information and for SELF-EDUCATION). However, a few statistics:
- The average salary in South Africa is about R1,980 per month.
- Average internet costs (line rental, calls and internet) is more than R200.
- 6,000,000 people without jobs (40% unemployment).
- About 8 million kids parents (unemployed parents) cannot afford internet.
- About 1.5 million people have home telephones and a cellphone.
- About 1 million people only have a home phone.
- About 2 million people have a cellphone.
- So the reach of Telkom is actually worse than cellphone companies.
All from www.statssa.gov.za (2001 census)

So, I am sure that one can make a case that Telkom is not complying to their licence conditions. (respondents below is not doing their work). Remember, that Telkom themselves is compiling the report saying that they complies. I also remember a Telkom media ad saying that they are of the cheapest telecommunication providers in the world. Nice what one can do with statistics.

The following respondents should be sued:
Minister of Telecommunications
ICASA Chairperson

The President (first respondent, as a court have to order him to relieve a minister of his duties).

They are not implementing their acts (else we request for high court order why aren’t they doing their work i.t.o. the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act), therefore we consider them incompetent and they should be relieved of their duties.

Now. First. We will never win such a case, as:
1. It will cost millions,
2. It will drag on in the courts for years to come,
3. Difficulty to prove some issues.

However, there is sufficient information available to make some sort of case. If we can get the time of a lawyer to draw up a summons to sue these departments and individuals, and have it signed and delivered (all officially), it will cost far less than one newspaper ad. Roughly, even if we have to pay a lawyer to draw up a “Notice of Intent to Summons”, (if we can supply that Lawyer with all the facts and claims), it should cost less than R10,000.

The spin-off however is as follows:
1: All newspapers will have at least large second page articles about the possible court-case. They will state the reasons, and what the case is all about.
2: There we can mention every-thing we want to mention. Telkom is a dominant firm, they are determining the prices, and making massive profits by doing so.
3: The actions of Telkom is costing the country investments, jobs, etc.
4. etc, etc, etc.

Everything that we can throw at Telkom we can state, as long as we use existing articles and reports as basis, and do not make up stuff. The beauty is that we cannot be sued for our claims, as everything is sub-judica, and since Telkom is not a respondent, they cannot fight the case directly, neither even support the Government (possible corruption/bribing ?).

Our purpose. Any minister being sued, or, being a serviced (by an officer of court) a notice of intent is big news. And a claim that he is not doing his work, and that we would like to relieve him of his duties (by having a court order the President to take action) is at least second page, of not headline news. And this will be in the news for at least a week (repetition). We do not need to proceed with the court action, as our purpose is to get newspaper time, with the MYADSL Action Group as the possible Plaintiff. If asked, we just state that we are in the process of collecting funds to proceed with the case … which can take ages. But, we will have newspaper time.

This is cheap, nasty, but it works. And perhaps the minister and president will start acting, and using their legislations, as, Government Ministers hate bad publicity.

This is an extreme rough outline. Will add more over time.

Currently the government can walk over us, why? Because no one wants to fight for their rights. If the public takes the government to court, not only will we be fighting Telkom, but all these other "greed mongers" running South Africa into the ground. In most other first world countries the public would not stand for this bull, but here, its happening time and time again. No one is doing anything to prevent it! The government should be protecting the people! The government is not doing their job and it should be taken very serious!

 

[Haggle]

Currently the government can walk over us, why? Because no one wants to fight for their rights. If the public takes the government to court, not only will we be fighting Telkom, but all these other "greed mongers" running South Africa into the ground. In most other first world countries the public would not stand for this bull, but here, its happening time and time again. No one is doing anything to prevent it! The government should be protecting the people! The government is not doing their job and it should be taken very serious!

I absolutely second booswig's suggestion !

Let's get legal advice on this one and if we have a good case let's start a fund and mobilise financial support from the business community and take the offending parties to court. With the ADSL issue still fresh in everyone's mind I don't think it will be difficult to mobilise support from Telkom's many begrudged customers.

 

[Debbie]

Yay - somebody else belatedly jumping on the "We must reform telecoms" bandwagon.

Heh stoke, he's been criticising Telkom for a long time. Certainly not a newcomer.

 

[fergus]

Ewan was in the first Carte Blanche feature about Telkom, along with MaD, rpm and Andrew. He's the one with the bow-tie.

 

[stoke]

/my eyes have been opened - thanks debz and fergus.

Sue governmint ? For what ? i.e. What are we asking the courts to give us ?

Isn't what we're supposed to be doing more like reporting governmint to the police for a crime ?
Shouldn't we be having a 1 on 1 with our great leader, demanding our rights be upheld ?
I just don't see what the courts can do about this.

 

[cybercloud]

I think thats a great idea, give the gov a little motivation, but do we want them against us?

 

[krycor]

I think the goverment is beging to realize the mistake they made with all the manop. they have made/supported in the country and slowly but surely businesses and people with access to more information is begining to hold them accountable. Problem is the majority still think the goverment is doing a fine job even if they mess up as much. mebbe we should all toy toy down the street on a monday morning and and start work late till goverment is forced to intervine. currently it seems they just give a nice statement and then say the regulator must take care of it but how long are we prepared to wait?

heck 2010 is 5yrs from now, will we have a more affordable telecoms by then or will we again only be allowed to watch certain games cause the rights cost to much even though its in our own country ?(ok this is a bit oftopic) dang we need a few new tv networks too.. how about a e-tv sports channel

 

[Karnaugh]

Wtf? Our mobile rates are not expensive at all. 3G maybe, but 3 guesses why that bandwidth is expensive..