SAT-3 for all?

I certainly hope Telkom's exclusivity period on SAT-3 expires, for all we know ICASA could turn around and say: "Handling a submarine cable is something more suited to Telkom and their continued grasped on it will help reduce by 1 maybe 0.5 of a percent by the Third World War!"
 
There was lots of wishy washy stuff in that articles about COA/CAM... which we know Telscum was supposed to supply ICASA but has never done, and also about realising return on investment, which I guarantee you Telscum did inside of a year on SAT-3......

ICASA needs to pull its finger out, declare SAT-3 a national asset(or something) and then operators get charged a wholesale price... period.
 
Ifs, buts and maybes.

The agreement comes to an end sure, but what will the new agreement be is the big question.
Papi is on record as saying he expects little change.
 
Papi is on record as saying he expects little change

And that is most likely how it will be. If the SAT-3 was taken away from Telkom we would have heard them throwing an absolute tantrum by now, don't you think? They would do the necessary to protect their cash-cow, I doubt they would have overlooked the expiry of some contract.

SAT-3 for all? Not likely, not for the next millenium. Not while Telskam is alive anyway.
 
Well it's certainly going to be an interesting few months... if only just to see how they* will manoeuvre to make sure that this doesn't happen.

*the unholy trinity: Telkom, DOC, ICASA
 
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I wonder what excuse Icasa and oc will give for not freeing sat-3/safe from Telkom
 
I wonder what excuse Icasa and oc will give for not freeing sat-3/safe from Telkom
Loss of revenue for the Goverment :)
Senegal prices to the SAT3: $6000/1 Megabit/s
Mauritius prices to the SAFE: $2900/1 Megabit/s
Telkom $11 000/1 Megbit/s == Ripoff delux
 
Breathe in, Breathe out.... Second Quarter my hairy *** - ICASA and government is never on time...
 
Seeing is believing and from what who saw since 2000 I would not believe anything about telecommunications and prices until it can be seen (and verified as not a dream) on my account. Everything else can just as well be dotted on toilet paper and used to wipe your arse clean of the shiite the government, Icasa, Neotel and the rest of the South African communications industry are spinning. Its all a farce and them all are in cahoots to steal and defraud us.
 
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Since we all got raped by Telkom (and with sand as a lubricant), so they could pay for this frikking cable (and still have money to be siphoned to the ANC), it's our cable, and we can do with it what we want !
 
However, with Telkom's exclusivity expiring - against the backdrop of new telecoms legislation that empowers regulator Icasa to declare submarine cables (along with other electronic communications) essential facilities and disallows any operator from signing exclusive international agreements concerning facilities such as undersea cables - that's about to change.
Puff puff pass... :D That ICASA only exists in "green dreams".
 
I'd like to revive this thread cos I feel this bit is quite significant and hasn't had much discussion:

An Icasa spokesman said it was currently finalising the project plan - due to start in first quarter 2007 and planned for completion by the second quarter - to prescribe a list of essential facilities in terms of Section 43 of the ECA, which would include the undersea cable. The process would also include formulating regulations.

"a list of essential facilities"

Now the cable is a given, but what else might they take control of? We all know the national network should never have been privatised, think there's any chance of the government regulating the resale cost (to cell cos, ISPs, etc).

Think about it - Telkom have always "balanced" prices so they come out on top. Lowering adsl charges but raising rental cost, etc. So if ICASA force them to resell SAT3 access affordably, chances are they'll just raise the cost of IPConnect, making it still cheaper for consumers to use SAIX.

Should we be drawing up our own list of things that should be on the essential facility list? Or do we trust ICASA to be one step ahead of Telkom this time?

I know none of us have much faith in ICASA anymore, but I do believe they're the only ones who can actually make a difference and we should continue to try and help them when they're trying to make things right.
 
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