Seacom is live, now what?

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schurtek

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Well with all the hype and excitement around Seacom, it is finally live, but now what? Who is connecting? What is actually being done for the consumers or is this just another white elephant. I don't see Telkom allowing providers to connect Seacom to the ADSL cloud? Currently only IS and SAIX have connections to the cloud, does anyone have any leads on this?
 
Are you serious? There are about a million articles on Seacom on this board? You couldn't go and read some of them?
 
"Seacom is live, now what?"

Fat cats get fatter, consumers pay the same.
 
I am aware there are posts on this board, but nothing actually shows fruit... it seems that everyone here is just happy to dream, but nobody wants to investigate what is happening.

What ISPs are undertaking a connection? From what I have found out, IS and SAIX are steering clear, so how does this affect us the consumer then? I have client who is having his Richards Bay plant connected directly to Seacom. He has arranged a service provider in France to do the connectivity? Do I also need to take a full 155Mbps?

Come on people... I want to see where this cable is being used??? Even if the consumer won't benefit... just tell me where it is being used???
 
Is SAIX an ISP? Contact Seacom directly regarding your client and the ISP in France. If it's your client, shouldn't you know what's going or has your client left you out of the loop?
 
schurtek said:
Well with all the hype and excitement around Seacom, it is finally live, but now what? Who is connecting? What is actually being done for the consumers or is this just another white elephant. I don't see Telkom allowing providers to connect Seacom to the ADSL cloud? Currently only IS and SAIX have connections to the cloud, does anyone have any leads on this?
Click to expand...

To answer your question, "now what" ... now we wait to see how the big players maneuver to maximise their profits and keep the same prices going for as long as possible. A new range of creative excuses will follow, you'll see.
 
PeterCH said:
To answer your question, "now what" ... now we wait to see how the big players maneuver to maximise their profits and keep the same prices going for as long as possible. A new range of creative excuses will follow, you'll see.
Click to expand...

Yes sadly so true :(
 
I think it's time we accept the inevitable:

The only way we are ever going to see affordable, uncapped, unshaped, high-speed Internet in our lifetime, is if we move to another country.

These people will always come up with new excuses every time we get a bandwidth boost. You must remember that the sole purpose for their existence is to make as much money as possible.
 
Last edited:
Gundam said:
You must remember that the sole purpose for their existence is to make as much money as possible.
Click to expand...

Sadly this seems to be a national problem. almost every business in this country is run in such a way.

have you been shopping lately ?
 
Since I last posted, I have investigated the viability of connecting to Seacom, as an ISP. The problem is, Telkom won't let me terminate my bandwidth to the ADSL cloud, why? They say I need a VANS license first, which no longer exists, then there is a long list of hoops I need to jump through as well. That's just terminating to the cloud.

*Before you flame me about the difference between VANS and the new licenses (ECNS etc), I enquired, but Telkom is only accepting old school VANS.

Lastly, after getting into contact with Seacom, it was revealed to me, that you need a special operators license to connect to the cable. Contacting Icasa was even less comforting, as the process to obtain said license, is long, expensive, and not guaranteed.

The problem is that the market is still very restricted. Telkom, Neotel, iBurst, Vodacom and MTN are all the major players here, and they own last mile infrastructure. They still have the thumbscrews tightened on resellers.

The government needs to open the market, allow smaller players to operate via an encumbant's network. If my client can only be connected via iBurst, why must i buy the bandwidth from iBurst, why can't I terminate my own bandwidth on the iBurst network and just pay iBurst for my own MPLS?

I've been trying to learn more and more detail about how all the networks function, and simple things, such as the distribution of ATM traffic in South Africa is such a closely guarded secret.

At this rate, only massive corporates and the BIG BIG Network Exchanges such as SAIX and IS will have access to this gift of fibre.

Excuse my cynical views, but after doing lengthy exercises, I always end up with the same results: IS, SAIX and DATAPRO (only on Diginet), and it all goes through Telkom in the end.

For the love of all things digital, will someone please point out the progress?
 
schurtek said:
Since I last posted, I have investigated the viability of connecting to Seacom, as an ISP. The problem is, Telkom won't let me terminate my bandwidth to the ADSL cloud, why? They say I need a VANS license first, which no longer exists, then there is a long list of hoops I need to jump through as well. That's just terminating to the cloud.

*Before you flame me about the difference between VANS and the new licenses (ECNS etc), I enquired, but Telkom is only accepting old school VANS.

Lastly, after getting into contact with Seacom, it was revealed to me, that you need a special operators license to connect to the cable. Contacting Icasa was even less comforting, as the process to obtain said license, is long, expensive, and not guaranteed.

The problem is that the market is still very restricted. Telkom, Neotel, iBurst, Vodacom and MTN are all the major players here, and they own last mile infrastructure. They still have the thumbscrews tightened on resellers.

The government needs to open the market, allow smaller players to operate via an encumbant's network. If my client can only be connected via iBurst, why must i buy the bandwidth from iBurst, why can't I terminate my own bandwidth on the iBurst network and just pay iBurst for my own MPLS?

I've been trying to learn more and more detail about how all the networks function, and simple things, such as the distribution of ATM traffic in South Africa is such a closely guarded secret.

At this rate, only massive corporates and the BIG BIG Network Exchanges such as SAIX and IS will have access to this gift of fibre.

Excuse my cynical views, but after doing lengthy exercises, I always end up with the same results: IS, SAIX and DATAPRO (only on Diginet), and it all goes through Telkom in the end.

For the love of all things digital, will someone please point out the progress?
Click to expand...

i found this interesting!
 
For all it's worth... all this progress that is being done on SA networks, yet nothing is filtering down to the man in the street...
 
I spend a lot of time in Bulgaria, and the economic situation of this country is not terribly different from SA, yet here i get 88mbit uncapped, unshaped internet for R125p/m... this is not the US or the UK or any other rich country, the only difference here is that the government stays out of the internet business and allows private companies to develop it as they please.
Bottom line, the only way to get real change in SA is for the government to step out and let market forces take over. Telkom et al are not going to last long with high prices and low service when local neighborhood ISPs are able to tap into the bandwidth and start offering competitive prices.

Unfortunately i don't see this happening anytime soon as our leaders are too daft and too corrupt to see that a lack of real internet is crippling this country.
bah..
 
LordUltimate said:
I spend a lot of time in Bulgaria, and the economic situation of this country is not terribly different from SA, yet here i get 88mbit uncapped, unshaped internet for R125p/m... this is not the US or the UK or any other rich country, the only difference here is that the government stays out of the internet business and allows private companies to develop it as they please.
Bottom line, the only way to get real change in SA is for the government to step out and let market forces take over. Telkom et al are not going to last long with high prices and low service when local neighborhood ISPs are able to tap into the bandwidth and start offering competitive prices.

Unfortunately i don't see this happening anytime soon as our leaders are too daft and too corrupt to see that a lack of real internet is crippling this country.
bah..
Click to expand...

Then there is also the fact that Bulgaria is an almost land locked European country surrounded by massive fibre rings and South Africa is two continents and 10,000 km away. :rolleyes: Just a small little insignificant fact. :)
 
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