Seacom on track for its switch-on

[zeely]

From all my reading it woud appear that in order to be on time for 2010 they should have started laying undersea cable already

It looks like SEACOM is going to have to carry the can { bandwidth }

( in which case goodbye cheap broadband -- for awhile anyway )


MW

what about WACS?

 

[Wackywact]

do you think up wil give us Free cap when seacom comes into play??

fellow up student..

ps. if they don't we should start a petition

 

[Ekhaatvensters]

do you think up wil give us Free cap when seacom comes into play??

fellow up student..

ps. if they don't we should start a petition

No one can give you free cap except for maybe Telkom themselves. It doesn't make any sense for ISP's who aren't getting money from the line rental.. where would their business be?

I just want to be able to get 10GB or so for the price of my 6Gb at the moment. :/

 

[krycor]

Prices will come down within three months. Trust me. You do have reason to expect a little relief. It only takes one competitive ISP to start the ball rolling.

Let's make a deal... the First ISP to cut prices by [at least or more than] 20% we all make the switch in the first month. That will send a VERY clear signal.

Its not up to ISP's at all, in the end they are all resellers(unless they saved up enough to lay their own cable and even then they can't resell easily on e.g. ADSL platform). The people with all the marbles are Neotel, Telkom, Vodacom, Mtn, Iburst, IS uhm.. who else is there? Basically if you provide the underlying network, you control the pricing. (So ADSL pricing might not drop, but wifi providers will be able to tackle it.)

What could happen though is people sourcing bandwidth wholesale from there directly such that wifi operators will suddenly start flourishing and putting pressure on the above guys to drop prices on their consumer side of things. But then all they have to do is make the cable connection cost to seacom 'gold' and nothing will happen

 

[LazyLion]

Its not up to ISP's at all, in the end they are all resellers(unless they saved up enough to lay their own cable and even then they can't resell easily on e.g. ADSL platform). The people with all the marbles are Neotel, Telkom, Vodacom, Mtn, Iburst, IS uhm.. who else is there? Basically if you provide the underlying network, you control the pricing. (So ADSL pricing might not drop, but wifi providers will be able to tackle it.)

What could happen though is people sourcing bandwidth wholesale from there directly such that wifi operators will suddenly start flourishing and putting pressure on the above guys to drop prices on their consumer side of things. But then all they have to do is make the cable connection cost to seacom 'gold' and nothing will happen

Not everyone goes through Telkom anymore. The ISPs can now source their bandwidth through Neotel, Vodacom, MTN, Dark Fibre AFrica, Internet Solutions, and about three hundred other IECNS licence holders who are willing to lay their own network. That is enough choice now to level the playing field. All you need is one ISP to take the cheapest bandwidth they can get and undercut everyone else. This will spark a war not only between the ISPs but also between the top tier providers since all the ISPs will run to the cheapest top tier provider.

 

[gregmcc]

Imminent!

 

[Netguy]

It remains encouraging that Seacom manages to stick to their schedule, this must be a feather in their cup.

 

[Decarin]

It remains encouraging that Seacom manages to stick to their schedule, this must be a feather in their cup.

Who doesn't want a feather in their cup?

I actually can't wait for SEACOM to go live -- it has the potential to completely change the way we use/perceive the Internet here at the bottom end of the world. I don't know about you guys but I want an uncapped, unshaped 20MB connection for Christmas.

 

[Dave_Nau]

The real question is... How long will it take for it to fall into the hands of cable thieves?

 

[LazyLion]

The real question is... How long will it take for it to fall into the hands of cable thieves?

are you talking about the fibre-optic cable that is buried one meter under the sand, five kilometers offshore, thirty meters under the sea?

 

[MidnightWizard]

Holding Thumbs

Not everyone goes through Telkom anymore.
The ISPs can now source their bandwidth through Neotel, Vodacom, MTN, Dark Fibre AFrica, Internet Solutions, and about three hundred other IECNS licence holders who are willing to lay their own network.
That is enough choice now to level the playing field.
All you need is one ISP to take the cheapest bandwidth they can get and undercut everyone else.
This will spark a war not only between the ISPs but also between the top tier providers since all the ISPs will run to the cheapest top tier provider.

I would like to share your enthusiasm.

I am not one of those continually negative South Africans -- but I also tend to be realistic.

NEOTEL have been "co-hosted" at Mtunzini as well as Melkbosstrand at the TELKOM SAT3 and SAFE stations for quite some time now. ie NEOTEL have a complete National / International "Network" SEPERATE from TELKOM

By how MUCH have we seen their prices drop ?????

The only way the reality is going to happen is if SEACOM quietly start their own SA ISP -- under a different name -- with different staff ( seconded )

This might conflict with their agreements with TATA / NEOTEL and SA regs -- Perhaps all they need is an ECNS licence ????


Sounds like you went to the Media day at Mtunzini.

Can you provide the physical location of the Telkom SAFE landing station. Street address and GPS co-ords.

Do you REALY think that these top tier players never talk to each other, never co-operate , never share resources ??? ( dare I say it -- Never collude )

Are all deadly enemies fighting each other tooth and nail for market share

Look at the SA mobile market for an idea of what we should expect -- with the exception that Mobile providers are becoming fixed line operators and vice-versa.

Will we see a freeing up of the whole telecoms market ??? OR more "collusion" ????

Start that SEACOM ISP already


MW

 

[ponder]

I
On site we were told ( with straight faces ) that the SEACOM cable has been spliced into the existing UNDERGROUND TELKOM fibre at MTUNZINI -- in fact right there at the landing station.

As I mentioned -- explicit detail about the BACKHAUL is still something of a mystery.

The only problem is that I have never seen anyone ever digging any trenches in that area


MW

Seacom will most likely end up connecting to Telkoms national transport network.

Why? Simple, no one else out there has a network that that can bring the Seacom bandwidth to the majority of SA bandwidth users.

I know Transtel (incorporated in Neotel) has FO cable to Durban in that area but even they cannot deliver this bandwidth to the end user.

What will happen is Seaom will have some arrangement with Telkom to tap into their SDH national transport network and from their it will be switched onto the regional transport networks. Which means getting the traffic from Muntunzini to DTM possibly via EPI (in Durban). This is the only logical effective way I can see the Seacom bandwidth getting to the ISPs in order to sell onto the consumers.

I know there are dark fiber providers & other people like Neotel but believe me when I say they are not going to carry much of this traffic as they simply do not have the reach. It's going to be a very long time before you can take Telkom out of the loop. The Seacom cable stops at the landing station, after that it is pretty much out of their hands.

 

[LazyLion]

I would like to share your enthusiasm.

I am not one of those continually negative South Africans -- but I also tend to be realistic.

MW, Neotel only have access to 1 gigabit of the SAT3 cable at the moment, hardly enough for their network. They are already oversubscribed for that 1 gigabit. But when Seacom goes live they will access to more bandwidth than they need.

The other players are furiously laying cable and connections and more fibre will be running into the Mtinzini station in the next few months.

There is good reason for optimism... If companies build shopping centers, the council is going to build roads to the shopping center. It makes good business sense for all concerned.

I'm not expecting my internet costs to drop by 80% at midnight on the 27thy June. But I am expecting that things will be vastly different by the 31st December 2009... even by November, October.

 

[smb3]

MW, Neotel only have access to 1 gigabit of the SAT3 cable at the moment, hardly enough for their network. They are already oversubscribed for that 1 gigabit. But when Seacom goes live they will access to more bandwidth than they need.

The other players are furiously laying cable and connections and more fibre will be running into the Mtinzini station in the next few months.

There is good reason for optimism... If companies build shopping centers, the council is going to build roads to the shopping center. It makes good business sense for all concerned.

I'm not expecting my internet costs to drop by 80% at midnight on the 27thy June. But I am expecting that things will be vastly different by the 31st December 2009... even by November, October.

i agree with Garyvdh here. if people are expecting things to happen like next month its false hope.

these are my scenarios. if bandwidth suppliers supply at similar rates to telkom then consumers are screwed <- unlikely.

if the isp's get cheaper bandwidth and they do not lower cost, then consumers are screwed <- not unlikely, i wouldn't be surprised if this happens

if the isp's do charge cheaper rates, and the consumers don't react fast enough, then nobody will take note <- if this happens i will seriously be shocked.

but the point is this. businesses exist to make money. if you think they care about the consumer, then you are mistaken, they care about "retaining you" and not "doing the right thing" or "doing whats best for the consumer". i see a few business objectives (on all fields) here:

* acquiring customers from competitors
* acquiring new customers
* saving on costs to increase revenue <- prices stay the same

take your pick from that list. the next few months is based on that. my opinion is that its probably the third option because of "economics". i also think that when seacom switches on it will break

sorry for the negativity, and i know you guys will throw some news reference and such stuff at me which i wont care about at all, but im not clinging to false hope.

 

[hj2k_x]

Still, it can only be a positive thing, once it is up and running. Things may take time, but at least there will be improvements and discounts at some stage..

 

[uchoose]

A company like Seacom who has spent R4 Billion is not going to be happy with supplying only 60GB of BW to SA. The only way to increase it is to grow the Internet user base, and the only way to grow this base is by making it more affordable. What would be the point of another 7 cables landing in the next 2 yrs if the user base remains the same as today or just grows a little.

We have not heard much on pricing as yet because timing is everything, the big boys want to release there offerings a couple of weeks before switch on, I reckon advertising will start in the next couple of weeks once the media is all hyped up about the cable and that is only just starting.

You cannot blame the big boys for not increasing caps or there offerings until close to switch on as they want to milk us until the last moment.

It will take one of the big boys with a decent set of balls to make an offering of uncapped Internet at an affordable price, like most of the world has, then the rest of the sheep will follow. Once people can can download movies whenever they want, watch video, listen to streaming radio, watch TV on the Internet then the user base will grow. To do all this takes uncapped Internet; word of mouth will spread like wild fire when you can do this and then the user base will virtually double overnight. If these guys insist on capping then it will be a long haul increasing this base.

 

[Rouxenator]

“It’s a huge impact for SA, but it’s a much bigger impact for east Africa,” said CEO Brian Herlihy yesterday.

Yes - cause we have Telkom and Vodacom - the will limit the impact this has on us.

Herlihy said originally its bandwidth would be 90% cheaper than existing supplies. But price cuts as operators prepared for the Seacom threat will make its savings closer to 40%-50% now.

Once testing is done these figure will be closer to 10% to -20%

The cost to consumers will also depend on the profit margin operators buying Seacom bandwidth, including Vodacom and Internet Solutions, want.

Vodacom - nuff said.
No savings to be seen here - move along please.

 

[longboy]

Be Realistic, old chaps.

Seacom is just a cable connecting us to more international bandwidth...We are stuck with our government and Telkom's policies regarding pricing.
I honestly expect a very tiny price drop. The only up side of this all, is that we should see larger caps on our connections.

 

[LazyLion]

Seacom is just a cable connecting us to more international bandwidth...We are stuck with our government and Telkom's policies regarding pricing.

Not any more. The IECNS license holders now have the right to lay their own cables. Things are falling into place. Now the government has announced that Infraco will also be building a national grid to link us to Seacom and other cables IN ORDER TO LOWER COSTS. So they are doing something about it. Give it some time man. We will see some nice drops soon.

 

[ponder]

The IECNS license holders now have the right to lay their own cables.

Fair enough but it does not really benefit joe soap much. The problem lies in getting the bandwidth to the average consumer and that is the hard part. This works well for businesses & gated communities but not the average guy out there and they really dont care either as it costs them more to deliver that bandwidth to joe soap and that impacts on their profits. If I was in their shoes I would do the same, maximum profit with minimal investment.

The only people that can deliver bandwith to joe soap still remains Telkom, Vodacom, MTN, CellC and your few wireless dudes like neotel, sentech, iburst etc.

I would also hate to see how reliable the IECNS holders networks will be compared to the big guys. I'm pretty sure they are not going to be rolling out fully redundant FO rings running on SDH tecnology as it costs so much.