Starlink will be significant competitor to mobile operators in South Africa

Jan said:
Starlink will eat Vodacom and MTN's lunch

Handset-to-satellite communications technology being developed by Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) network operators like SpaceX’s Starlink could threaten South Africa’s mobile network operators.

This is according to telecommunications industry regulatory expert Dominic Cull, who told TechCentral that this fact is often overlooked when discussing Starlink’s legality in South Africa.
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Just cause you want to milk consumers with your legacy tech Dominic, don't make it the consumers problem. Consumers want progress. your back-handed money-making deals with the telcos is not included in their needs.
 
MrGray said:
When you realise that because they are LEO satellites, Starlink will be offering LTE Cellular that will work on standard handsets....

direct.starlink.com

Starlink

High-speed internet. Available almost anywhere on Earth.
direct.starlink.com direct.starlink.com
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Adapt or die.

MTN, Vodacom etc happy to milk us dry with infrastructure they paid off a decade ago. They could easily have embraced new technologies but its easier to sit with heads buried in the sand counting the billions of R's they make...
 
epah said:
Lol year sure, Starlink a completely redundant piece of tech will be significant competition in South africa a country where it is not needed. Yeah I doubt it.
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If so, why is ICASA protecting their unfounded commercial interests, i.e. bribe paying ISPs, so much? You don't protect against a non-player. Ask Al Capone - he only killed those that threatened him.
 
ICASA is a TECHNICAL committee. They should only protect SPECTRUM, not ISPs. The lawlessness in SA allowed ICASA to make laws about commercial aspects. They never should have been allowed to.
So, if Voda/MTN and the the ripoff gang will be lunchless after Starlink, what the hell is happening in the stupid rest of the world, where authorities are allowing this outrageous competition? Very uncommunistic of them ...
 
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MrGray said:
When you realise that because they are LEO satellites, Starlink will be offering LTE Cellular that will work on standard handsets....

direct.starlink.com

Starlink

High-speed internet. Available almost anywhere on Earth.
direct.starlink.com direct.starlink.com
Click to expand...
Thing with that is that the spectrum LTE runs on with standard handsets, that is very much governed by ICASA. You cannot just broadcast onto a frequency band into a country that has been assigned to mobile operators' in said country. That is going to cause a lot of k@k with interference and network quality I would assume.
 
neoprema said:
Adapt or die.

with infrastructure they paid off a decade ago. They could easily have embraced new technologies
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Erm no. It is a constant and ongoing investment.

This is for the year so far:
Vodacom’s network capital expenditure (capex) for the year totalled R11.2 billion, while the runner-up MTN spent R8.8 billion.

mybroadband.co.za

How much South African mobile operators invest in their networks

MyBroadband compared the capital MTN, Vodacom, Cell C, and Telkom spent on their networks over the past year.
mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za
 
Ockie said:
Erm no. It is a constant and ongoing investment.

This is for the year so far:
Vodacom’s network capital expenditure (capex) for the year totalled R11.2 billion, while the runner-up MTN spent R8.8 billion.

mybroadband.co.za

How much South African mobile operators invest in their networks

MyBroadband compared the capital MTN, Vodacom, Cell C, and Telkom spent on their networks over the past year.
mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za
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Okay so its a fraction of their insane profits. We overpay insanely in this country. Can't even get Wi-Fi calling from MTN because they might lost R50 on a phone call i make from overseas.

Visionaries come along with new tech and these old archaic companies are trying to protect their now thieving revenue streams..
 
Ockie said:
Erm no. It is a constant and ongoing investment.

This is for the year so far:
Vodacom’s network capital expenditure (capex) for the year totalled R11.2 billion, while the runner-up MTN spent R8.8 billion.

mybroadband.co.za

How much South African mobile operators invest in their networks

MyBroadband compared the capital MTN, Vodacom, Cell C, and Telkom spent on their networks over the past year.
mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za
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What part of that though is for operating expenditures like batteries and not actual network investments? You can't really can't expenditures that depreciate as investments.
 
lkpat said:
Goalpost shift?

Sure, and they're not likely to get Starlink users where there's good Fibre or LTE, now are they?

They already do that. Fixed and business clients get better service than roaming as it is. Why wouldn't they? Prioritizing traffic is something all ISPs do, but I think you just underestimate their actual capacity.

All I know is that nobody offers me anything close to Starlink for the price right now, so shake your fist at the sky.
I do prefer my Voda LTE when it's up and holiday season is not upon us, because what was 100Mbps out of season quickly becomes 10 or lower when the visitors arrive... but Voda has lower latency, at least for CDN and browsing traffic. Not so much for international.
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You replied without the context. I was referring to use of starlink in densely populated cities - something like even Elon Musk said they are not targeting.

For non-densely populated areas no problem. Starlink is brilliant.
 
Swa said:
What part of that though is for operating expenditures like batteries and not actual network investments? You can't really can't expenditures that depreciate as investments.
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Vodacom has spent R1.7 billion on batteries in the past two years​

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That is from 2022

This year alone so far Vodacom have spent R11.2 billion on its network.
 
Johand said:
You replied without the context. I was referring to use of starlink in densely populated cities - something like even Elon Musk said they are not targeting.

For non-densely populated areas no problem. Starlink is brilliant.
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I wasn't discussing population density, I was discussing "Starlink restricts sales geographically as well. So no - no threat to MTN and Vodacom."
 
neoprema said:
Adapt or die.

MTN, Vodacom etc happy to milk us dry with infrastructure they paid off a decade ago. They could easily have embraced new technologies but its easier to sit with heads buried in the sand counting the billions of R's they make...
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What makes you think this new technology is not "being embraced"?

Perhaps Google the state of DTM and how Vodacom is involved.
 
Ockie said:
Vodacom has spent R1.7 billion on batteries in the past two years
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Look personally I think they should switch to rechargables because Duracells are obviously killing their budget.
 
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Reactions: Swa
jannievanzyl said:
What makes you think this new technology is not "being embraced"?

Perhaps Google the state of DTM and how Vodacom is involved.
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Thank you, person who is clearly employed by one of the telcos, could you point me in the direction of the articles?

I found one, pointing out how Vodafone owns a 5% stake on a DTM company - a bit of a far reach from Vodacom in our country. But same group nevertheless.

The last part is telling:
"“Regulators must look at who is investing in their country (my take: We will leverage the regulators to protect our monopolies and insane charges, and not allow people like Starlink to sell to consumers) - by building infrastructure and providing employment to decide on who gets the spectrum. My expectation would be that the regulators support partnerships through the local operators, which are supporting the economy on the ground, doing the actual investment, supporting the jobs in the country they operate in, and paying the taxes,” said Kastelic"

What if i want to give my money to Starlink and connect directly to their network? Why must I pay a local Telco and pay a lot more because its going through 10 providers, 5 middlemen and who knows what else. I have a Starlink unit outside at the moment pushing high speed and don't have any middleman to pay - just Starlink itself.
 
neoprema said:
Thank you, person who is clearly employed by one of the telcos, could you point me in the direction of the articles?

I found one, pointing out how Vodafone owns a 5% stake on a DTM company - a bit of a far reach from Vodacom in our country. But same group nevertheless.

The last part is telling:
"“Regulators must look at who is investing in their country (my take: We will leverage the regulators to protect our monopolies and insane charges, and not allow people like Starlink to sell to consumers) - by building infrastructure and providing employment to decide on who gets the spectrum. My expectation would be that the regulators support partnerships through the local operators, which are supporting the economy on the ground, doing the actual investment, supporting the jobs in the country they operate in, and paying the taxes,” said Kastelic"

What if i want to give my money to Starlink and connect directly to their network? Why must I pay a local Telco and pay a lot more because its going through 10 providers, 5 middlemen and who knows what else. I have a Starlink unit outside at the moment pushing high speed and don't have any middleman to pay - just Starlink itself.
Click to expand...
WAT
 
PaulMurkin said:
Currently Disadvantaged make less than the cost of Starlink- tough choice between choosing to eat and having communications. At the moment cheap phone and prepaid SIM could be had for less than R200
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If you have coverage - if not you screwed.
 
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