Sorry if this isn't directly an ADSL question, but it does pertain to Telkom so here goes...
Just got back to SA recently and went into Cavendish Square in Cape Town and tried to use a public telephone. There are 4 phones downstairs there, two are Telkom ones, one cash and one card (so they say, they're actually both card phones, and I had no phonecard). The other 2 phones were white, decorated differently and did NOT say Telkom on them... they just said 'Public Telephone'. Weird. On the front of each is a little table giving prices, saying 'Local calls, R1 per unit. National calls, R1 per unit. Cellphone calls, R1 per unit.' Helpful, doesn't say how long a unit is. Anyway, I figured, "What can be more expensive than Telkom?", rhetorical question, and so I decided to make a LOCAL call from one of these swanky, white phones. I put in R1 and dialled a nice local number. To my horror, I saw that 1 unit for a LOCAL (yes!!) call is 1 minute, and damn did it tick by quickly. My minute was up before I even got to speak to anyone (was still pressing '1' to talk to someone, then '2' for English etc) and before the phone raped me further I hung up, angry and confused.
What is this?? R1 a minute for a local call???? Forgive me if I'm slightly out of date here, I have been away for a short while, but R1 a minute for a local call?? That's R60 an hour! Ouch. And it's not even a Telkom phone??
Can anyone shed any light on this? Who owns the phone, where does my precious R1 go, and why is it R1 and not something more reasonable?
Once again, sorry this isn't ADSL-specific but I reckoned this would be the best place to ask.
Just got back to SA recently and went into Cavendish Square in Cape Town and tried to use a public telephone. There are 4 phones downstairs there, two are Telkom ones, one cash and one card (so they say, they're actually both card phones, and I had no phonecard). The other 2 phones were white, decorated differently and did NOT say Telkom on them... they just said 'Public Telephone'. Weird. On the front of each is a little table giving prices, saying 'Local calls, R1 per unit. National calls, R1 per unit. Cellphone calls, R1 per unit.' Helpful, doesn't say how long a unit is. Anyway, I figured, "What can be more expensive than Telkom?", rhetorical question, and so I decided to make a LOCAL call from one of these swanky, white phones. I put in R1 and dialled a nice local number. To my horror, I saw that 1 unit for a LOCAL (yes!!) call is 1 minute, and damn did it tick by quickly. My minute was up before I even got to speak to anyone (was still pressing '1' to talk to someone, then '2' for English etc) and before the phone raped me further I hung up, angry and confused.
What is this?? R1 a minute for a local call???? Forgive me if I'm slightly out of date here, I have been away for a short while, but R1 a minute for a local call?? That's R60 an hour! Ouch. And it's not even a Telkom phone??
Can anyone shed any light on this? Who owns the phone, where does my precious R1 go, and why is it R1 and not something more reasonable?
Once again, sorry this isn't ADSL-specific but I reckoned this would be the best place to ask.
