Telecoms competition arrives in numbers

[vodacom3g]

i think you are right but i am also struck by the thought:
"business as usual then"

Well, yes and no.

The incumbents will still be around in 5 years time (at least the big 4) but their offerings will probably look quite different than now due to more competition coming in.

A few (newish) players will also be getting good market share.

And a lot of failed efforts will be seen. And these efforts would have been funded by the people who subscribed to their services.

But if you meant this is how business work in a free market; Yes, I agree with you fully.

 

[Pilgrim]

Well, yes and no.

The incumbents will still be around in 5 years time (at least the big 4) but their offerings will probably look quite different than now due to more competition coming in.

A few (newish) players will also be getting good market share.

And a lot of failed efforts will be seen. And these efforts would have been funded by the people who subscribed to their services.

But if you meant this is how business work in a free market; Yes, I agree with you fully.

Well, at least those failed efforts would have been funded out of choice, not ripped off out of a lack of options.

 

[Wimbo]

Their service will suffer and eventually there will be a market shakeout ( in the next 3 to 5 years) with a small number of players left. And in the process a lot of consumers will get hurt as their SP's close down.

A few consumers will get "hurt". Hurt how? Maybe their SP closes down and they have to find another one in a hurry. Or change an email address. Or pay someone else for the rest of the month.

That's been going on forever. Nothing new.

However, a lot of consumers will suddenly have a choice. A choice of other providers, a choice of prices, a choice of quality levels, a choice of new and innovative services.

Stop spreading FUD about potential competition, vodacom3g.

So expect interesting times ahead.

No argument there!

 

[vodacom3g]

Stop spreading FUD about potential competition, vodacom3g.

Maybe read my posts again. Or at least try and understand that I spoke about what happens when any environment is liberalised.

 

[MFour]

Although this is indeed good news, after reading the article I'm still left wondering how much of an effect will it really have on pricing. There seems to be a big drive towards VANS making use of the existing infrastructure, rather than building their own. Ok I understand that large amounts of capital would be required to do so, but if everyone is simply just jumping on the incumbents bandwagon, without a growth in infrastructure, how and why would prices come down? We have seen that even with NeoTel (one of those with some infrastructure) landing, there really has been no drop in price for me the consumer. All this means is that the "incumbents" will now have more knocks on their door, which in my mind means higher demand, which in turn means higher price.

Without at least LLU introduced immediately, I fail to see how the man on the street will actually benefit, Wild West or no Wild West. Then again, I really don't know what I'm talking about, and find it near impossible to get exited about anything related to telecoms in SA.