Telecoms policy ‘a mistake'

That's rich.

The private sector is to blame for our telecommunications wasteland, because they didn't invest in infrastructure.

Now how exactly were they supposed to do that with Ivy & ICASA tying everyone's hands behind their backs? Build illegal networks?

Typical politician thought process: "Companies must not be allowed to do XYZ. It's against the law.... Oh dear, companies not doing XYZ is causing major problems? Companies are clearly to blame for these probems for not doing XYZ in the first place. Therefore we need a Grand Plan designed, built and operated by politicians and their cronies because private enterprise is just too greedy to see the big picture."

Yeah, yeah. :sick:
 
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But Erwin responded that no market in Africa was “deep enough” to get proper market forces working, and that is why the continent needed a co-ordinated approach to getting connected.
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Oh look .. he wants to make the same mistake again. Perhaps Mr Erwin would like me to deliver the idiots guide to development to hiz doorstep.
All you have to do is free the market. Communication is not supposed to be controlled by 1 - 4 companies, it's supposed to be controlled by 600 - 8000 companies dammit!
 
This is starting to become a Soap Oprah. Goodbye Egoli, hello Days of Our Miserable Lives
 
Jay Naidoo, minister without portfolio, minister of comms, the guy that was instrumental in selling us down the river in the first place. Do I have the right Mr Naidoo here???

Naidoo, who was minister of broadcasting, telecommunications and posts from March 1996 to June 1999, said: “As a former minister of communications, I must admit that [telecommunications] policy has been a mistake. One of our biggest mistakes was to insist that Telkom roll out fixed lines. Not everyone wanted a fixed line.”
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Naidoo, dude, wake up, your biggest mistake was backing the donkey that is TELKOM.
But you got rich from it probably, or didnt ye?

edit: agree with stoke, Erwin and the government will bugger it all up again with their constant fiddling, let the market decide who survives.
This goes against the policy of protecting the beast though.
 
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He went on to say the service obligations imposed on mobile network operators Vodacom and MTN helped spur the development of the pay-as-you go concept.
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Nice how they try and take credit for the one area in SA telecoms that is actually successful, come on, the cell networks succeeded in spite of government regulation not because of it. Although I suppose you could argue that the governments amazing ability to fsck up the fixed line market drove people to MTN/Voda but I wouldn't see that as much of an achievement!

One of our biggest mistakes was to insist that Telkom roll out fixed lines. Not everyone wanted a fixed line.”
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What's scary is that this is actually seen as major insight!!

“The market invests for short-term profit and that is why it invested in VANS [value-added network services] and not the core network. What we need is high-quality fibre optic cables…we cannot afford to wait,” he said.
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Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the "market" was only granted VANS licences and until recently couldn't self provide? Even now that they can its still limited to a few companies and most of them haven't even been granted Wimax spectrum etc? Maybe its because the DOC managed to royall screw up the awarding of the SNO licence and when they finally did award it awarded it to some sort of hybrid parastatal and even then decided not to let them own their core infrastructure?

But Erwin responded that no market in Africa was “deep enough” to get proper market forces working, and that is why the continent needed a co-ordinated approach to getting connected.
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This is half the problem, every govt initiative seems to be determined to uplift the rest of Africa at the expense of SA. Just liberalise the market and you'll see just how useful those market forces can be! And truly liberalise it, not the ANC-defined liberalisation we've seen up to now!
 
Gatecrasher said:
Typical politician thought process: "Companies must not be allowed to do XYZ. It's against the law.... Oh dear, companies not doing XYZ is causing major problems? Companies are clearly to blame for these probems for not doing XYZ in the first place. Therefore we need a Grand Plan designed, built and operated by politicians and their cronies because private enterprise is just too greedy to see the big picture."
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Brilliantly put! It is just so true.
 
Noddy is just not PC. You remember that whole scandal awhile back about Big Ears being gay? I think that would make good late night TV, but i just don't think it's prime-time material
 
One of our biggest mistakes was to insist that Telkom roll out fixed lines. Not everyone wanted a fixed line.”
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This guy is lucky that this forum censors swear words and other profanities otherwise the insults that would be hurled at him for that statement would be flying in left, right and centre. WOW, 4 years as a minister and THIS is the comment he makes, it's funny and so sad on so many levels..
 
Sneeky said:
Jay Naidoo, minister without portfolio, minister of comms, the guy that was instrumental in selling us down the river in the first place. Do I have the right Mr Naidoo here???


Naidoo, dude, wake up, your biggest mistake was backing the donkey that is TELKOM.
But you got rich from it probably, or didnt ye?

edit: agree with stoke, Erwin and the government will bugger it all up again with their constant fiddling, let the market decide who survives.
This goes against the policy of protecting the beast though.
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Nou is daardie ou tjoop stil.

Gatecrasher said:
Typical politician thought process: "Companies must not be allowed to do XYZ. It's against the law.... Oh dear, companies not doing XYZ is causing major problems? Companies are clearly to blame for these probems for not doing XYZ in the first place. Therefore we need a Grand Plan designed, built and operated by politicians and their cronies because private enterprise is just too greedy to see the big picture."
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Much like this quote.

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases:

If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
 
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One of our biggest mistakes was to insist that Telkom roll out fixed lines. Not everyone wanted a fixed line.
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No. I think everyone did want a fixed line. But not everyone was prepared to pay Telkom their arms, their legs and the shirts off their backs just for basic telephony.
 
It always amazes me how politicians might start out making sense, but a phrase or two later in the same sentence and they have bitten off their own feet without even knowing it, and what's worse is that so many voters seem to believe anything that politicians say - probably without even listening to what crap said politicians spewed out to start with.

This goes equally for former politician and MoC Jay Naidoo who did the same thing as Alec Erwin as quoted in the article - they both started out making a little bit of sense but a few words later they had clearly lost the plot, as evidenced by:
Jay Naidoo needs glasses for his short-sightedness said:
Not everyone wanted a fixed line.
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Alec Irwin is almost as incompetent and narcoleptic as Ivy is said:
“The market invests for short-term profit and that is why it invested in VANS [value-added network services] and not the core network.
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It sounds like Erwin should ask Naidoo for a copy of the Telecommunications Act that Naidoo was instrumental in producing & consequently entrenching Telkodemonopolies' monopoly - we often concentrate on the Grim Poisonous Ivyness Creep for being the idiot MoC that she is, but Jay Naidoo also deserves to be on a bad-boy page in SA's telecoms history.

Kudos to David Lewis from the Competition Tribunal for giving Erwin's gonads a wake-up kick - I don't want to quote the entire article, but it is worth reading what he said :), of course Erwin then turned around and responded out his arse again.
 
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