telephone line takeover

A

andyCape

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Hello,

not sure if this is the right forum but I couldn't find anything appropriate.

my issue: when renting a house is it possible to take over the telephone line of the previous renters, how does that work and how much does this cost?

I found the term 'indoor transfer' on the telkom web site but it is not clear to me whether this is the same thing
(sorry, I'm not a native english speaker and I will be moving to South Africa next year so I don't have any local experience).
It is also not clear how telkom handles this. Is this considered to be a new installation with the usual waiting times (and what are they)? I would not expect a service man to show up but one never knows.

any guidance?

kind regards
andy
 
Prepare for a world of prolonged pain.

Why don't you phone Telkom and ask?
 
I tried 3 times but after spending about 10 minutes in the queue each time I thought why don't I ask some experts? :)
 
Is there currently a dialtone on that line? - if not then Telkodemonopolies will charge you the normal analogue line installation fee - even though there already is copper there.

If you want to use the line mostly for incoming calls, you could consider this option...
 
ic,

you raised a good point and a follow up question.

There currently is a dialtone but the renters are moving out in December, not sure when exactly. I will take over from Jan 1st onwards.
Should I arrange with the current renters to take over their line as soon as they are out in order to save time?
(means: if they move out e.g. before Christmas and cancel their phone I'd surely have to pay installation fees in January so I'd rather pay part of the December monthly fee and have a line as soon as I arrive).

rgds
andy
 
The installation fee is not too high, if there`s already a line there I think.

I`d rather get a new line with my own number.
It doesn`t take that long to install, and u don`t get as many "wrong" numbers.

You`ll probably have a cellphone anyway...
 
andyCape said:
ic,

you raised a good point and a follow up question.

There currently is a dialtone but the renters are moving out in December, not sure when exactly. I will take over from Jan 1st onwards.
Should I arrange with the current renters to take over their line as soon as they are out in order to save time?
(means: if they move out e.g. before Christmas and cancel their phone I'd surely have to pay installation fees in January so I'd rather pay part of the December monthly fee and have a line as soon as I arrive).

rgds
andy
Click to expand...
It all depends on whether you can get the line transferred into your name without the line being cutoff by Telkodemonopolies, when the dialtone disappears, the option of getting the line transferred into your name also disappears.

I can also tell you that you're going to struggle getting any line out of Telkodemonopolies unless you have a South African ID or Passport.

Do you intend running ADSL on that line? - if so then Telkodemonopolies only offers ADSL on post-paid|contract accounts and not pre-paid, which again raises the issue of South African permanent residence or citizenship...

There are also wireless broadband options, e.g. pre-paid HSDPA.
 
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Installation fee is around R400, if the copper's there but there's no dialtone. Bear in mind that the current tenants probably have to give Telkom notice, so if you want to take over from them you'd need to tell them that before they tell Telkom to cancel the line - so probably mid-November at the latest.

It is possible, though - I just don't know anyone who's done it lately, so I'm not sure of the procedure you need to follow.

And as for needing a SA ID document or passport - I thought you need a SA ID or SA passport if you're South African, or any valid passport if you're not?
 
ic said:
I can also tell you that you're going to struggle getting any line out of Telkodemonopolies unless you have a South African ID or Passport.
Click to expand...
Really? Is that a new restriction because I've never had any problems myself.
 
A couple of years back, a friend of mine arrived in SA [not an SA citizen] and decided to go through what turned out to be a special hell that Telkodemonopolies reserves for people who dare to not have an SA ID book and SA passport.

Entirely possible that it was a single Telkodemonopolies disservice centre that invented its own rules, although that would imply creativity and actual thought processes - albeit evil ones.

What does a Telkodemonopolies analogue contract line installation form say nowadays?

Also, about that pre-paid option, it could help get a dialtone into the copper, and maybe later convert from pre-paid to contract for ADSL.
 
A rather late reply but I thought I'd let you know how it went.

The old tenants had cancelled their line before I could get in touch with them.

The house agent then applied for a phone and ADSL line and it got installed in about 3 weeks time, it ran under his name (and he's south african).
Later when I arrived in SA we went to the nearest Telkom branch and I took over the line from him. Just my passport was needed and I had to pay the 700R deposit, the rest was a bit of admin work on the Telkom side. The agent got his deposit back from Telkom after a month, I paid him the installation fees of course, done.

Since then I had good and bad experiences with Telkom which I'll post another time.
 
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