Telkom’s fixed lines continue to decline

Not surprising, given the high prices and poor service.

Should they be serious, and want to reverse the trend, they should drop prices drastically...

...but that's got an one in million chance of ever happening... :(
 
See the worry in Ivy's eye.. it aint there.
 
Very surprising stats if you consider that there are developments going up all over the place. Surely some of these new places would have had lines installed?
 
But companies don't think like that....I have said this before, but imagine if Telkom installed lines for nadda....imagine all the phone calls costs that could be generated.

When I used to be a Telkom techie....we were told a telephone that is not working is one that is not generating revenue naturally, so get it up and running and money comes in.
 
duderoo said:
But companies don't think like that....I have said this before, but imagine if Telkom installed lines for nadda....imagine all the phone calls costs that could be generated.

When I used to be a Telkom techie....we were told a telephone that is not working is one that is not generating revenue naturally, so get it up and running and money comes in.
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:eek: you worked for the monopolistic beast? :p :D

The thing is that Telkodemonopolies prefers to generate revenue from exorbitant monthly rental fees - instead of actually putting in the work necessary to provide a reliable telecoms service that could otherwise have the potential to compare favourably with other services from fixed line operators around the world.

My hope is that Telkodemonopolies seriously learns a hard lesson when NeOTel starts offering any kind of telecoms service to consumers, that customers tell Telkodemonopolies what it can do with its monopolistic business - the major problem I foresee is NeOTel not being able to keep up with demand...
 
The line rentals just keep going up. It now costs R100 per month to have a phone line before you even start to make calls. It is more cost effective to just use a mobile phone.
 
I'm thinking that if Telkom woke up someday and started working on their backlog of installations this would be a non-issue. But until then they are losing revenue because customers like me have to wait 9 months for installation....
 
Land Lines too expensive and a hassle to install

Many South African's choose not to have landlines installed because they have cellphones and do not see the benefit of a landline.

Also the procedure of getting a landline installed is too long winded. Not forgetting Telkom's knack for taking its own sweet time to complete installations.

Apart from all this though, I am getting the sneaking suspicion that the fixed line decline suits Telkom just fine. It means having to hire and pay less support staff who may be costing more to employ than the fixed lines they service are bringing in.

Besides, why worry whether people choose mobile communication over fixed line communication when you own half of the largest mobile operator in the country.
 
No phone line, No ADSL, so at this point there is no way in hell I am cancelling, unless there is another service that is as good as DSL for my needs.
 
MrG said:
No phone line, No ADSL, so at this point there is no way in hell I am cancelling, unless there is another service that is as good as DSL for my needs.
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I take it you're referring to NeOTel's lack of service, as opposed to Telkodemonopolies that sort of provides ADSL if and when the beast feels like providing ADSL?
 
Heres a theory:

Maybe telkom would love to get rid of the whole local loop altogether.
Maybe they throwing all their eggs into the wireless basket (wimax, wifi, etc)

They will probally package voice and data over one package (wireless) ...

who knows... ???
 
MrG said:
No phone line, No ADSL, so at this point there is no way in hell I am cancelling, unless there is another service that is as good as DSL for my needs.
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yeah that be true,only waited a month instead of 3 for mine.
 
So their fixed lines are decreasing and yet their profit is higher than ever. They're going to milk the SA population till no one can afford a phone. I swear they have no long term vision whatsoever.
 
Cara said:
Very surprising stats if you consider that there are developments going up all over the place. Surely some of these new places would have had lines installed?
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Yeah well that might be so but they are doing it all wrong as per usual. I'm moving into a new development at the end of the year. Went down to Telkom a month ago (the complex has been built and finished about 4 months ago) to get the transfer started, nice and early. Problem: Telkom person "erm do you know anyone there with a telephone line? I don't know if that area has telephone lines" Hmm great response there, just what I was hoping for.

Went to a different Telkom shop last week, and seems they have found the telephone lines, but there is no DSL exchange, and no plans to install a DSL exchange that she could see. This is an area with probably in excess of 500 houses, all new develpments, price range of between R 650 000,00 to about R 1 200 000,00. Now to me that is not low cost housing, and it would stand to reason that in such an area DSL would be something that could be sold to residents, provided it was available, and probably be afforded by them.

So why should I have a telephone line installed if I can't get my DSL transferred. I have a cellphone, I don't do business from home, and if I want to chat with friends I go visit them, or make use of the internet. So my option are simple: Keep my cellphone, get wireless and to hell with Telkom and their short sighted, customer is always wrong attitude. There goes another one for the statistics, Fixed lines -1.
 
ebudae said:
Apart from all this though, I am getting the sneaking suspicion that the fixed line decline suits Telkom just fine. It means having to hire and pay less support staff who may be costing more to employ than the fixed lines they service are bringing in.
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I seriously doubt this. Fixed line telephony is Telkom's golden goose, especially on local and national calls. The service costs virtually nothing to maintian and rakes in an absolute fortune. In many parts of the world, local calls are free, with telcos only charging for long distance and add-on services.

South Africans, meanwhile, have paid for their local loop thousands of times over.
 
Free Local Calls would help Telkom maintain penetration....
and would bring internet albiet 56k to the masses for very little cost.. it 100 bucks a month....
 
greggpb said:
Free Local Calls would help Telkom maintain penetration....
and would bring internet albiet 56k to the masses for very little cost.. it 100 bucks a month....
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If Telkodemonopolies ever allowed free local calls <50km radius, then the beast would exclude calls to local ISPs, for which one would still be charged - unless perhaps one's ISP is TelkodemonopoliesHindernet with an 0800 number...
 
It all makes sense. If the product/service you offer is too expensive the client will find something else that will be either cheaper or the same price but with more benefits like a mobile cellphone for a R100 that includes a couple of free minutes and is guess what? mobile.
 
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