Telkom and AT&T partner

[gregmcc]

Telkom and AT&T partnership promises better services, lower prices

Telkom and lower prices don't go together!!

 

[Johand]

Quite seriously, I think this isn't bad news. I don't expect charity from my telco. Just reliable service at a decent price. AT&T do that pretty well in the USA (I have an AT&T family plan with 5 phones).

Edit: For five phones and $135/mo I get unlimited cell-to-cell calls nationwide, unlimited SMSs (which are normally charged in the USA to both send and receive), plus 700 minutes to other phones, with roll-over. For an extra $25 my son gets unlimited 3G data. Compare that to anything in SA (not that I expect an AT&T stake in Telkom to change much locally).

Mwoahahahaha:

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/04/0111225

 

[Arthur]

Mwoahahahaha:

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/04/0111225

Oi. Bad news - imagine being capped at 150GB/month, and having to pay $1 per gig thereafter.

 

[d0b33]

Pass the vaseline, this is gonna hurt.

 

[Aragon]

Quite seriously, I think this isn't bad news. I don't expect charity from my telco. Just reliable service at a decent price. AT&T do that pretty well in the USA (I have an AT&T family plan with 5 phones).

Quite seriously, I think you have blinders on. In addition to everything else already pointed out, AT&T were a key instigator against net neutrality in the US 2 years ago. They have very little good to offer the consumer and the ICT industry except the bare minimum they can get away with. Having said that, Telkom and AT&T are ironically a match made in heaven!

 

[greywolfe]

so, basically:

i) telkom partner with another monopoly.
ii) telkom are going to end up getting subsumed somewhere along the way.
iii) because at&t are an /american!/ company, the ineffectual icasa become the irrelevant icassa.
iv) profit?!

just. oh dear.

 

[Alchemist]

Does anyone remember what happened with the last "partnership" Telkom had with an american telecoms company? Do you remember how much they just absolutely took advantage of us?

 

[Netguy]

Hopefully AT&T will impart some of its business manners and acumen, albeit American, onto a consumer hostile Telkom world. Maybe this results in a positive spin.

 

[DragonLogos]

One Ring to rule them all and in darkness bind them

 

[Abe]

Quite seriously, I think this isn't bad news. I don't expect charity from my telco. Just reliable service at a decent price. AT&T do that pretty well in the USA (I have an AT&T family plan with 5 phones).

Edit: For five phones and $135/mo I get unlimited cell-to-cell calls nationwide, unlimited SMSs (which are normally charged in the USA to both send and receive), plus 700 minutes to other phones, with roll-over. For an extra $25 my son gets unlimited 3G data. Compare that to anything in SA (not that I expect an AT&T stake in Telkom to change much locally).

Why would they give us cheaper prices? They can rape us some more and not blink twice. They would look better back home if they did that.

 

[Skip]

Folks, this isn't a different US telco that Telkom is partnering with. This is the SAME telco (SBC) that was an investor along with Telecom Malaysia when Telkom was privatised. SBC changed their name to AT&T a couple years back after buying the old AT&T they were originally spun off of.

Need I remind you that SBC's lawyers basically wrote our old Telco Act that gave Telkom 5 years (in reality closer to 15) monopoly.

 

[DblD]

Mr September before striving for Pan-African titles.. how about you get your internal affairs in order...

 

[apogeeza]

Edit: For five phones and $135/mo I get unlimited cell-to-cell calls nationwide, unlimited SMSs (which are normally charged in the USA to both send and receive), plus 700 minutes to other phones, with roll-over. For an extra $25 my son gets unlimited 3G data. Compare that to anything in SA (not that I expect an AT&T stake in Telkom to change much locally).

Mwoahahahaha:
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/04/0111225

Oi. Bad news - imagine being capped at 150GB/month, and having to pay $1 per gig thereafter.

For obvious pre-conceptions, I wanted to respond:
"The Internet Cap. Another SA Invention donated to the world. <swoon /> "

But a quick Google|Yahoo|Ask|Answers to check my facts, yields nothing but Time Warners April Fools prank in all the results and the baklashes to it. So who knows the answer to this:

who invented the internet bandwidth cap?

 

[sutekj]

AT&T was responsible for warrantless wiretappings in the USA.

I don't like this at all. This alone would be enough reason for me to ditch telkom and go with Neotel.