Telkom fears Skype etc

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kaspaas

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I believe a major reason why Telkom won't reduce ADSL cost (monthly rates down and caps up) is that the fear VoIP apps such as Skype.

If residential people (and businesses) had cheap ADSL bandwidth, they would rather use Skype etc instead of making local calls.

By keeping ADSL a luxury for the elite, Telkom is able dodge the challenge of VoIP in the short term - and make some more unearned money from the public.
 
The thing is, VoIP is too much hassle for most people. Look at international telco's - they have VoIP do contend with, but most people would still rather use the POTS.
 
VOIP is just one of many reasons why Telkom won't drop the price. They are protecting their old tech in my opinion. Analogue per minute calls, ISDN, Diginet etc....
 
A lot of the people I know don't even have a computer or internet at home and even the few that do, they don't know what ADSL is or can't see the benefit of having it.
So, Skype doesn't entirely kill local phonecalls for me.
 
thats very true but imagine if telkom dropped the price so that majority of middle to upper class family's with a computer had adsl like in uk. then skype would be very popular and telkom would loose alot of local calls i think.

i would say telkom are thinking about their bank account more than the people of this country (a common trend in south africa)
 
killadoob said:
thats very true but imagine if telkom dropped the price so that majority of middle to upper class family's with a computer had adsl like in uk. then skype would be very popular and telkom would loose alot of local calls i think.

i would say telkom are thinking about their bank account more than the people of this country (a common trend in south africa)
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I agree - and well said. Telkom doesn’t even try to bear any semblance of civic responsibility these days..

The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition - Rule 010 - Greed is eternal.
 
Um just a though - can't Telkom be forced to keep the VoIP ports uncapped? It is now legal in South Africa and everyone needs a line to use it. Not a great one but with cleaver leverage it could be done - who still has to speak at the hearings?
 
for the record, telkom already use Voip on their network. they have been testing it for a while now and are already routing unwitting customers over this service. From the end user perspective, you cant tell the difference.
 
well let Telkom deal with it. they charge high costs for ADSL, why not can't we there so called customer's needs be attended.
 
because, quite simply, they dont care about your needs. they are more interested in the big corporates where there is real money to be made. Telkom have just won the contract to put the whole of oldmutual/nedbank onto their MPLS network with free internal voip. that way they dont lose revenue because they are making their money back from lost pstn calls via mpls charges. at the moment - thats where they are concentrating their efforts.
 
ScrnScrm said:
because, quite simply, they dont care about your needs. they are more interested in the big corporates where there is real money to be made. Telkom have just won the contract to put the whole of oldmutual/nedbank onto their MPLS network with free internal voip. that way they dont lose revenue because they are making their money back from lost pstn calls via mpls charges. at the moment - thats where they are concentrating their efforts.
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Oooh - free. Did I hear free. Competition board - where the hell r u. Where is my free stuff then? And whatdya mean teklom won the contract, who else could bid? OldMutual / Nedbank have effectively chopped one toe off of SNO. Klever teklom.
 
If government could only get steel "ones" and do a proper inquest into the things Telkom does to boost its profits. I am sure they are already implimenting cost cutting technologies like VOIP without passing on the savings to the customer.

Thus their service delivery is cheaper but they tell us they are not making enough cash and up telecoms pricing for local calls and make even more money! I want to see their profits at the end of this financial year!!!!
 
stoke said:
Oooh - free. Did I hear free. Competition board - where the hell r u. Where is my free stuff then? And whatdya mean teklom won the contract, who else could bid? OldMutual / Nedbank have effectively chopped one toe off of SNO. Klever teklom.
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yes - you read correctly. FREE. If your are on a MPLS network, your VOIP calls around the network (iow between all your branches) is FREE.

The real clanger with this deal was this - Oldmututal/Nedbank OWN a large percentage of Dimension Data - and DD/Internet Solutions also did a bid for the business, AND LOST!!!!!! What were they thinking???????? Sign that Oldmutual/Nedbank are planning in the not to distant future to sell its share in DD? Pure speculation...
 
antowan said:
If government could only get steel "ones" and do a proper inquest into the things Telkom does to boost its profits. I am sure they are already implimenting cost cutting technologies like VOIP without passing on the savings to the customer.

Thus their service delivery is cheaper but they tell us they are not making enough cash and up telecoms pricing for local calls and make even more money! I want to see their profits at the end of this financial year!!!!
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Hi Antowan - I am also 100% convinced that they are using their MPLS network to route international calls - I just cant damn prove it at the moment!!! And they will not disclose it because it runs via SAT3/SAFE and if they are routing PSTN calls over SAT3/SAFE their arguments against ICASA regulatory control of SAFE are basically null and void - it is basically blatant abuse of its monopoly.

What leads me to believe this? I frequently call the USA - I have family there. Up until a couple of months ago, there was always latency on the call and quality was dodge (typical of PSTN satellite type calls). Then all of a sudden, zero latency, excellent quality, and massive price reductions - all three being benefits of MPLS VOIP. Connect time is also almost immediate now, another telling factor that they are using their VOIP network.
The worst of it all is that they are most probably presenting VOIP circuits to their PSTN as normal routes, so if anyone starts investigating, its a software key to switch it all off and nobody would know. Grrrr. But give me some time - I will find a way to prove this!!!! If they are doing it - then they will HAVE to allow you to choose the routing of your international calls - IS offer much better rates than telkom for international routing.
will keep you posted...
 
telkom Internet have said that they are going to offer free voip for adsl by way of an emial they sent their subscibers on 2005/04/07 :

'TelkomInternet Communicator

As a TelkomInternet customer you will soon be able to to make free Internet voice calls from your PC while you are online. This adds a new dimension to Internet Chat - now you can speak to other online users as you would on a normal telephone call - at no additional cost.

Coming Soon! '
 
yes - but its not over their MPLS network. it will only be a "best effort" service, and trust me, Telkom will make sure that its inferior so that it doesnt eat too much revenue.
My gripe is around their stategy with MPLS (Gauranteed Quality) carried voice...
 
This is why the hearings at ICASA are so important. RPM & Friends have started a fire that Telkom cannot put out this time, without sending smoke signals to all those who have their ears and eyes open!

For VOIP ever to be a success broadband costs need to come down. At the end of the day all the IPS's purchase their international broadband from Telkom, and this is where their fight lies.

ADSL being the most efficient and cheapest broadband technology in the market at present, is the most likely to succeed, with a lot of help from ICASA.

P2P VOIP is free (after you pay monthly broadband costs) and this can start a whole new Telecoms revolution in Africa........but without cheap access to broadband this will remain another pipe dream.

Onionpeel, if cheap broadband were available, then computer demand would rise and costs would fall. Besides the fact that you will not need a computer for Voip when cheap dual band telephones arrive!
 
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