Telkom: massive strategy shift coming

“This will happen in the next month or two,” Kruger said.
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Kruger must be intoxicated by the smell of his own BS if he seriously believes the DoC will do anything soon let alone in December or January.

IMHO Telkom needs to drastically reduce the amount of dead wood employees it has been carrying for years, and sell off the retail side of Telkom such that what remains is only wholesale and the employees needed to keep that going.
 
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There is no other country in the world that obsesses this much about (using taxpayer money for) rolling out every imaginable service to "rural areas". In the rest of the world, people move to cities to get the benefit of affordable services.
 
Who is this Kruger guy and what is his background? He just seems like such a liability, one of these typical pop-up consultants the government seems to endlessly be able to drag out of the woodwork when they need a consenting opinion.
 
DOC strategy:

1. Drive down price of Telkom whilst firing any dissenting directors;
2. Nationalise Telkom, thereby eliminating the need to make a profit;
3. Increase cost of ADSL to pay for supplying service to "rural areas";
4. Contracts for "rural areas" go to friends who supply shoes with red soles as part of tender ...

Am I missing anything ?
 
rrh said:
DOC strategy:

1. Drive down price of Telkom whilst firing any dissenting directors;
2. Nationalise Telkom, thereby eliminating the need to make a profit;
3. Increase cost of ADSL to pay for supplying service to "rural areas";
4. Contracts for "rural areas" go to friends who supply shoes with red soles as part of tender ...

Am I missing anything ?
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Probably this:
5. Go on holiday/buy an expensive car using tax payers money.
 
There is always a worst-case scenario

Telkom collapse completely, cannot pay wages and suppliers, are refused yet another bailout by treasury and the countries telco infrastructure is sold to Tata of India for 1 cent.
 
chrisc4290 said:
There is always a worst-case scenario

Telkom collapse completely, cannot pay wages and suppliers, are refused yet another bailout by treasury and the countries telco infrastructure is sold to Tata of India for 1 cent.
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Free cash flow of R1,5Bn ...

What I see is Telkom being de-listed if Govt want to use them as the "tool" in their attempt to achieve their "broadband for all" dream. This is probably why Pinky Moholi has resigned...
 
ToxicBunny said:
Kruger has not showered himself with kudo's of late.

So I would trust Richard Came's opinion over his any day of the week.
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Unforunately I do not trust either of them.

“It’s going to be the private sector that can do it most cost-effectively and efficiently,” Came said.
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So where is the FTTH in my neighbourhood? Private companies will only do it if they can make money. If there is no money, they are not interested.
 
Any company and especially a telco that has a policy not to answer their retail outlet phones, treats their customers like rubbish, provides a service that is heavily overpriced, makes their customers wait 30 minutes before answering the phone on support calls, serve massively incorrect bills to customers and expects the customer to "pay and wait till next month for the credit to reflect", squanders hundreds of millions on failed expansion plans and failed television divisions, has a new CEO every 2 years, is partly owned and wholly controlled by government is bound to fail without constant bailouts from wherever it may come (read: joe public).

That being said: Burn Telkom BURN! I hope you go up in a massive flaming ball built on the tears frustrations and anger of all the consumers you have ripped off, p1ss3d off and milked all these years.
 
kolakidd said:
[highlight]Who is this Kruger guy and what is his background?[/highlight] He just seems like such a liability, one of these typical pop-up consultants the government seems to endlessly be able to drag out of the woodwork when they need a consenting opinion.
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Good question, I think it is safe to say that Kruger must be an ex-Telkom employee (not one of the very few good ones).
 
Tick said:
There is no other country in the world that obsesses this much about (using taxpayer money for) rolling out every imaginable service to "rural areas". In the rest of the world, people move to cities to get the benefit of affordable services.
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Agree, this fascination with rural areas ahead of sorting out the cities is getting on my nerves too.
 
markings said:
Agree, this fascination with rural areas ahead of sorting out the cities is getting on my nerves too.
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Looks like they are realising it as well !!

http://businesstech.co.za/news/telecommunications/26881/it-will-get-worse-telkom-ceo/

Cost cutting

Telkom reported a 1.6% rise in operating expenses to R15.6 billion for the interim period. As a result, chief financial officer Jacques Schindehütte said that Telkom would look to implement cost cutting measures, including those relating to property, procurement related goods or services, costs relating to rural services and labour costs.

He also questioned the group’s ability to launch a fourth mobile player in South Africa “without bleeding cash”.
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I happened to meet Roy at an ICT colloquium in April in Midrand. I had become increasingly interested in this Digital Migration, the switch over to DTT, Digital Terrestrial Transmission. And had also read a lot about this issue on MyBB.
I thought this meeting was a nice occasion to field my critical questions, and a nice excuse to visit Gauteng, do some shopping and visit my son in Pretoria. And also curious to see what a Gov Talkshop would be like. So I decided to make the long trip to Gallagher Estate, Midrand. Arrived only midday Friday, the second and last day of this colloquium. When I asked the reception who know more about DTT, I was directed to Roy Kruger.
I asked him why the Gov by all means wants to have its own receivers produced in SA and wants to implement a complicated and extremely costly scheme of subsidised STBs, Set Top Boxes, while one can get in the UK all kind of DVB-T receivers from 18 Pounds upwards. If we just allow those STBs to be imported just like in the UK, they will not cost at least R700, and there is no need to subsidise STBs for the poor.
Roy went almost immediately in a bit of aggressive-defensive mood, and replied that as I was white, I didn't understand the plight of the poor. I tried to explain that I am not exactly a typical white South African, that I even worked for a NGO for the poorest of the poor in a remote part of a neighbouring country in 1988, and after that for mines and the Lesotho Highlands Water Scheme. I wanted to explain further that also in SA I visited townships and entered houses there, very simple dwellings of corrugated sheets, and I have seen real poverty. But he never allowed me even to go on.
He said he had been an ANC member for more than 20 years. He told me how the DoC had run a test programme of 600 donated Digital STBs in Soweto. And that the people were so poor, that they were given a number to call if they had any problem with the receivers, but were not able to call because of lack of money for airtime. The DoC found almost all receivers switched off when returning in Soweto. For Roy apparently an argument we have to give those receivers for free or at least heavily subsidise them. I wanted to further discuss this with him, but he walked away. Actually I totally don't believe at all in freebies and subsidies to the poor and rural areas. My time working for and with poorer people actually very quickly convinced me that "Charity will not save Africa", which has become one of my favourite expressions.
If the poor are not willing to work as hard and for similar salaries and in similar conditions as the workers in electronics factories like Foxconn in China, they just don't deserve the goodies. As the Forumite BBSA states his location correctly: The Nanny State, or The Begging Bowl at the bottom end of Africa.
Roy impressed me, if I might maybe prejudice and stereotype him, as a political crony, with a same ideology as Jeremy Cronin or Patrick Craven.
 
OF course he is a political crony...

He has no idea about the technology or anything.. its just better because its made here blah blah blah...

I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a bit of a kickback out of the whole thing.
 
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