The day Telkom listed on the JSE was probably the last day that tax payers paid for the Telkom network. From that day on every bit that was spent came from a listed company (from revenue and profits). Exchanges were added, mini DSLAMs in those street corner boxes were added. Miles and miles of fibre was added, not to mention the backend servers that run an IP network. Salaries were paid to continuelly maintain the network, replace stolen cable etc... I agree that to a certain degree LLU sounds good because we want it to mean cheaper broadband. Perhaps an audit should be done to say what percentage of the network was paid for by tax payers and that should be unbundled. But that won't make much sense as it would be to complicated. Also, after unbundling, who will maintain the network or pay for stolen cables? If you remove emotion from LLU, it will probably be better to leave it status quo. That way Telkom can continue to invest in the access network, especially in new areas without cable, coz lets face it, LLU is still a hot topic becuase mobile data is not up to scratch and expensive, otherwise if it was better than fixed line, why would they bother? (Vodacom and MTN were granted years of exclusivity before and thrid and then a fourth licence were granted -- billions in profit. Maybe access to their networks would also help bring down price)
