Telkom struggles to cope with demand

Jansen says Telkom has retrenched too many technicians. "They laid off a whole lot of their installation staff a few years ago," he says. "Now they have to try to get these people back."
Click to expand...

No kidding, we need techies to install da lines? I thought we could make more profit if we had less real ppl at the company... 9billion is a lot more when you don't have to waste some of it on the little guy doing the real work.

Telkom executive officer for broadband technology, Alphonzo Samuels, admits there are problems and says demand has been "unprecedented", especially for ADSL. He says the ADSL subscriber base grew 189% between April 2004 and March 2005 and by 146% between April 2005 and March 2006. A similar level of growth is expected this year.
Click to expand...

What, you thougt we are all happy with 56k dailup that rapes our bank accounts?
 
And all we get is a measly 12% reduction in price! I do not understand why Telkom doesn't increase their installation teams, with such a huge profit they make every year, without fail?
 
Oh, so that's why, since applying on 20/06, my line has not even be tested for conformance, let alone my exchange that suddenly went into "planning" *sigh* :rolleyes: Meanwhile me neighbour is enjoying his ADSL line, and when he's not, the techie comes into MY property to fix it :(
 
Sno

Lastly, the second network operator, SNO Telecom, is also expected to target the corporate and wholesale markets aggressively.
Click to expand...

Oh yes, we have an SNO, almost forgot... :rolleyes:
 
tibby.dude said:
Well so much for the belief that ADSL is unaffordable :).
Click to expand...
It's not that it's affordable. It's that in this day and age it's becoming more of a necessity and people have no choice but to pay Telkom.
 
Well its a choice between getting shafted fast with lube or slow without ;)
 
tibby.dude said:
Well so much for the belief that ADSL is unaffordable :).
Click to expand...

(Even though I think you jest...)

nah. It is just more affordable than a dial up connection. Just because A is less expensive than B does not make A cheap or affordable - just more so.
 
"We are reviewing our planning policies and reviewing our engineering practices," he says. "We have several initiatives with key suppliers of equipment to increase bandwidth capacity to get to the point where a certain percentage of our network is pre-provisioned."
Click to expand...

All this from the people who have sole access to the major pipline out of this country! It just goes to show the amount of thought that actually goes into Telkoms day to day workings. Someone please explain to me how they could underprovision for bandwidth when the entire country if not continent is in the infancy of a Broadband explosion?? I say let them continue stumbling over their own feet, let other service providers get a foothold in the market - at the end of the day we as consumers are going to have more choices.
 
Last edited:
6-9 months for installation!!
thats got to be a joke or at least a exaggeration?

if some one orders dsl now, by the time they get it the sno will be supplying residential (so they say) by then.
 
Moederloos said:
(Even though I think you jest...)

nah. It is just more affordable than a dial up connection. Just because A is less expensive than B does not make A cheap or affordable - just more so.
Click to expand...
Nicely put. ;)

I believe Telkom knew from the outset that it couldn't fulfil all the orders so it rather charged the earth for the service and attracted the small but lucrative sector of the market that can afford it, thus maximising their profit under the circumstances.
Of course they never bargained on MyADSL and initially they thought MyADSL was just a bunch of hot air, but they have been forced to alter their perspective on the matter by our constant pressure in the media, on our webpage and with ICASA.

MyADSL IMO has actually contributed to Telkom's business.
We are in one sense making people aware of Broadband and in so doing marketing their services.
 
I say let them continue stumbling over their own feet, let other service providers get a foothold in the market - at the end of the day we as consumers are going to have more choices.
Click to expand...

I cannot wait for the day that most ppl in this country can use scype or the like. Telscum will lose all their consumers. Happy days are coming!

Broadband = scype = ppl talking to one another for almost free... Hmm, seems like Telscum did not figure that one out yet. If they cornered the broadband market and made sure that every user has Telscum ADSL, then they could control scype and that lot (or try, at least). Well, if you snooze, you loose.
 
telscum will be around a long time...2010 is comming fast
 
I'd be inclined to believe Telkom deliberately created this situation, not anticipating that wireless might actually become viable competition. They retrenched their employees to raise profits because they had every intention of keeping ADSL as an expensive product in short supply. They would also have deliberately not installed sufficient cabling so they could push up the price of bandwidth by claiming it was in short supply.

In some countries this sort of deliberate manipulation of the market would probably result in an investigation, possible fines and criminal charges. Here the government themselves are profiting from Telkom's criminal behaviour.

It could be worse, we could have Robert Mugabe running the country :eek:
 
If they are realy not coping why would they charge R450 for ADSL self installation? It is because of greed that things have turned out this way. It doesn't seem like things are going to change either.
 
Lastly, the second network operator, SNO Telecom, is also expected to target the corporate and wholesale markets aggressively. Though it hasn't yet provided details of its plans, sources say it has already circulated a price list to Internet service providers (ISPs) that significantly undercuts Telkom's fees for bandwidth.
Click to expand...

has anyone seen these prices yet?
 
SNO Pricelist?

"it (the SNO) has already circulated a price list to Internet service providers (ISPs) that significantly undercuts Telkom's fees for bandwidth"

Anyone know anything more about this? That is one pricelist I would love to see.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X