Telkom: the bigger picture

[bacchus]

While going through postings on this site, I came to the conclusion that many users here miss an important point. A few facts to try and explain what I'm trying to say.
1. The government is the biggest shareholder in Telkom
2. Telkom generates huge profits, which come in handy when you
are trying to win a few votes by building houses etc.
3. Telkom's supposed opposition ( SNO, Sentech) also have the
Government as Major shareholders.
- The SNO through the 30% shares of Esitel (Eskom) and
Transtel (Transnet). Both have the Government as major
share holders.
- Prior to 1996 Sentech was a division of the SABC. In 1996 the
shares was transfered to the Public company
(Sentech as we know it today) with the Government as the sole
shareholder
4. ICASA (Independant Communications Authoroty of SA) is fully
subsidised by the government (via the Communications departmend
of Ivy) and all revenue is directed to the Department.
5. Telkom was a monopoly by law. The telecoms act forbid any
party (apart from telkom) to do any kind of telecoms. (Government
protecting its assets)

So yes Telkom give us ****ty service and products, but i see them merely as puppets of a government that havent come to grips of the IT potential that this country offers.[V]


Please correct me if I'm missing something. . .[?]

 

[onionpeel]

Here is another way of looking at it:
Don't bite the hand which feeds you []

 

[bacchus]

It would have been nice if we had somebody in Andile's Comms Department to give us some inside info on legislation. This will always give us an indication of what to expect in the near future.

So come on all Comms dep employees, give us some value for your salaries that we tax payers work so hard for.

 

[bacchus]

Somebody just pointed out a bright side to the whole "Government ownes everything" scenario. We have a government who pass laws every year to defend companies that they own. Take the post office for example. their is a huge debate on the new ruling that only the Post office can send packages under 1Kg.

Point is that the government will protect their assests and we will probably never experience the problems of 1st and 2nd Tier ISP's coming and going like the mess in the states.

 

[musnit]

2 bad...hopefully the government may change their attitude soon