Telkom threatens to pull plug on ADSL

Wow, close to a Billion rand on ADSL rollout, just a pitty that at the rate they charging us they are currently making a profit of 500 milion/year. Thats for 50 000 users * (Estimate price on line rental R500 + Estimate Price of telkom portion of ISP Account) * 12 months = very ruff R420 mil then add another 30 mil for installation fees and you get a nice total of around R450 mil, +/- 500 mil.
 
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As Peapod has said, nobody wants free ADSL - just fair cost compared to the rest of the world.

If the rest of the world is charging a single price at ISP level which includes "line and data", why can't the same happen in SA? I'm sure all would prefer to rather pay the ISP a single fee than having to pay Telkom as well as the ISP.

I'm fed-up with all the Telkom adverts claiming that ADSL is now much more affordable, and then only indicating the line cost.

To be fair to the consumer, the line as well as "ISP" costs need to consolidated into one amount.

At least then it will be open for all to see how expensive Telkom really is.

I'm sure Telkom would not like this. The current fragmentation makes it difficult for most people to comprehend the real costs for ADSL, and even more difficult to compare apples with apples compared to the international market.
 
Telkom makes over 50 million a month from ADSL, but I dont believe the R1 billion story.
 
White said that Telkom has invested “close to R1-bn on rolling out the services to date”.

Very interesting. Lets work out how much Telkom is earning from their ADSL services shall we?

Number of ADSL likes: 100000 (conservative)
Average line rental per month excluding analogue telephone: R400 pm
Average ISP account income per line: R200 pm (Remember that the vast majority of ADSL accounts are resold Telkom accounts)

== R720 million per year.

After one year they break even and then its all gravy from there onwards .... lovely to be a monopoly isnt it?
 
White said that Telkom has invested “close to R1-bn on rolling out the services to date.

I find this very difficult to believe. I think they're adding the cost of infrastucture that existed before they started rolling out ADSL.
 
He said Telkom was approaching the matter “with people at the highest level within Icasa".

Boo fecking hoo Telkom. Steven sounds like a child making idle threats. :mad:

Does Telkom think that they are beyond the long arm of the law?
 
MaryJane said:
Does Telkom think that they are beyond the long arm of the law?

Not only do they think that they believe it with all their hearts.

Several years ago the competition commision ordered Telkom be fined 10% of their turnover for anti-competitive behaviour.

Guess what? It's still dragging through the courts years later.

In fact, if Telkom threaten legal action against you for what you did or said you can be sure youve hit the sweet spot. They only resort to legal action if they are caught in an indefensible position.
 
Siembambaa said:
In fact, if Telkom threaten legal action against you for what you did or said you can be sure youve hit the sweet spot. They only resort to legal action if they are caught in an indefensible position.
I have come across wet facecloths that inspire more fear than Telkom. They're just a big cuddly blue and green teddy bear.

The lawsuits only draw more attention to themselves - a strategic error of note.
 
I hope this Steven White is currently receiving his final Disciplinary Hearing for making such childish, empty, absentminded, monopolistic remarks.
 
Just read this

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/specials/corp_gov/468136.htm

and found this :

Most tellingly, there are also racketeering charges. The Prevention of Organised Crime Act, No 121 of 1998, defines racketeering, and imposes fines of up to R100-m, or up to life imprisonment. As a statutory crime, racketeering was developed principally in the US after the reign of Chicago mob boss Alphonse “Scarface” Capone in the 1920s.

Is blackmail not s criminal offense ?
 
*nudges lawyers on forum*
Technically, a company making a threat to deliberately doing an action which would cause serious financial damage to the economy of South Africa, if they carried it out, would seem to be suitable grounds for some charges.?

Wouldn't this fall under 'economic terrorism'?
 
MaD said:
I have come across wet facecloths that inspire more fear than Telkom. They're just a big cuddly blue and green teddy bear.

LOL
 
Lets assume that they did invest R1 billion(cr@p!) then y would they just cancel the service? Thats just stupid bad business.
 
its just an idle threat to get icasa to change their minds. if telkom should pull the plug, that would put thousands of people out of a job. not like they cared about firing people in the past, but this would leave only their executives to run their business. additionally, it would affect all ISP's revenues dramatically. telkom would then probably face legal action from every single ISP for abusing its monopoly status, as well as thousands of complaints from adsl users.

bottom line - it would cause too much chaos both financially and socially. the courts wouldn't hear of it, there's no way telkom would be allowed to cut the service. thats just abuse of power simply because they can't have things their way. telkom are just bluffing, stirring a storm in a teacup
 
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