The SNO is COMING!

[lewstherin]

June SNO licence expected, Tata takes stake
BY PAUL VECCHIATTO, ITWEB CAPE TOWN CORRESPONDENT

[Cape Town | ITWeb, 11 February 2005] - The second national operator (SNO) should be licensed by June and Indian industrial group Tata will own 26% of it, says Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) chairman Mandla Langa.

Langa says ICASA is still awaiting the final shareholder agreement from the SNO. Once that has been received, the licensing procedure should be straightforward, he says.

“The Ministry of Communications has indicated to us that Tata would be taking up the 26% outstanding stake in the SNO. Tata has also requested a meeting with us,” he said.

As much as I have my doubts...I REALLY hope Tata can make this SNO happen...
Later in the article, Langa also makes an interesting comment about the VANS self-provisioning issue:

On the question of the self-provisioning of value-added network services (VANS), Langa said: “We are still determining what the regulations would be; a lot would depend on the legal definition. While the communications minister [Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri] has made her intentions clear, the problem is that Section 40 of the Telecommunications Act has not been repealed,” he said.

This section describes what a VANS licence-holder may or may not do, and until 1 February, prohibited VANS from providing voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services.

“In my view, one cannot put the fetters back on VOIP; it will find its own way of diverting around legislation and technology.”

Could it be that ICASA may go ahead and allow self-provisioning anyway?

http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecoms/2005/0502111005.asp?A=VO1&S=VOIP&O=FPT

 

[Alkine]

Hehe, tekom is gonna dry out, and then TATA will be a monopoly. I think TATA is the best that could have happend to the SNO and south-africa. Heard allot of good things about them, and they have more than enough money and experiance behind them.

/me wishes he could fast forward to 6 months from now...

 

[martin]

Yeah, I'm also pretty pleased that it's Tata. They seem to be doing good things in India.

 

[hArTh]

TATA have rights to SAFE-SAT3 cable in India ... if those rights are also useable in ZA we could well see cost of international bandwidth drop significantly.

 

[BTTB]

Maybe the wait was worth it.

Perhaps the wait was worth it.
Some of the previous bidders were not suitable. At least now we have a good chance of breaking down the Monopolistic Market in South Africa.

I sincerely hope Tata and the SNO have an aggressive plan on the table and breed some life into our Market.
It's terribly boring with just Telkom.

 

[Alkine]

You need not worry, they are gonna rape telkom, and in a news report (somewhere on this site) they said TATA is not scared of laying submarine cables. So if they dont have access to sat3 they will lay their own, no doubt. TATA is huge. gg and byebye telkom.

 

[keng]

Yeah, I'm also pretty pleased that it's Tata. They seem to be doing good things in India.

Tata have been around for 130 yrs and make about $80 billion pa. They have their fingers in all sorts of pies and operate on every continent and most countries. Tata do well in everything, expect to be driving one our their cars in the not to distant future.

Anyone in the Financial Services sector will know that they are also a huge IT bodyshop.
They will definately give Hellkom a run for their money (provided that the other SNO parter (read telkom mole) is dispensed with) but don't expect prices to drop soon. They weren't 'awarded' the 26% for nothing.

Also don't place ALL your faith in them just because they are Indian.
SA (especially the mining industry) ended up paying 50% more for our own steel than overseas companies did after Mittal (India, India I love U) Steel bought Iscor.

I think tata are a much better choice than the quasi goverment investment house OMAM.

 

[dominic]

Could it be that ICASA may go ahead and allow self-provisioning anyway?

there is going to be a major bunfight - word from inside ICASA is that they are (understandably) extremely upset at the ministerial (un)clarification and that they do indeed intend to fight it

 

[Vio]

Would be great if ICASA goes ahead and pushes for VANS self-provision hey

 

[diabolus]

I hope this means TATA TELKOM? [pun intended]

Btw, just looking at Tata's car prices, i just might get me one of those [cars are another industry where i believe we're being shafted, maybe things change with Tata creeping up all over the place].

 

[kilps]

This looks great - i can't wait - any idea what the SNO will be called?

 

[ic]

Tata Telkomonopoly

I hope this means TATA TELKOM?...

diabolus, I've been trying to post "Tata Telkomonopoly" with my Burst-i, then I read your post, oh well my Burst-i snoozed & I lost. I think the SNO should be called "Tata Telkomonopoly", adlo's scepticism notwithstanding, although it is likely to take at least another year before the SNO services its 1st customer, considering they would only be licensed by ICASA in June 2005.

 

[alchamy]

I must say my previous comments & concerns about the current investors will dissapear if TATA aquires shares in the SNO, they have "world" of experience in particular when it comes to developing countries which is exactly what we need.

 

[rpm]

Companies Look Forward to Telkom Rival

http://allafrica.com/stories/200502100446.html

 

[ic]

The BMI-T research shows that top 350 spenders blew a massive R7,1bn on telecoms last year, each clocking up an average bill of R1,7m a month on voice and data services over the fixed-line and cellular networks.

That spending is expected to grow relatively slowly in the future, reaching R8,6bn by 2007.

 

[bb_matt]

Oh the telecoms life is frightful

Overseas it seems so delightful

And since we've no place to go

Let It SNO! Let It SNO! Let It SNO!

It doesn't show signs of starting

Yet noone has bought some bandwidth for porning

The speed is turned way down low

Let It SNO! Let It SNO! Let It SNO!

 

[KikzAzz]

Hopefully it is going to be TATA high prices as well as TATA 3Gb caps as well. The Indians really know how to do business and undercut prices. Just hope they keep the quality up.

The TATA car's quality don't look all that great, but they are cheap though. Very cheap actually!