Vodacom goes first tier

wait WHAT?

if all the submarine cables fail they will go it alone? and lay cables to where? our neighboring states that also hook up to the same damn cable as us anyway? or does vodacom seriously expect us to believe they will drop their very own submarine cable all the way to US / Asia / Europe???

i call BS!

How much to put a cable in?
 
Why would it be so unthinkable for a company with billions of rands, and the vision to see that Data is the way forward for the company to spend a few hundred million dollars on a decent international submarine cable?

Makes me wonder why neither VC nor MTN have attempted this already :confused:
 
Why exactly is that biased journalism?

Maybe the reporter is privy to information that he can't openly share with us regarding how far along the network rollout is?
Easy. The journalist takes the word of the company that something is progressing without providing a reason or evidence. That is usually known in the industry as a 'commercial' or 'infomercial'.

Most journalists are taught about bias in their first year of study. My feeling is that this article was either written by Vodacom themselves or by an untrained ally of the company.

It's very easy to write something, but to do it properly takes training and experience. The most receptive news pieces are neutral or try to justify their slant.

If the author is privvy to inside information, then he has a duty to say so.

If you analyse the story further, notice that the word Vodacom is used in 11 out of the 12 paragraphs. That just shouts "INFOMERCIAL".

We could try asking the ASASA?;)
 
Makes me wonder why neither VC nor MTN have attempted this already :confused:

Legally, no one could self provide until recently. What did you expect? The law to change and everyone lays their own fiber in a space of a month? These things take time. Let's give Vodacom a bit of a chance first before we all start jumping down their throats.
 
Makes me wonder why neither VC nor MTN have attempted this already :confused:
Most companies of this type have a business model and laying cable is just not part of it.

I can just picture their expenditure forcasts -
Spend on infrastructure 50%
Staff & Assetts 19.7%
Advertising & Marketing 30%
Customer support 0.3%
 
Laying cable is part of most Telecommunications providers business plans Skeptik.

Legally they have not been allowed to lay cable up until recently, and you can thank !CASA and DoC for that.
 
And secondly, when have Vodacom ever not followed through with something that they have announced? Their track record in this regard is near impeccable, and compare that to the likes of Telkom/ICASA/DoC/Eassy/Iburst/Sentech/GTS - take your pick.
 
Yeah, very definitely.. Its refreshing to have a company that does follow through on things they've announced.
 
Legally, no one could self provide until recently. What did you expect? The law to change and everyone lays their own fiber in a space of a month? These things take time. Let's give Vodacom a bit of a chance first before we all start jumping down their throats.

Noticed the politics around these cables?
 
Its telecoms in SA V3G :p

If there isn't politics we know somethings wrong :D
 
Well they have to have something to combat that big tsunami thats going to hit us you know...
 
Laying cable is part of most Telecommunications providers business plans Skeptik.

Legally they have not been allowed to lay cable up until recently, and you can thank !CASA and DoC for that.
So if it's illegal, why would it be part of their business model. Contradiction!?

I'm saying if they chose to be in the mobile business, then they are unlikely to go cable.
 
Actually (and dominic can correct me on this) companies like Vodacom have been fighting for the ability to self-provide backhaul links for many years.

Yes they're in mobile, but they still need a wired network to connect all the mobile basestations.
 
or does vodacom seriously expect us to believe they will drop their very own submarine cable all the way to US / Asia / Europe???

i call BS!
Actually, Vodacom could easily build SEVERAL submarine fiber-optic cables PER YEAR and still turn a profit. (Same with Telkom, BTW. - between just the two of them a CONSERVATIVE estimate suggests that South African consumers are ploughing enough money into these cartels to theoretically build probably, I would guess, six to twelve such cables a year, every year.) If you don't believe me, check their financials and do the math, it's easy.

An uncompetitive market is the main reason these things don't happen.

Competition - FULL-BLOWN opening of the market - would lead to more such investments and would cause local hosting prices to plummet and become far more competitive.
 
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