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This is what worries me as well, IMO we need to know the exact extent of WBS|iBurst involvement here - considering that WBS|iBurst shapes its own network to death, its Accounts department is a mess, its pricing has not reduced since it officially launched on 2005-04-04|01, and its idea of broadband is 40MB per month.
If they want to compete with adsl they'll have to stop giving the impression that 1GB of data costs more than with other isps.
Any chance we here on the outskirts will ever see it or will they only 'compete' in the over saturated areas as usual like iBurst and Sentech?
23 km isn't what I would call progressing well. If they want to do this they would need at least 10 times that and then it's only for one area. Can they do that in the <4 months they have left?
Actually both are correct.
Would be harder to justify the double 'line' rental.The only reason they could have is that they want to force people to have analogue lines, I'm actually surprised they didn't make it a requirement to get Wimax.
Nice, if this comes out we can all cancel our Telkom landlines.
Why do we have to measure everything by african standards? We should be demanding world class services at normal prices and not sub standard services at abnormally high prices. 23km is like a 5km block or a 7km wide ring. Set the bar high and you may actually achieve something but set it low like the rest and you'll be like the rest (Sentech?).
If they want to play in the adsl arena they don't get any special treatment. On adsl 1GB is R70 and for the R289 Vodacom charges I can get 5GB. I want either a fair price per GB or a fairly priced inclusive service and none of this hidden 'line' rental garbage. They don't have a landline network to keep in order.
Actually, Vodacom does now have a 23km wired fibre optic landline network to take care of and extend.
Haha, 23km. Technically though it's not wired.
That is my problem as well. If Sentech is anything to go by they roll it out and then it just stays where it is. Why not start with the people that really need it instead of with the business and other customers that can afford adsl or Neotel fibre. Oh yes a slice of the pie.
That is my point. Everybody thinks they can play by the same backwards standards. Nothing will ever happen while nobody wants to break the trend. My vote goes to whoever takes the initiative.
They don't need a license. They all have permission to self provision. If they needed a license they would not have (officially) that 23km. In any case a license does not give permission to dig up roads which is something the relevant municipality has to and can give on their own. In comparison to this 23km 'network' Neotel already has a 10,000km fibre ip network rivalling that of Telkom so when they decide to launch something I know it's real. I've given up hope on 'hopefully'.
Unfortunately for them they can't have it both ways. They chose to play in the adsl arena even more so when they launched their ad comparing their service as faster than adsl (1Mb at the time). It may be partly due to the 'unique' market that 100,000+ users chose gprs/edge/3G/hsdpa for their primary connectivity over Telkom's 200,000 adsl users but the fact remains that they are nontheless competing directly with adsl.
What? - you think the strands of fibre optic cable are free floating and don't connect to anything at the ends?
No but it's not wired in the sense that wires are used to convey electrical signals from one point to another. That is what the word wire means from the dictionary - a metal conductor that carries electricity over a distance.
If they are not competing with adsl they should not make mention of it in their advertising. They may not have decided to compete with it but the fact is that they are competing with it, directly. It is a simple matter of fact not a delusion. They can't claim ignorance while having a slice of the pie. It doesn't matter if they claim it or not, they are sitting with the customers. They don't have to compare the prices. It is priced so closely to adsl with line rental they might just as well compare them.
The reason I mention Neotel is to give you an idea of what is actually needed to offer a service. They may not have built it all, although since Eskom and Transtel are shareholders they did build it officially. This is still not enough for the full service they want to provide but it is as you say, a start. In contrast to that Vodacom has what, the start to a start? Will be interesting to see what wired services they come up with as only Neotel and Telkom has the license for a landline network.
I don't have it in for anyone even though they are not my favourite company together with MTN and Telkom. I am just not ready to jump up with joy with every baby step that one of them announces. 23km in over a month is not something the rest of the world will accept as 'progressing well' and neither will I. This is not a 'deluded' world it is the real world. The extra cost and complexities are not a problem in other countries and shouldn't be here. As long as you live by african standards the rest of the world will see you as one.
When did Transtel/Eskom start building their respective networks?
I would say about two years now at most with the shareholders agreement finalised on 15th August 2005. This does appear to be a legitimate Neotel network and not Transtel or Eskom. The fibre purchased from Transnet last year only amounts to about 1300 km. So let's take it at 10,000km over 2 years. That's 417km in a month.
