Will SA be able to handle Broadband?

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kaspaas

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I don't know were to put this general message - flameproof suit on[}:)]

I'm getting scared with all the broadband being rolled out at the moment.

Will there be enough network capacity to handle it? Physical capacity to transfer ones-and-zeros.

As more people get broadband, the amount of emails (and joke-mail worms) are just going to escalate in volume.

I'm running a few websites currently hosted with a local ISP. But as traffic increases, I might just not be able to afford his rates anymore - most of which are dictated by Telkom. Then I will have to move my server elsewhere. And I'm sure many others will need to do the same.

This will congest the precious cable to europe/UK/USA even more, grinding everything to a halt.

In short: Unless the powers (minister and ICASA) start doing some very clever deregulation footwork, we are heading for a possible meltdown.

Or otherwise, Telkom might just find one morning that the other networks are now carrying all the traffic, including VOIP, and they don't have anymore income.

What are your thoughts? Are we heading for a local doomsday or not?





South Africa needs World Class Broadband at World Competitive Prices.
 
In my opinion a doomsday would be a great thing. A foot-in-your-ass wake up call. Hearings and the sort can carry for months and years, whereas this type of thing will force everyone into action and the pressure will come from all sides.
 
From what I have heard the Sat3 Cable is a highly unused cable it carried (from Africa) only aroudn 4% of it's capacity last year thats around 3Gbits/s out of 120Gbits/s so unless there is a HUGE explosion in the whole of africa(i.e users have more than 100x increased then the cable should be fine. But if we have hit the top of this cable then Telkom are making a huge income. Probably plan 2 years ahead and just put down another one :) Well that is the theory.

Regards
Cerberus
 
This message actually belongs in the general ADSL discussions section of this forum, but the powers that be can move it. [:D]

Some nice critical thinking in this topic and just happens to be very true! As the reported from Beeld pointed out this morning, we are already behind the rest of the world because of Telkom and legislative stagnation.

Perhaps as one member pointed out, a meltdown would be good, but I guess Telkom is well aware of the limitations. It would be in Telkoms character to make the best of this and simply hike prices, saying that demand is too big instead of boosting bandwidth.

Cheers
Antowan

He who does not understand the value of war at the right time, cannot comprehend the value of life at any time - Anonymous
 
Telkom's at least layed a fackload of fibre all round the country, on of the main reasons being cable theft. We definitely have enough internal bandwidth for all of us...

I tell you what though with their new profit they could pay for SAT3 in cash. But Hellkom owns 13% of the cable but has access to 21% of it - 27.3Gbps.

<font color="navy"><font size="1"><b>Where others have progress, we have Telkom.</b>
Hellkom website - http://telkomsucks.0catch.com</font id="size1"></font id="navy">
 
Eish... they prolly using it to make those silly colour-changing fibre strand balls

<font color="navy"><font size="1"><b>Where others have progress, we have Telkom.</b>
Hellkom website - http://telkomsucks.0catch.com</font id="size1"></font id="navy">
 
Bigger problem is simply that the cables get cut - the thieves only realise it's fibre AFTER the fact ... you try and reconnect a multi strand fibre in a cold dark manhole ;-)

R

************************************************************
The views expressed on this site are my own and NOT those of my employer.
 
Maybe they should just print "i-Faaibah" all round the cable outer so they know :)

<font color="navy"><font size="1"><b>Where others have progress, we have Telkom.</b>
Hellkom website - http://telkomsucks.0catch.com</font id="size1"></font id="navy">
 
The fiber is actually color coded and any copper thief worth his salt should know this! About three to four years ago Telkom had to put in fiber (mostly unused to this day!) in the major cities. Every street block has fiber running through it! This was due to some contractual obligation it had to overseas partner but the details escape me. If somebody on the forum has any documents or extra info please be so kind as to provide us with the wisdom. [:)]

Telkom has to be broken into little tiny telecoms operators that compete against eachother!! Let it happen!

[:D]

He who does not understand the value of war at the right time, cannot comprehend the value of life at any time - Anonymous
 
A little birdie whispered into my ear that this is the current thinking in the corridors of power - it would appear to fit in nicely with empowerment objectives and the provision of services to currently unserviced areas, including those areas where Telkrap did an about-face and disconnected lines. This is a softly-softly, slowly-slowly catchee monkey kind of scenario, however, due to eyeballs on the licensees recently approved by ICASA to provide 'localised' connectivity to rural areas - if it works and services are provided that prove to be cost-effective as well as reliable, utilising whatever technology they deploy, then Government will take steps to break up Telkrap. If necessary, they will initiate and leverage this by getting rid of their shareholding, also the 'warehoused' portion of the SNO - though this will only be as a last resort, in the event of difficulties experienced with their current partners. I'm inclined to believe that all of this is probably true - it may have something to do with the President's insistence on proven, speedy delivery with definite dates, witness all the target-setting for ARV rollouts, housing, job creation, etc....
 
*holding thumbs*

<font color="navy"><font size="1"><b>Where others have progress, we have Telkom.</b>
Hellkom website - http://telkomsucks.0catch.com</font id="size1"></font id="navy">
 
It doesn't seem to be the case as on the news last night Alec Erwin said that there will be no more privatisation of Eskom and any other parastatals for 5 years. I assume this means the balance of telkom is included in that statement. In fact the government is looking for new investments so don't be to surprised if they start buying back on the open market.
On a similar note the private rail system in the UK is being questioned about lower efficiencies and they are talking about getting it back under government control!


Cheers
B
 
I'm glad the state stoped the privatisiation. They need to go back the drawing board anyway. So it would seem justified.

<b><hr noshade size="1"></b><font size="2"><font color="red"><b>You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.</b></font id="red"></font id="size2">
 
Point taken, however the context is very different to that of Eskom or some other parastatals. Telco services rollout is possible at reasonable cost and with minimal impact, with real and very apparent service delivery resulting to unserviced areas, including empowerment and job creation. This is not the case where massive plant would be required, as with Eskom. Methinks this would be the over-riding consideration - a way to promote and realise Government objectives, whilst at the same time not alienating COSATU (due to the empowerment and job creation consequence).

You've actually hit on one the most problematic issues in Government - policy realisation and fulfilment. Where actual delivery doesn't result in terms of existing policy, will policy change make a difference? Strictly speaking, that's all Government can do - make policy and regulate in terms of that policy. I wish I was a fly on the wall where the cluster debates and committee discussions take place, particularly cabinet meetings with Irwin, Matsepe-Casaburri, Sigcau, Radebe, <i>et al</i>...
 
Just saw this is today's Business Report (extract from headlined article "Erwin rules out state IPOs for this year"):

<i>Listings of key state enterprises this year were ruled out, but concessions, joint ventures, public-private sector arrangements and the movement of about 20 non-core enterprises into the private sector to promote empowerment were possibilities, Alec Erwin, the public enterprises minister, said yesterday.</i>

The article does focus on the difficulties posed by ideological issues versus the harsh economic realities of today, neatly summed up in the concluding paragraphs:

<i>Both these factors [ideological issues and a low rate of return on investment] had not been attractive to the private sector investor until the pension fund industry and multinational corporations grew large enough to need long-term investments that could offer stable sources of income.

Their interest in parastatals was, therefore, not some "new-found altruism", but the result of "hard-nosed commercial pressure".

This happened at a time when the government needed to find new sources of funding and managing state-owned enterprises, but it had to avoid attempts by the private-sector to cherry-pick the most profitable. But the private sector could play an important role in providing ancillary services.</i>

What I found equally interesting and relevant was the second paragraph:

<i>Speaking during the debate in the national assembly on his 2004/05 budget, Erwin said "more detailed plans for investment and financing" of state-owned enterprises - including key sectors of energy, transport and defence - would be presented to the cabinet by the end of September.</i>

IMHO this means we could expect to see some movement shortly - like I said, I wish I was a fly on the wall...
 
AND... I've just seen essentially the same bit of news in the Business Day of today, with the following extract being pertinent:

<i>Erwin said other state-owned enterprises in information and communications technology, forestry, recreational and mining industries, that reported to the department would, where the enterprise did not occupy a central position, be handled differently.

Government intended to provide finality in these cases before the end of the year.</i>

Dunno if this refers to Telkom (maybe not, as they report to the DoC and not DPE, as I understand it - I may be wrong) - but I think this does include Sentech. If it does include Telkom, no wonder Thintana want to run - they won't be able to plunder at will for very much longer...
 
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