Will SA mobile networks block WhatsApp?

Clowns.

I sincerely hope they don't come right with whatever they are planning to do.
 
They must be in some trouble if they even considering this. Wonder what the impact is on the bottom.

Either way they are fsucking idiots for wasting their time with this.
 
The question should rather be:
Will we (the customers) support a service provider that dictates the way we use the data we paid for?
 
And that's why i have never liked MTN. Losing subscribers and blaming it on WhatsApp --weak.....
 
Admittedly SMS was a big cash cow for the operators. Considering the amount of characters you could use, it was expensive compared to what data costs these days. Now that party is coming to a end with WhatsApp and Telegram etc. It is going to affect their bottom line because, yes, data is taking off on the networks, but on the other side SMS's (which had high margin) is declining and doing it rather rapidly due to these services. But taking it to ICASA and threatening etc is most certainly not the way to go with keeping your reputation with your customers.
 
@Ockie - brainfart from my side, most likely.

What if the big SMS spammers wake up and decide to move their spam operations away from SMS to Whatsapp, Telegram, Hangouts (formerly Google Talk) and the such IM base, where they can spam to their heart's content and not having to pay a cent?

If you can still push your spam out without having to pay for it... then why not?

I think that day is not far away in coming... and we'll have the same spammy problems with IM as we've had with email. Luckily most IM clients allow you to block/ignore ne'er-do-wells.
 
I guess it is possible, but not sure how feasible it is with how Telegram and WhatsApp is setup. I know it has started happening already on WhatsApp. There was a article on it not so long ago if I recall correctly. Have not had spam on Telegram which is to be expected because it has smaller base. I suppose with how Telegram and Whatsapp works you could load a crap load of random numbers into your phonebook, see which ones shows up on your Telegram / WhatsApp client and do a broadcast to all those numbers. Doing this manually on a phone will be bitch though, but the computer clients will make it easier to do. But lets hope it does not happen. As with SMS, you can block that number, but will still be irritating getting that first spam message.

The_Librarian said:
@Ockie - brainfart from my side, most likely.

What if the big SMS spammers wake up and decide to move their spam operations away from SMS to Whatsapp, Telegram, Hangouts (formerly Google Talk) and the such IM base, where they can spam to their heart's content and not having to pay a cent?

If you can still push your spam out without having to pay for it... then why not?

I think that day is not far away in coming... and we'll have the same spammy problems with IM as we've had with email. Luckily most IM clients allow you to block/ignore ne'er-do-wells.
Click to expand...
 
The ISP's in SA ripped the ring out of SMS's, were always way overpriced.

I have zero sympathy with them. If SMS's had been more reasonably priced, services like WhatsApp wouldn't have taken off as fast as they did.
 
He's the highest paid CEO in telcos, isn't he ?
 
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