Wimax rollout delayed

[rpm]

http://www.mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=4190

 

[krycor]

Though September was unwilling to divulge the way pricing would be structured for the new service, he said Telkom's approach is to offer wholesale services. "We've woken up to the fact that we have both a wholesale and a retail business."

That's good news for SA's Internet service providers, as it will allow them to sell access on top of the Wimax network as currently offered on its ADSL service.

Yah because collecting line rental is just so much easier thanks to icasa and will be around even after they loose their sat-3 monopoly besides.. its a guarenteed fixed income and can be scaled up much like fixed line rental.

 

[Sneeky]

Oh look, another delay in SA telecoms.

part of the reason for the delay was waiting for chipsets that would allow it to,,,

Part of the problem is that everyone is waiting for something, and not doing enough, jmho.
Documents, ministerial feedback, findings, reviews, chipsets, MNP hardware, etc etc
Everyone is 'waiting' and pointing fingers at eachother, can't they plan properly and stick to schedules? Nobody is accountable it seems.
Dissapointing.

 

[dominic]

"We've woken up to the fact that we have both a wholesale and a retail business."

mazeltov.

 

[Oupoot]

This delay gives Neotel and the other wireless ISPs (iBurst & HSDPA) an opportunity to take the market and destroy any plans of Telkom to monopolise future technological innovations of broadband in SA. Lets just hope they do take it.

 

[Prometheus]

Though September was unwilling to divulge the way pricing would be structured for the new service, he said Telkom's approach is to offer wholesale services. "We've woken up to the fact that we have both a wholesale and a retail business."

Probably the same as with adsl, i.e., you pay for 'rental' of the 'line' at R99.92 and would then have to pay them R437.50 to 'install' it before you can pay them R245-R516 for the access according to your speed option. On top of that the small print will say that all isp charges are separate. This is just the reality of how it would be. Telkom will never make it more affordable and will sqeeze all they can out of their abused user base.

Telkom chief technology officer Thami Msimango said that part of the reason for the delay was waiting for chipsets that would allow it to move from the fixed version of Wimax - called 802.16d - to the mobile version - called 802.16e - without having to replace equipment they'd already invested in.

So they are worried about replacing equipment that would only be tested at the end of 2007 and will probably be ready only after 2010. What about the near future?
IBurst: Now is the time to upgrade one out of ten of your towers to WiMax and give us all access to the internet at an affordable rate and crush Telkom's new found monopoly before it even starts. Since you now have a tv add and can sponsor Survivor SA you can surely afford it.

 

[Prometheus]

Off Topic

More lies from Telkom's website:

DSL access is based on Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), a new modem technology that turns an ordinary telephone line into a multi-tasking access medium.
Telkom's DSL access service will provide you with always available flat rated access to the net.

Since when is dsl new? It's been available for years even here and we are five years behind. They just don't want people to know that 40Mbps is now the standard when they only offer 1Mbps. I would also like to phone them and demand the flat rated access they advertise or I may lodge a complaint with Icasa or better the ASA considering their track record. Anybody have the mail address of the ASA for complaints? We're going to need it in dealing with Telkom.

I must say the Telkom site seems like the slowest site in South Africa. They are probably soft-capped on IBurst since adsl is unaffordable even for them.