You win some…you lose some

1. Telkom. It lost out on buying behemoth Business Connexion which would have given it the technology skills necessary to flourish in the ‘converged’ environment, when the Competitions Commission nixed the deal. Boo hoo.
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Wrong....deal is still very much alive
 
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Organised protest. South africans, or at least those not living in camps, are terrible at putting time and effort behind their complaints...
 
Leitmotif said:
Organised protest. South africans, or at least those not living in camps, are terrible at putting time and effort behind their complaints...
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They shouldn't have to, government should just do their damn job.
 
1. Telkom, Vodacom, MTN and Cell C. Our connectivity service providers squeezed R106 trillion out of us in the last year, according to www.hellkom.co.za . What do you get for that? A few dropped calls, plenty of sports (golf, cricket and rugby feature large) and a hijacked Summer. No wonder we have a current account deficit. You will keep coming back for more though.
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Whilst I don't disagree that plenty is squeezed out of us annually, claiming it's more than the total tax collected by our government is total crud, I'm certain that figure is somewhere closer to 106 billion Rand.

D
 
Syndyre said:
They shouldn't have to, government should just do their damn job.
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It's pretty universal that governments don't do a damned thing unless pushed. Unfortunately here we have a media controlled by a staunch supporter of the state, and a people unwilling to physically put bodies out in the street.

NaZKuL said:
what job is that?:p
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Making SA a better place for all of it's citizens. Not just the ones who happen to be working for the government. One of the problems with our system is that we vote for the party, and have no choice over our representatives. The people have no power to boot out a rotten minister.
 
Random response to the Legislation versus Regulation thing...

andres101 said:
Decent regulation...
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No, that is what put us in this mess in the first place, we want deregulation!
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Often I get the impression that no one makes any kind of distinction between Legislation and Regulation - where Legislation is the laws of the land, and Regulation is either the enforcing of the Legislation itself or where there is a Regulator, the Regulator's own Regulations.

Regulations should not contradict Legislation, but Regulations can set policy where the Legislation is either unclear or allows for multiple alternatives. Regulations are probably open to legal challenge, in lower courts, whereas legally challenging Legislation probably means going to the highest court of the land - The Constitutional Court.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is Legislation, ergo Telkodemonopolies' legalised and government supported monopoly.

The Electronic Communications Act is legislation that replaces the Telecoms Act.

The ICASA Amendment Act is legislation, as is the ICASA Act.

ICASA's ADSL Regulations are obviously regulations - piss poor regulations, but regulations none the less.

Telecoms Licensing is a form of Regulation [required by the legislation], and ICASA is nowhere near converting existing licenses under the repealed Telecoms Act to the in effect ECA.

Spectrum licensing is obviously also a vital form of regulation.

Would consumers be better off without Legislation? - hell no.

Would consumers be better off without Regulation? - highly doubtful, although open to debate considering how ineffective and useless ICASA currently is, and how incompetent and allegedly narcoleptic Paris Mashile is.

Would we be better off without the Grim Poisonous Ivyness Creeper's Telecoms [mis]Managed Liberalistaion? - definitely - open up the telecoms sector to potential competitors, and better prices and services will follow.
 
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Leitmotif said:
It's pretty universal that governments don't do a damned thing unless pushed. Unfortunately here we have a media controlled by a staunch supporter of the state, and a people unwilling to physically put bodies out in the street.
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True but some governments certainly are worse than others!
 
Paris Mashile, who announced his ignorance to a recent ITWeb conference by claiming that WiMax is 4G, when it's nothing of the sort...
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The WWRF (Wireless World Research Forum) defines 4G as a network that operates on Internet technology, combines it with other applications and technologies such as Wi-Fi and WiMAX.
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Source

Hardly "nothing of the sort"? With the way the 802.16e standard (sometimes nicknamed "Mobile WiMAX") is looking, it pretty much fulfills most of the expectations of 4G and I wouldn't be surprised if the two words become loosely interchangeable in the future.

Edit: Not that I want to defend ICASA or anything :p
 
Reality is the majority of citizens in this country are uninformed, so the govt can safely ignore the informed minority.
 
My 2 cents...

Leitmotif said:
It's pretty universal that governments don't do a damned thing unless pushed. Unfortunately here we have a media controlled by a staunch supporter of the state, and a people unwilling to physically put bodies out in the street.
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I can only speak for myself, but I'd be willing to pay an unemployed person to take my place in a protest (protest by proxy if u will) but can't afford to take off a day from work to protest. I don't have enough annual leave as it is in my current place of employment... :(

Don't get me wrong, I want Telecoms to come right in this country, I wanna do my part... we just need a plan to hit Goliath where it hurts...
 
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