Is Telkom lying about ADSL Regulations?
Telkom says that it is not yet ready to comply with the requirements of the ADSL Regulations for uncapped local bandwidth, but many people dispute their claims.
Telkom has on more than one occasion said that it is working on a system which will enable it to differentiate between local and international traffic. This will allow the incumbent operator to comply with the stipulation in the ADSL Regulations that local bandwidth is uncapped.
At the recent ICASA Complaints and Compliance Committee’s (CCC) hearings into the company’s alleged non-compliance with the ADSL Regulations, Telkom submitted that it is planning a locally uncapped ADSL service where the user will only have access to South African based IP addresses after reaching their usage limit.
While local bandwidth will not be capped users will still be billed for any bandwidth used after reaching their monthly usage limit.
Questions were previously raised as to why such a system has not been implemented yet, and Telkom said that it takes time to develop and implement a system of this nature.
In its recent submission to the CCC, Telkom pointed out that the new system [allowing for uncapped local bandwidth] is dependant on technical developments on the company’s local and international IP Networks.
It has however been over a year since the ADSL Regulations were published, raising questions as to how long it actually takes to develop and implement such a system.
‘Telkom’s excuse is basically bull’
An Internet and telecoms expert, who asked to remain anonymous, said that Telkom’s excuse that a system needs to be developed to be able to comply with the ADSL Regulations’ requirements of uncapped local bandwidth is nothing more than a lame excuse.
He points out that Telkom had the system of uncapped local bandwidth in place prior to November 2005, and that adding a billing system to the local bandwidth portion is a task which will take hours rather than months.
“Telkom’s excuse is basically bull. It will take us a matter of minutes to implement such a system and even with extensive testing it is a matter of hours rather than months,” he said.
Telkom also already has local bandwidth billing systems in place which are used by local ISPs adding further substantiation to this point.
Telkom says time was needed
Telkom however says that it required time to develop this system, and that it will abide by its 1 November commitment to comply with the regulations.
“Telkom has committed to ICASA to be in compliance with respect to the regulation ‘local bandwidth shall not be subject to the cap’ by 1 November 2007,” Telkom said.
“The development of this capability has taken the required time and Telkom will be in full compliance at the committed date.”
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