{"id":101856,"date":"2014-05-23T14:02:35","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T12:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=101856"},"modified":"2014-05-23T14:04:17","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T12:04:17","slug":"telecoms-action-group-seven-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/telecoms\/101856-telecoms-action-group-seven-years-on.html","title":{"rendered":"Telecoms Action Group &#8211; seven years on"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In January 2007, the Telecoms Action Group (TAG) published a full page advertisement in the Mail &amp; Guardian calling for the reform of the telecommunications sector in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The Group, founded by Alastair Otter and Richard Frank in 2006, said that the advert was a first step in a wider effort to get consumers more involved in the fight for telecommunications reform.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We want to send a clear message to the South African government that Telkom\u2019s high prices and poor service levels, together with a general lack of momentum in opening up the telecoms sector to competition, are hurting South African businesses and households,&#8221; Frank said in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s clear that we\u2019ve gained very little as telecoms consumers by letting the minister of communications and the regulator, ICASA, fiddle for 10 years. It\u2019s time for action,&#8221; said TAG co-founder, Alastair Otter.<\/p>\n<p>The campaign received widespread support from consumers, businesses and <a title=\"DA supports TAG\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/nephp\/5425.html\"><strong>political parties<\/strong><\/a>, which included funding from the <a title=\"Shuttleworth Foundation supports TAG\" href=\"http:\/\/www.shuttleworthfoundation.org\/projects\/past\/telecoms-action-group\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Shuttleworth foundation<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_phMMheNYSI\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Telkom response in 2007<\/h3>\n<p>Telkom said in 2007 that it is committed to adjusting its pricing model and to place customers at the core of their business.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe concerns raised by the Telecommunications Action Group revolve largely around pricing. In this regard, Telkom is committed to consistently adjusting its pricing model. To this end, price adjustments are filed with ICASA on an annual basis,\u201d Telkom said at the time.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_101858\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/TAG-MG-ad.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101858\" class=\"wp-image-101858\" src=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/TAG-MG-ad.jpg\" alt=\"TAG MG ad\" width=\"600\" height=\"887\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/TAG-MG-ad.jpg 1015w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/TAG-MG-ad-270x400.jpg 270w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-101858\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">TAG MG ad<\/p><\/div>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Then and now<\/h3>\n<p>It is now seven years later, and South Africa\u2019s telecommunications landscape looks very different.<\/p>\n<p>After a legal battle, most telecoms players are now allowed to build their own networks, and broadband access has improved significantly.<\/p>\n<p>However, Telkom\u2019s ADSL service still remains the only country-wide fixed line broadband service, and prices remain stubbornly high.<\/p>\n<p>MyBroadband contacted Frank and Otter to see if they are happy with the changes since 2006.<\/p>\n<p>Frank explained that a broken ADSL service and a lack of viable alternatives made him feel helpless, which is why he founded that TAG.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_101870\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Richard-Frank.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101870\" class=\"size-full wp-image-101870\" src=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Richard-Frank.jpg\" alt=\"Richard Frank\" width=\"250\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-101870\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richard Frank<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m happy to say these days there are alternatives in the market and the last-mile is less of an issue,\u201d said Frank.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can now get 3G data at a fraction of the price we could have in 2007, thanks in large part to Afrihost.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My neighbourhood homeowners association in Parkhurst is discussing fibre to the home, and our business now uses Neotel Fibre &#8211; a little pricey but worth every cent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>On Telkom Frank said he is happy to see that Telkom&#8217;s share price become a fair reflection of their actual business prospects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 2007 the share price was well over R100 per share, and now it hovers around R40 per share. The market doesn&#8217;t lie, and we can see investors pricing in the fact that the days of the monopolistic operator are numbered,\u201d said Frank.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can definitely run a household or business without using Telkom which is good. Telkom has also had to improve as a result, which is good for consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Frank said that the next big step is fibre to the home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don&#8217;t believe the naysayers who say it won&#8217;t make business sense in South Africa,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will take a bold operator to disrupt the fibre market &#8211; like Afrihost did in the ADSL market. I expect the dam wall to burst in the next 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on the Telecoms Action Group<\/h3>\n<p><a title=\"Frustrated Consumers Demand Telecoms Changes\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/nephp\/4032.html\"><strong>Frustrated Consumers Demand Telecoms Changes<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Consumers speak out for Telecoms change\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/nephp\/5402.html\"><strong>Consumers speak out for Telecoms change<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Activists strike back\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/nephp\/5400.html\"><strong>Activists strike back<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Telecoms Action Group (TAG) launched a full page ad in the Mail &#038; Guardian in January 2007 to ask for change<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":101965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9605,35,24890,23455,24888],"class_list":["post-101856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecoms","tag-alastair-otter","tag-headline","tag-richard-frank","tag-tag","tag-telecoms-action-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101856"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101963,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101856\/revisions\/101963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}