{"id":548529,"date":"2006-04-13T08:04:49","date_gmt":"2006-04-13T08:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/548529-cheaper-telecoms-on-the-way.html"},"modified":"2006-04-13T08:04:49","modified_gmt":"2006-04-13T08:04:49","slug":"cheaper-telecoms-on-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/548529-cheaper-telecoms-on-the-way.html","title":{"rendered":"Cheaper telecoms on the way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Telecoms analyst Dobek Pater of Africa Analysis says the Electronic Communications Bill will require Telkom to allow other service providers access to the \u201clocal loop\u201d \u2013 the line from homes to the network \u2013 at wholesale prices. <\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the bill, any service provider with a licence to provide data (internet) will have access to wholesale rates. As far as carrying voice services is concerned, any company that has been allocated a number range will also be able to connect,\u201d explains Pater. <\/p>\n

Mark Baptiste, director of service provision director at Cisco Systems South Africa, says that until the president signs the bill, there is \u201cnot much you can do to get prices down\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us to really see a change, the second national operator (SNO) needs to kick off and become a fully fledged competitor, and we need a clearer indication of the regulatory stance. It\u2019s still not clear if the department of communications is going to unbundle the local loop. It would be great if they do, because it would level the playing field for the SNO and others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pater says that if full unbundling does not take place, the SNO has other options to compete with Telkom: \u201cPower line communications (PLC) is a viable option, and Esitel [Eskom’s telecoms arm which together with Transnet’s Transtel has a 30% stake in the SNO] could make its power lines available to allow for access. There have been fantastic developments in this technology over the last year, and you can get high-quality, six megabit per second connections.\u201d<\/p>\n

In cases where municipalities own power lines, the SNO could enter into agreements to provide services, says Pater.<\/p>\n

Metro Ethernet \u2013 a technology used for local area networks that carries loads of data and can connect corporate sites that are separated geographically \u2013 is another option, says Baptiste. Metro Ethernet is something Telkom is looking at deploying as part of its R30bn, five-year upgrade plan, chief marketing officer Wally Beelders said last week. <\/p>\n

Baptiste says while consumers will obviously welcome the much-needed competition, it will not be good enough to offer connectivity alone to compete: \u201cFor companies to gain market share, they have to carve out a niche around service delivery. Telkom realises that it will need to offer better, converged services in order to retain customers. Newcomers will have to innovate around service and put bells and whistles on products to convince consumers to make the switch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Companies and consumers are quickly realising that broadband is a building block for big things, and that it should thus be a utility: \u201cThere should be no distinction between water, electricity and broadband connectivity. The debate is \u2013 should a utility be expensive, and the answer is obviously no. Basic access must be affordable. The only things you should be paying for are the value-added services that are transmitted via broadband, such as video on-demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEducation and the internet are the two biggest equalisers for a society. We are not seeing true growth in broadband services, and this is a fundamental flaw, the market is lacking in terms of e-transformation,\u201d says Baptiste. <\/p>\n

The possibilities for what this technology can do are endless, and they are transforming the way people live. <\/p>\n

A report entitled Consumers and convergence<\/i> , recently released by consulting firm KPMG, suggests that on an average day, anywhere in the world, \u201cthe average consumer will spend at least a third of his or her waking day on the internet, using a cellular phone (for both voice and non-voice applications), or watching television\u201d. With television, voice and internet all able to come into the home via a single pipe, the importance of getting access to high-speed internet is indisputable. <\/font><\/p>\n

Discuss this article<\/font><\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0 <\/font>http:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za<\/font> <\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the SA telecommunications industry and consumers wait for communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri to announce regulatory changes that will translate into lower costs, the imminent approval of the new telecoms act will be a great first step in the right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"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":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548529"}],"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=548529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}