{"id":550228,"date":"2006-09-19T07:43:42","date_gmt":"2006-09-19T07:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/550228-telkom-getting-it-from-all-sides.html"},"modified":"2006-09-19T07:43:42","modified_gmt":"2006-09-19T07:43:42","slug":"telkom-getting-it-from-all-sides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/550228-telkom-getting-it-from-all-sides.html","title":{"rendered":"Telkom getting it from all sides"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the first \u2018organizations\u2019 to put the consumer on the board in the telecoms arena was MyADSL. The community website was established to deal with telecoms issues by acting as a conduit for consumers to meet and share ideas. <\/font><\/p>\n

It was formed in 2003 when ADSL was the only broadband connection available to residential consumers.<\/font> <\/p>\n

At the time the performance of Telkom\u2019s DSL512 service was more reminiscent of a dial up connection, and the complaints regarding price, service restrictions and poor performance gave rise to an ICASA complaint which culminated in the recently released ICASA regulations.<\/font> <\/p>\n

MyADSL is however only one example of consumer activism in the local telecoms environment. Maybe the most famous anti-Telkom website and campaign was launched by Hellkom<\/a> . This website was started by Gregg Stirton, a graphic artist and website designer from Cape Town.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Stirton had to face a multi-million rand law suit by Telkom along the way, but he stuck to his guns and Telkom finally withdrew the case with costs. It is noteworthy to mention that Stirton was represented free of charge by Michalson Attorneys which gives an indication of the support for activism against Telkom.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Gaining momentum<\/strong> <\/font><\/p>\n

The buck did not stop here and other similar movements blossomed. Another organization called Antitrust was formed with the specific aim of fighting Telkom and informing the public about, what they call, \u2018the moral crime being committed\u2019.<\/font> <\/p>\n

\u201cAntitrust.co.za <\/a>was set up by a group of people, who, like you, have just had enough. Our members consist of lawyers, doctors, students, company CEO’s and others, who have been smart enough to see that Telkom\u2019s monopolization of the market is having a crippling effect on South African business and the man in the street,\u201d the Antitrust website says.<\/font> <\/p>\n

There are also many more recent examples of people who have had enough of the high prices and poor service levels dished out by Telkom. <\/font><\/p>\n

The Telecoms Action Group was recently founded with the aim of \u2018telling the world\u2019 about the poor state of telecoms in South Africa. This campaign plans to take out a full page advertisement in a national newspaper, informing people about the dismal state of telecoms in South Africa.<\/font> <\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the occasional negative editorial Telkom receives from journalists, the media is pounded by misleading advertising on a daily basis by our only telecoms company. It’s time to fight back with our own full page advert voicing our dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs,\u201d the TAG website states.<\/font> <\/p>\n

And then there are many examples of individuals taking a less formal approach to their frustration with Telkom\u2019s poor service delivery.<\/font> <\/p>\n

A recent Tectonic<\/a> article described \u2018Telkombuster extraordinaire\u2019 Judy Grant who can be seen as a \u2018self-employed consultant whose mission it is to help consumers bring Telkom to heel\u2019.<\/font> <\/p>\n

And then there is the case of Dr. C H Stuart from Gauteng who solved his Telkom woes by taking out an advertisement in the Beeld, a prominent South African newspaper. His problems were promptly solved after the advertisement was published.<\/font> <\/p>\n

The question that must however be asked is why a telecoms consultant is needed or such drastic measures as flighting an advertisement in a national newspaper to get Telkom to respond to customer needs.<\/font> <\/p>\n

The answer to this question is most likely that Telkom has for so long enjoyed the status of a legally protected monopoly that this poor service was good enough. You could, after all, not take your business elsewhere.<\/font> <\/p>\n

With Neotel\u2019s<\/a> launch and municipalities and ISPs becoming more competitive in the telecoms environment it is not surprising that Telkom\u2019s CEO, Papi Molotsane, is preaching customer centricity. <\/font><\/p>\n

Molotsane has promised South Africa that he will transform Telkom into a truly customer centric company which will be a delight to deal with. <\/font><\/p>\n

With many consumers viewing Telkom as being equal or worse now than what it was one year ago, a lot of work is needed to convince customers that a new customer orientated Telkom is rising from the ashes of the once monopolistic giant.<\/font> <\/p>\n

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

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

Telkom is seen by many telecoms consumers as an ineffective monopoly, more focused on profits than good customer service or affordable prices. Consumers are however not simply taking it anymore, with consumer activism gaining momentum.<\/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-550228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550228"}],"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=550228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}