Had a quick skim through the report. Apologies if my articulation is not great. My previous posts were too short and written in a rush so I am just relaying putting points in the structure required. You don't have to use it.
Where do you think the problems are now?
1. The entry level broadband cost disparity between fixed line last mile broadband and wireless broadband offerings is not comparable to other countries and is a clear indication of the failure in deregulation and the defacto monopoly status that Telkom is afforded in the ADSL space.
An independent study
Ovum in April this year showed ADSL and not cellular is
the most expensive out of all broadband options in South Africa in affordability. The report also shows entry level ADSL in SA is the most expensive out of all the countries surveyed including Kenya.
Source Ovum Report
2. Slower internet usage growth compared to other countries
For South Africa having the most internet users in Africa in 1994 to only having the 5th most in 2012 despite having the highest GDP and no shortage in undersea data cable connections I feel is due to the failure of telecoms deregulation.
Source - Google report
3. South African Internet service providers see Telkom as the main stumbling block in getting affordable internet access seeing it is monopoly in providing fixed line ADSL access.
Source,
Source
4. The Electronic Communication Act and Consumer Protection act are not being adhered to in that ADSL consumers are charged for a service they don't use i.e. voice line rental.
5. The Second National Operator not choosing to focus on competing with Telkom in the consumer broadband space and not using Telkom's last mile fixed line infrastructure which they are entitled to resulting in Telkom being the de facto monopoly.
6. Telkom not allowing open access to its exchanges i.e. The local loop is not unbundled
National Broadband Plan...
The wholesale unit of the NBN must be independent and not run by the incumbent to avoid conflict of interest and overcharging the consumer which is currently the case with Telkom's fixed line ADSL. Thus if Telkom's wholesale business isn't at the very least spun off into a separate entity then I can see no way that they can form any part of the NBN. For the NBN where it makes sense to share and use infrastructure from Telkom to save cost it should be leased from them at cost.
However if a totally separate independent entity without any participation of Telkom is created for the NBN then I have concerns of consumers in metropolitan areas being left out of the NBNs fixed line broadband access due to the timeframe, municipal hurdles and cost of setting up brand new infrastructure. A good example of this is the second national operator Neotel that targets businesses with fixed line internet access but instead uses wireless broadband offerings to consumers. This wireless only offering in high internet user densities has resulted in the SNOs consumer internet offering failing in reliability, speed and footprint resulting in them having an insignificant consumer broadband base. The NBN rollout plan must ensure the same scenario for consumers and small businesses in existing metropolitan areas is not repeated. Major South African cities must match their international counterparts in providing high speed last mile internet over fibre lines.
Possible errors
21.2. Separate Telkom into several smaller companies and give each a clear mandate.
I feel that only the wholesale business need to be separated from the commercial business to facilitate the requirement of full LLU and the open access model.
- bear in mind this is really a first salvo and it is our intention to have a good post-mortem on this process from a mybb perspective and how we can improve it