Landline numbers plummet in SA: Census 2011:

Keep in mind how many ADLS users are forced to have a Telkom voice line with no added benefit & you'll realise the figures are even lower ..

Telkom is the ANC's bastard stepchild.
 
It would be interesting to plot the number of households as well as I am sure there are a LOT more registered residences now that in 2001 (think RDP houses alone). This could skew the % figures quite a bit, then add how many of these new houses can get a landline (cable theft issues etc).

I know Telkom lines have been in decline for some time now, I just sometimes find % stats a little pointless without some figures and methodologies to make sense of them. I wonder if the definition of a household has changed etc, etc. Another interesting one would be how many households don't have radios, but do have cellphones with built-in radios and therefore didn't mark "radio" on the questionnaire for example.
 
Bern said:
I just sometimes find % stats a little pointless without some figures and methodologies to make sense of them.
Another interesting one would be how many households don't have radios, but do have cellphones with built-in radios and therefore didn't mark "radio" on the questionnaire for example.
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And at the same time computer uptake has increased,meaning to me, more broadband connections...aaaah, but those have been taken up by the cellular companies because of Telkom's stubborn refusal to offer cheaper and innovative products(naked-adsl for 1) to be "plugged in" unto the interwebz.
 
This is not unexpected. Only one thing can save the fixed line in SA for home use and that is LLU. It is pretty clear Telkom is not doing its part in building a proper 21st century fixed line business. Unbundle the local loop and open the market to competition for anybody who cares to offer a service!
 
Yea, as was mentioned, how many households are there now vs 2001? The reason why this metric doesn't quite live up to expectations is the fact that you always hear about Telkom "backlogs" and inability to provide ADSL lines to people, yet this metric makes it sounds like there are "less" people with lines.

I'd say it's a VERY misleading headline. Did landline numbers REALLY plummet? I'm pretty sure there are not FEWER landlines now than in 2001. This is just a proportion of landlines vs. houses . There can be a zillion reasons, like more houses were built than landlines laid by Telkom (which might actually indicate an inefficiency of Telkom to provide lines rather than "less people wanting lines" ).


They keyword being used in the stats : "proportion"
According to the Census 2011 results, the proportion of households owning cellphones significantly increased from 31.9% in 2001 to 88.9% in 2011.

Bad news for Telkom is that the proportion using landlines decreased from 23.9% in 2001 to 14.5% in 2011.
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Very tricky metric to use imho, since if you take into consideration that we are now 51million people, this "proportion plummet" might actually mean an increase in landlines....


So in contrast, a better statistic would be , how many households had a line in 2001 vs. how many now. Simple.
 
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you forcing people to have pay for landline and adsl line is little bit freaking stupid...
 
Bern said:
It would be interesting to plot the number of households as well as I am sure there are a LOT more registered residences now that in 2001 (think RDP houses alone). This could skew the % figures quite a bit, then add how many of these new houses can get a landline (cable theft issues etc).
Click to expand...

diabolus said:
Yea, as was mentioned, how many households are there now vs 2001?
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As per my discussion thread elsewhere : http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/478574-Census-2011-Have-things-gotten-worse


Households living in formal dwellings

2001 68.5%
2011 77.6%

Population 51.8 million

EDIT: Ah, sorry, as I posted this I realised this will not give you household numbers. I will look for them though as they are there.

Here you go:

Nationally, the number of households grew from 11.2 million in 2001, to just over 14.4 million last year, a 29 percent increase.
Click to expand...
 
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Well, I know for a fact that Telkom landline numbers have increased year on year from 2003. Not by much, as example in 2009 there were just over 9 million landlines installed - businesses and household and ADSL lines included. This figure jumped to just over 11 million in 2010. Another 700 000+ more in 2011 as well.
 
ClintZA said:
EDIT: Ah, sorry, as I posted this I realised this will not give you household numbers. I will look for them though as they are there.

Here you go:

Nationally, the number of households grew from 11.2 million in 2011, to just over 14.4 million last year, a 29 percent increase.
Click to expand...

That's a 30% increase in 1 year. I seriously doubt Telkom is able to supply lines at that rate? So even if we think landlines are "dying out" or "Telkom is suffering" , i don't think that is the correct assumption. Most likely Telkom can't keep up with the demand for landlines!

As much as i'd like to believe 3G/4G/Wireless are the future, i still prefer my ADSL line over anything. It's still much much cheaper,stable and consistent. If you could pick up an ADSL line at the counter in PicknPay (or at least activate it) and have it active with data in "2-48 hours" , i'm 99% certain more people would have a Telephone + ADSL line at home.
 
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diabolus said:
That's a 30% increase in 1 year. I seriously doubt Telkom is able to supply lines at that rate? So even if we think landlines are "dying out" or "Telkom is suffering" , i don't think that is the correct assumption. Most likely Telkom can't keep up with the demand for landlines!
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I cut and pasted that from a news report without double checking it. I reread the report and I presume it was meant to say 2001 as most other numbers refer to the change over a decade :

http://www.dispatch.co.za/census-2011-results/
 
Bern said:
It would be interesting to plot the number of households as well as I am sure there are a LOT more registered residences now that in 2001 (think RDP houses alone). This could skew the % figures quite a bit, then add how many of these new houses can get a landline (cable theft issues etc).

I know Telkom lines have been in decline for some time now, I just sometimes find % stats a little pointless without some figures and methodologies to make sense of them. I wonder if the definition of a household has changed etc, etc. Another interesting one would be how many households don't have radios, but do have cellphones with built-in radios and therefore didn't mark "radio" on the questionnaire for example.
Click to expand...

This and...
How many landlines are lying dormant with low/mid level users dumping their landlines (cause they only want a fixed line for internet and the monthly entry price is to high)
Prepaid is only available to that waya-waya nonsense where you cannot add ADSL ontop.
So they opt for cellphones internet where they have both. Wake up Telkom.
 
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ingeon said:
This and...
How many landlines are lying dormant with low/mid level users dumping their landlines (cause they only want a fixed line for internet and the monthly entry price is to high)
Prepaid is only available to that waya-waya nonsense where you cannot add ADSL ontop.
So they opt for cellphones internet where they have both. Wake up Telkom.
Click to expand...

+1 And they can't see this?
 
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