Immediate and Urgent call to action

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Peapod

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CALL FOR ACTION!!
I think it is imperative that every MyADSL member gets behind a vociferous and unambiguous and extremely forceful complaint to ICASA ahead of this Telkom price adjustment and restructuring taking effect.

What I propose is this:
1. We write a formal complaint to ICASA on behalf of all forum members.
2. Each and every forum member downloads a statement off this forum, fills it in and faxes it to ICASA, the statement is a formal rejection of Telkom's proposed pricing and service model.
3. We call for a public hearing
4. We call for ICASA to reject the application for the pricing model
5. We do this now!!!!! Before the SNO becomes operational - once the SNO becomes operational, Telkom will say they arent manipulating their monopoly
6. Each and every forum member downloads a second form from this site fills it in and faxes it to The President rejecting out of hand the proposed pricing structure and the restrictions placed on the telecomms industry by Telkom. We make our call for action heard at the highest level of government
7. Every forum member downloads a third form from this site, fills it in and faxes it to the President calling for the immediate removal of Minister Cassaburi from office
8. Every forum member downloads a fourth form from this site and fills it in and faxes it to the Freedom of Expression Institute FXI giving our support to their efforts and calling for nationwide action.
9. Every forum member recruits at least 10 new forum members each immediately from Small and medium business, Financial Control Officers of large corporates, CEO's, Executive Officers, man in the street whatever. We up the ante and grow our forum by 10x overnight.
10. We prepare a press release and releas it to the countries media - we use an agency to do this for us if necesary. We use our war chest to finance it if we have to. We HAVE TO STAND UP AND BE HEARD.

THE MANIPULATION OF THE PUBLIC IS NEVER GOING TO END UNTIL WE STAND UP AND MAKE OUR VOICES BE HEARD!!!
 
I'm with you on this one Peapod. If Telkom go ahead with their plans i will have no option but to cancel my Adsl due to cost restraints.....and i just got it! Lets make such a racket we cannot be ignored!
 
Im still waiting for my ADSL line to be installed... just my luck, it will probably happen on the 1st of November!!!

If anything we should be getting higher caps, less shaping on traffic etc.

I worked out, with a 3GB account, you can use a 1mbps ADSL line at full capacity for 1.25% of the month. Amazing isnt it...

Syzygy
 
Peapod said:
5. We do this now!!!!! Before the SNO becomes operational - once the SNO becomes operational, Telkom will say they arent manipulating their monopoly
Click to expand...

I agree completely. We need to get as much information about this as possible out there now. Telkom is in a position where they can 'make the market' into whatever form they want. They have chosen to model it after the wireless/cellphone industry since that is their only competition and leads to massive profits for them. I am sure they would love to have hundreds of resellers of 'air time'. Once a new pay per gig pricing model is in place, there will be too many people piggybacking off it. It will be entrenched and impossible to change!

What other ways are there that people can contribute? What about starting a FAQ to rebuff Telkoms claims whenever they come up - e.g. 'the average user', port shaping and so on.
 
Peapod, I like and agree with your plan of action. But we need to be sure of our facts before we go ahead with this. So far all we have are rumours. We need to confirm these rumours before we go ahead with such a massive campaign. If these rumours are not true and we went ahead, we'd come out with egg on our faces and will lose our credibility.

But besides that, I think you have some great ideas. We do need to increase the pressure.
 
Um - I cannot argue against something that does not exist yet. It's kinda pointless.

Once teklom release the facts, then I can argue against them.

It's mostly speculation now, and I may end up paying less for my ADSL than before, and I would not want to argue that one.

i.e. Me agreez wif AdLo.
 
So you would rather wait to be raped from the first of Nov before lifting a finger? ... If you realy think this isn't coming then your living in denial. There have been plenty of information going around from ISP's that have been informed by Telkom of the new billing model come november.

I for one do not wish to have these changes see the light of day, and will fax my form.
 
Go Peapod another excellent idea and well worth the small effort you are requesting from fellow formites. Even if we only create a delay, if we can buy some time, then it will have been worthwhile.
 
I am so enraged. A couple of weeks ago I said in one of the threads that maybe we will end up liking the new "price structure" but after following the news and posts here, I have turned from a calm and collective person, considering all facts to now my very Mad :mad: self I also agree that the biggest problem I have is also the hard cap (local issue!) and the ip reset!!!

The Rates which they will charge is also afaik speculation no formal pricing structure has been released.Or has it?

But I also believe in a proactive approach rather than waiting for the 1st of November to be killed, we should get Kevlar and helmets so long!!
 
What we need is transparency in the matter. This 'loophole' is also speculation. SAOL have confirmed that they had a contractual agreement with Telkom to provide 30gig accounts at a low cost, but they have also confirmed the per gig billing system and so have other ISPs! WAKE UP people! We've all been fighting the 3 gig cap since the beginning. Now Telkom have proven that they can offer 30 gigs at a low price, but now they will charge ludicrous prices for the "scarcity" of having it!

I cannot believe you would be so ignorant to believe that Telkom will not implement this per gig billing.

To those people that are saying "3gigs is enough" I pity you. You are being charged excessively for a measily 3 gigs. You have been brainwashed into believing that you are paying "cheaper rates". mando said it best, Telkom creates a scarcity, so that you would belive you're getting more for less. If Mauritius can offer ADSL 512kb/s @ R397.89 uncapped, using the SAFE cable, no hidden cost, so can Telkom! This whole per gig billing is a SCAM.

What next? Will Telkom bill you seperately for receiving email, playing a game, downloading a movie? "If you surf the internet, we'll charge you a measily R50 per gig, but those bad people downloading pr0n and playing games will be charged R200 per gig" - F*** THAT!

Actions speak louder than words. If this per gig billing comes into play, I will cancel my ADSL entirely.

I'm with you on this Peapod!

5. We do this now!!!!! Before the SNO becomes operational - once the SNO becomes operational, Telkom will say they arent manipulating their monopoly
Click to expand...
Or worse, they might take on the new BS structure!
 
Post the forms, an ill sign it and fax them through, im fed up with Telkoms threats and Monopolistic attitude to the economy, time to take action, With you 100%.
 
Phoning ICASA individually, and asking them directly about this rumoured Telkom price hike - might be of use - especially seeing as ISP's appear to have been given the effective info already.
Ask the ICASA person you get put through to:
1. What do they know about this?
2. Is this potential crippling and step backwards by Telkom, in line with ICASA's recent findings.
3. Given that it impacts ADSL users - is this not simply Telkom going ahead with its threat to withdraw ADSL as a service, by another route (overpricing it to the point where it becomes impossibly expensive) while pretending to be still offering it as a service?
4. What can they find out about this?
5. What steps will they legally take - if this rumoured price hike is real - to prevent Telkom from effectively crippling a large portion of the local Internet market?
 
Yes actions speak louder than words. But proof from a Telkom representative is needed as VQuest stated to retain credibility. That's just my opinion though. That said, I'm with you 100% peapod... just let me know when, how and where.
 
ICASA has the power to block the price increases, it happened a few years ago with basic call costs.

My guess is they haven't reacted because they'll address it in their regulation proposal coming out of the ADSL hearings.

What I'd really like is if someone could get us details on the regulations they're proposing.

I still think we should look at taking the DTi/ GVT to the constitutional court to force them to sell their shares in Telkom due to a conflict of interest. Doing the numbers, they still own 91% of Telkom!! That's the "Shareholder" getting all that R6Billion profit.
 
AdLo said:
The high cap accounts are just a contractual loophole that some of the ISPs are using. Most users are still on 3Gb accounts so the big pricing increases will not effect them but only those high cap ADSL accounts.
IMO we won't have any luck arguing the new pricing.
Click to expand...
As some of the ISPs (WA and SOAL) were kind enough to point out to me, the higher capped offerings are not a loophole but rather a contractually sanctioned offering from SAIX so you might want to pull that from your repertoire.

http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showpost.php?p=274542&postcount=112
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showpost.php?p=274499&postcount=108

I do agree that we need to wait until the prices are official - but we can at least be ready to hit the ground running when it comes to a formulated response.
 
Do we know for sure if Telkom must get approval from ICASA to change to per GIG pricing?

If so, how could they have informed the ISP's of the new billing structure, prior to getting approval from ICASA?

We don't know what is going to happen, so if we act prematurely - we are going to be losing credability as people will just see us as 'that group of internet users that will whine about anything.'
 
Hi guys

It is great to see the many relevant comments in this thread. I think it is definitely premature to attack the possible new pricing structure. ICASA will also not entertain any new ADSL related complaints before their new regulations are in place. This will be in draft form within the next few weeks (possibly two weeks), so I think it is a good idea to let them do their job and comment on the draft regulations when we it is time to do so. We can then address all of these issues, including the possible new billing system etc.

Regards,

RPM
 
I reckon RPM has the right of this situation... but so does peapod. It's good to have a plan of action but shall we make it something to do once other avenues have been followed?

I'm sure someone will be able to find details of those contracts AdLo...
 
AdLo said:
Please show me that contract . . .
Click to expand...
How about it WA or SAOL - quick scan and post - you're isp's so webspace shouldnt be a problem.
 
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