Some months back I embarked on an attempt at getting answers from ICASA regarding ISPs disregard for the regulations laid down in Govenment gazette 29141. Particularly section 3.4 about local bandwidth not counting towards your usage cap.
After much correspondance I have finaly recieved an answer from Telkom:
>>> "Sharon Horton (S)" <[email protected]> 03/05/2007 17:05:26 >>>
Dear Colleagues,
RE: ICASA Ref CA/WC8546: Thomas Cleghorn
We wish to respond as follows on the subject matter.
Mr. Cleghorn has an ADSL 384 powered by Telkom Internet with a 3GB cap
and has lodged several allegations against Telkom (Telkom
Internet/SAIX) being in breach of section 3.4 of the ADSL Regulations.
These allegations include that Telkom is charging for local bandwidth;
that local traffic is subject to the cap; that Telkom / Telkom
Internet are stealing resources from customers who have paid for
international bandwidth. Mr. Cleghorn requests that Telkom explain
the mechanism used to ensure local bandwidth is not subjected to the
cap.
On 17 August 2006, the Authority published regulations regarding the
provision of ADSL services. The ADSL Regulations necessitated some
changes in the manner in which services were provided, the result was
that some providers, including Telkom, had been in default since the
day of publication. However, Telkom thought it prudent to provide the
Authority with feedback on the extent to which Telkom was in
compliance with the Regulations and on 10 November 2006, Telkom wrote
a letter to the Authority to provide it with an update as to the
extent that Telkom, both as a network operator and as an ISP, was in
compliance with the ADSL regulations.
With respect to Section 3.4 of the Regulation, we indicated that, with
regard to the combination of local and international bandwidth
counting towards the cap, at this stage Telkom is not in a position to
control the ratio of local versus international bandwidth usage in
real-time. The reason for this is because technical developments are
required on Telkom's local and international IP networks to enable the
functionality of separately measuring between local and international
bandwidth usage. Based on the technical developmental requirements,
Telkom's readiness with regard to the local usage on this service is
forecasted for November 2007. Therefore, any usage whether local or
international, will count towards the customer's cap until the
necessary development is completed on the IP network.
In view of the fact that Mr. Cleghorn indicates a prevalent use of the
ADSL based service for gaming, it might be worthwhile for Mr. Cleghorn
to make use of the uncapped service offerings that are available.
We trust that the above final feedback meets with the satisfaction of
the Authority.
With thanks and regards,
Dr. Sharon Horton
Senior Specialist
Regulatory and Public Policy
The response was forwarded to me by ICASA staff with the closing comment being "I hope you find this in order" and not much else in the way of comment.
Correct me if Im wrong but summerising the response I would say it says:
Yes, we are in breach of the regulations, however, we told you we were going to be in breach of them in Nov 2006. We'd like to comply with regs but we cant because of technical reasons. We may comply 'imminently' in Nov 2007. It then patronisingly asserts that as a gamer I should use another service. This totaly disregards the scale of the breach of regulations by Telkom by trying to regard me as an individal whining complainent.
ICASA did add that the matter was not closed and would be brought up for discussion at further meeting between ICASA, Telkom and MyADSL? This was not an open meeting. Not sure if this can be confirmed? While Im sure meetings are useful in this particular case I think time for meetings is over and ICASA need to take some action. What kind of action can they take?
I propose that as Telkom have admitted they are incorporating local usage into the overall cap they at the very least immediately double all caps whilst maintaining the exisitng pricing.I would suggest much more but I dont want to scare everyone and I think it is an immediately 'doable' thing.
The non compliance by Telkom is costing the nation and wrongly putting money into shareholders pockets everytine people do any of these things localy via ADSL, VOIP, Photographers, printers, video productions sending RAW and other large image data between branch offices and clients. Businesses backing up data. Databases talking to one another all the time. And *cough* gaming. It does strike me as pointless having an authority who dream up legislations that everyone ignores and no one enforces. The time is now ICASA!
On a more technical note for those who know. Would it be very hard to exclude (The majority of) local content from traffic accounting? Cant one simply exclude the relevant subnets or AS numbers kinda thing?
After much correspondance I have finaly recieved an answer from Telkom:
>>> "Sharon Horton (S)" <[email protected]> 03/05/2007 17:05:26 >>>
Dear Colleagues,
RE: ICASA Ref CA/WC8546: Thomas Cleghorn
We wish to respond as follows on the subject matter.
Mr. Cleghorn has an ADSL 384 powered by Telkom Internet with a 3GB cap
and has lodged several allegations against Telkom (Telkom
Internet/SAIX) being in breach of section 3.4 of the ADSL Regulations.
These allegations include that Telkom is charging for local bandwidth;
that local traffic is subject to the cap; that Telkom / Telkom
Internet are stealing resources from customers who have paid for
international bandwidth. Mr. Cleghorn requests that Telkom explain
the mechanism used to ensure local bandwidth is not subjected to the
cap.
On 17 August 2006, the Authority published regulations regarding the
provision of ADSL services. The ADSL Regulations necessitated some
changes in the manner in which services were provided, the result was
that some providers, including Telkom, had been in default since the
day of publication. However, Telkom thought it prudent to provide the
Authority with feedback on the extent to which Telkom was in
compliance with the Regulations and on 10 November 2006, Telkom wrote
a letter to the Authority to provide it with an update as to the
extent that Telkom, both as a network operator and as an ISP, was in
compliance with the ADSL regulations.
With respect to Section 3.4 of the Regulation, we indicated that, with
regard to the combination of local and international bandwidth
counting towards the cap, at this stage Telkom is not in a position to
control the ratio of local versus international bandwidth usage in
real-time. The reason for this is because technical developments are
required on Telkom's local and international IP networks to enable the
functionality of separately measuring between local and international
bandwidth usage. Based on the technical developmental requirements,
Telkom's readiness with regard to the local usage on this service is
forecasted for November 2007. Therefore, any usage whether local or
international, will count towards the customer's cap until the
necessary development is completed on the IP network.
In view of the fact that Mr. Cleghorn indicates a prevalent use of the
ADSL based service for gaming, it might be worthwhile for Mr. Cleghorn
to make use of the uncapped service offerings that are available.
We trust that the above final feedback meets with the satisfaction of
the Authority.
With thanks and regards,
Dr. Sharon Horton
Senior Specialist
Regulatory and Public Policy
The response was forwarded to me by ICASA staff with the closing comment being "I hope you find this in order" and not much else in the way of comment.
Correct me if Im wrong but summerising the response I would say it says:
Yes, we are in breach of the regulations, however, we told you we were going to be in breach of them in Nov 2006. We'd like to comply with regs but we cant because of technical reasons. We may comply 'imminently' in Nov 2007. It then patronisingly asserts that as a gamer I should use another service. This totaly disregards the scale of the breach of regulations by Telkom by trying to regard me as an individal whining complainent.
ICASA did add that the matter was not closed and would be brought up for discussion at further meeting between ICASA, Telkom and MyADSL? This was not an open meeting. Not sure if this can be confirmed? While Im sure meetings are useful in this particular case I think time for meetings is over and ICASA need to take some action. What kind of action can they take?
I propose that as Telkom have admitted they are incorporating local usage into the overall cap they at the very least immediately double all caps whilst maintaining the exisitng pricing.I would suggest much more but I dont want to scare everyone and I think it is an immediately 'doable' thing.
The non compliance by Telkom is costing the nation and wrongly putting money into shareholders pockets everytine people do any of these things localy via ADSL, VOIP, Photographers, printers, video productions sending RAW and other large image data between branch offices and clients. Businesses backing up data. Databases talking to one another all the time. And *cough* gaming. It does strike me as pointless having an authority who dream up legislations that everyone ignores and no one enforces. The time is now ICASA!
On a more technical note for those who know. Would it be very hard to exclude (The majority of) local content from traffic accounting? Cant one simply exclude the relevant subnets or AS numbers kinda thing?
you got a substantial response 
but who are the Complaints and Compliance Commission and at what stage can I take my case to them?
