Do people have a right to broadband?

No we do not have a right to free broadband. We have a right to be consumers that aren't held to ransom by crooked legislation that allows one supplier to rip us off. However, I think in light of the fact that that one supplier currently charges us for the same thing 3 times, 'free' local bandwidth that doesn't contribute to the cap of your package is not unreasonable.
 
Paragraph 2, 3 and 4 are just idiotic.

There are a number of things which are a governments duty to provide, good and affordable health care, education, public transport and communications. The last is the life blood of economies. You need to talk to your customers and suppliers.
If an open market can provide these things through a proper regulatory framework then that is good. If the market distortions do not allow this, then the government should look at where the failure lies and take remedial action, decisevely and as fast as possibly.
 
risingtide is right on but just to add to that ...

ICASA (as derelict in its duties as it is) seems to be in the position of "regulating" our telecoms industry. In the case of Telkom, there is little doubt in my mind that had it been subjected to the competition commissions views of abuse of power that we would certainly have been paying lower prices for our access. In that regard, every first world country has a strong competition oversight committee that sees to it that when conditions are skewed, that corrective action can and is taken.

Opening up the market does not of and by itself guarantee lower prices and better service (especially in the short run). Governments often play crucial roles in development. Our government is no doubt corrupt self serving and deficient yet in all ways it has a duty to more than just the million + people who can afford broadband. Free, I don't think so yet free market ... mmmm the banking industry isn't regulated or limited, neither is the steel. There are many potential market limiting conditions in a small country as removed from the developed world as we are and it would be irresponsible to allow an unfettered free for all to say the least.
 
It seems we have a Telkom representative here at last, maybe we should start asking questions and expecting answers?
I might have missed a few posts over the last months so maybe everyone knows who "corporate communications senior manager Hans van de Groenendaal" is/was at Telkom.

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=11767

Back to lurking I go.
 
Who remembers the transport regulated days?

Since that opened up SAR fell apart and competition brought a transporting system to the fore that seemingly works.

Telecoms requires the same opening up and away from protection and regulation.
 
Bullvein said:
It seems we have a Telkom representative here at last, maybe we should start asking questions and expecting answers?
I might have missed a few posts over the last months so maybe everyone knows who "corporate communications senior manager Hans van de Groenendaal" is/was at Telkom.

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=11767

Back to lurking I go.
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Quick question, is that thread supposed to date back to 2003 ?!
 
risingtide said:
There are a number of things which are a governments duty to provide, good and affordable health care, education, public transport and communications.
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Good grief! What socialist dreamworld are you living in? Don't you know what happened to countries that tried socialism? Their economies collapsed! Government's only duty is to protect its citizens from each other, nothing else. (Something which this government has totally failed to do, but that's a completely different thread ;) )

As to the rest, they should stop meddling and let the private sector get on with it.
 
Might I suggest that we start flagging all articles written by Hans with a *bullsh#t* tag? That way those of us looking for unbiased, informative articles don't waste our time.
 
Er, not quite. Most Western European countries are socialist in all but name. They provide all of the above, and are not exactly struggling.
South Africa has the best chance of providing these basic services to their citizens in our part of the world. I think it's the duty of government to provide these services. These services aren't free, they're paid for through taxation. It's not revolutionary, its just efficient use of tax money. The only reason a country's citizen's accept a government that doesn't provide these services is because they're too dumb to know they've already paid for it.
Should broadband be one of these services? I say yes, but that's just me :)
 
Is Hans van de Groenendaal a member of MyADSL? I don't want to tramp on any toes, but this is the second article he's written which has made me angry. Not sure where he's sucking his "facts" from.

Who said we wanted free Broadband? All we've ever asked for is reasonably priced ADSL. Something comparable to other international countries. Something the man on the street can afford. Internet access should NOT only be for the wealthy! Not so long ago 512 ADSL with a 3GB cap cost the same as the monthly installment for a new small car. This is ludicrous!

I'm prepared to pay for my Broadband. Except NO double line rental fee and no more than R10 per GB international and R1 per GB local.
 
Many people commenting on this website leave the impression that access to broadband must be free!
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Nobody said broadband must be free, what we actually want is the local component to be very cheap, ideally we don't want to even make the distinction between local and international traffic since, frankly, it's medieval. On the other hand, Telkom has put us through so much crap: everything from getting an ADSL line installed to sky high prices, an unreliable service and hours on hold at their call centres we deserve free local.

So our expectations that ICASA must grow and flex its muscle to regulate for low cost access to broadband are unrealistic.
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Am I missing something here? Doesn't what he said here contradict the very definition of what a regulator/watchdog is?

It will have to be competitive forces that must drive this. To some extend this is happening, but may be not aggressive enough. With Neotel having acquired access to the submarine cable system carrying most internet traffic to and from South Africa we may see this speeding up.
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Can anyone say "lipservice"? Also, Telkom and government (well actually Telkom is government and vice versa) have gone out of their way to stifle a speedy launch by Neotel so forgive me when I throw up after reading that "speeding up" part.

Price regulation seldom achieves the desired effect of making something more affordable.
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Another WTF statement. :rolleyes:

It does not make sense.
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Riiiiight.
 
There is no such thing as "free" broadband - "free" in this context means "payed for by taxpayers", which is not free at all, and the true cost will virtually certainly be FAR higher than what could be attained by a free market / competitive scenario.

There is no "right" to broadband (that is actually ANTI-freedom, as it implies that government must hyper-regulate the market by force) - what there SHOULD be a "right" to, is the right to compete to provide broadband services in a free market. This would lead to the very cheap broadband that is truly possible - it would become affordable even by comparatively poor people.

The proponents of "free" broadband in this context would almost certainly be those who already have dirty fingers - i.e. DoC and Telkom.
 
Some people say we need cheap broadband, I've always said we need [searchforum]affordable internet access and broadband in South Africa[/searchforum], as opposed to the exorbitantly priced ADSL and dialup that Telkodemonopolies monopolises.
 
ryan411 said:
He's Telkom affiliated, as pointed out by Bullvein and others.
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Ahhhhh, now it all makes sense. His writing does have a very familiar Telkomish nonsensical tone.

Note to self: disregard anything written by Hans van de Groenendaal.
 
Strobemeister said:
Er, not quite. Most Western European countries are socialist in all but name.
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Agreed.
They provide all of the above, and are not exactly struggling.
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Yes, but for other reasons.

South Africa has the best chance of providing these basic services to their citizens in our part of the world. I think it's the duty of government to provide these services.
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Mmm, another socialist...

These services aren't free, they're paid for through taxation.
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EXTREMELY high taxation.

It's not revolutionary, its just efficient use of tax money.
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Wrong. Government is the most inefficient provider of services and biggest waster of money. (ICASA and DoC being a case in point.) Private industry can provide services MUCH more efficiently and economically.

Should broadband be one of these services? I say yes, but that's just me :)
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Unfortunately too many people believe the state should provide them with everything and that they're entitled to it.
 
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