Mbeki lambasts Telkom

In a long interview in the FT the president has a few things to say about Telkom.

Take this undersea cable. They are charging I don’t know so many hundreds of percent more per unit of time than is being charged elsewhere in the world. So we say to Telkom, we can’t be saying, here is a sector of the economy which can attract a lot of people – and indeed many companies around in some instances led by South African companies that have developed big operations outside South Africa, Old Mutual that is listed on the London Stock Exchange – they say we want to do these call centres here… they know this is their country, they know the country the people the language but the cost is … So we say, Telkom you have got to do something about that. And now they are saying now we understand.

And he believes them?

And we also have taken a decision to build a new and much bigger fiber optic cable along the West coast much much bigger much greater capacity than the one that exists now which would radically reduce this cost. …. So there are a number of interventions we are making in this area, including putting the pressure on Telkom to say this it is a level of profiteering that is not right.
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Yes, the charges are absolutely phenomenal.

That's right! For once I find myself and the president singing from the same sheet.

DSTV-monopolie boer voort

Suid-Afrikaners is só gewoond aan monopolieë dat die meeste mense nie twee keer dink oor die feit dat ons betaal-TV ook deur monopolie (verfrissend, in die privaatsektor dié keer) oorheers word. Ons wonder ook nie veel daaroor dat ons geen kabel-TV in hierdie land het nie - „dis mos Afrika.” Min mense weet dat DSTV eintlik al die tyd geen lisensie het om in SA uit te saai nie - hulle het hier in die tyd van ons regimeverandering 'n lisensie in Botswana bekom, wat hulle die SA-owerhede oortuig het om te aanvaar vir die doeleindes van hulle bedryf in SA. In 2006 het OKOSA egter aansoeke aanvaar om lisensie vir kommersiële satelliet- en kabel-TV-dienste. OKOSA was so gretig dat hulle selfs die sluitingsdatum uitgestel het tot die einde van Augustus om die SAUK toe te laat om hul aansoek in te handig. Uiteindelik het 18 bedrywe aansoek gedoen om lisensies en vryemarkgesindes en verbruikers (soos die skrywer) het reeds begin uitsien na keuse in dié mark en laer pryse. Ongelukkig woon ons egter steeds in 'n tipe getransformeerde Boerassic Park en het die minister verlede week aangekondig (berig en kommentaar deur Anton Haber) dat die OKOSA-proses uitgestel moet word totdat die migrasie na digitale uitsending voltooi is. Die regering se teikendatum vir dié migrasie is 2008 maar 'n mens hoort in gedagte te hou dat nog slegs Nederland hierdie migrasie voltooi het en dat selfs Brittanje nie verwag om voor 2012 klaar te wees daarmee nie. SA se eweknie Brasilië verwag om in 2016 klaar te wees. Die leser sal dit sekerlik moeilik vind om nie met die outeur saam te stem dat daar iets in die drinkwater is nie en dat DSTV dit duidelik reggekry het (hul lisensie in SA gaan volgens berigte wel toegestaan word) om 'n de facto-monopolie in 'n de jure-een om te skakel.

Mag mense wat so rooi soos ek in die son brand nog Multichoice-aandele koop?

Alcatel goes EASSy

The Highway Africa news agency reports that Alcatel-Lucent has signed the contract to build the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy). EASSy will stretch along the east coast of Africa, from Mtunzini in Kwazulu-Natal to Port Sudan and then connect to major submarine cables running through the Red Sea. EASSy has been criticised (read Just say No to EASSy by RH Alden) for repeating the mistake made on the SAT3 connect up the west coast of Africa in creating monopolies in most countries on connectivity to the outside world. This is a very important point but it is at least somewhat encouraging that South Africa has included three operators in the consortium (newspaper article in Afrikaans) with a fourth to be added soon.

Fault reporting (at) Telkom

This evening I had the dubious pleasure of having to report a fault on a relative's Telkom line and was initially pleased to see the link to "online fault reporting" on Telkom's website. I completed the form twice and each time got no more than the following notice.



Now, the request to report the fault is reasonable, but no correspondence address is given so I am reporting it here. Incidentally, an article today from MyADSL reports benchmarks for SA's ADSL pricing, comparing rates in this country to those in Morocco (also in Africa) and Australia (also remote from the centres of Western civilisation). It turns out that ADSL users in Morocco and Australia are paying nearly the same as UK users (between 1c and 1,5c per MB) whereas users in SA are paying around 28c (all SA cents) per MB. At the risk of sounding like Carrie Bradshaw: could it be that Telkom is the fault?

Malawi trumps SA online

My post about Jajah zones (below) mentioned that South Africa was in the same expensive-to-call zone as Malawi, Laos and others. Well, beautiful Malawi (currently dead last on the IMF list of 181 countries by purchasing-power GDP per capita) has moved ahead and landlines as well as cellphones (of registered users) in that country can now apparently be called for free (gratis, mahala) from your PC using the Gizmo Project software. Bravo, Malawi, for trumping the rest of Africa and joining the USA, China and a handful of other countries in the category of least expensive destinations to call! Zambia remains the only country in Africa with free landline calls on Jajah, for now.

Rapport reports today (in Afrikaans) that the SA state is going to spend R1000m per year for the next three years on building the infrastructure for "affordable and universal" broadband access for South Africans. Why? The main obstacle, as I and many others have written, is the grotesque over-regulation of the sector. In my neighbourhood someone (not me, Your Honour) is already giving always-on high-speed access over a wireless network for around R250 per month (several hundred rand cheaper than purchasing a similar product from Telkom) as an exercise in community support that happens to be unlicensed and illegal. S/he is not interested in paying a fee of around R6000 (just under $1000) to apply for a license that will probably not be approved by a regulator that has a history of bureaucratic obstructionism.