2007-04-04

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.

Yes, the charges are absolutely phenomenal.

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

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