Telkom and me, at parliament

On Tuesday, had been invited to Cape Town to take part in hearings of the Parliamentary Committee on Communications on South Africa's mobile interconnection (or, mobile termination) rates. I deviated a bit from my written submission but I hope that I impressed three things on most members of the committee:

1. the situation is not new, and had been unfolding under their (and the regulator's) noses for more than ten years now;
2. government, as a shareholder in most of the major telecommunications operators, cannot now accuse them of “greed”; and
3. that Telkom's fixed termination rates are at least as disproportionally high as the mobile rates.

It was a nice experience and I was impressed by the obvious eagerness of most committee members to learn more about the issue, especially MPs Vadi, de Lille, Killian and Zondi. The Deputy Minister of Justice did not appear to appreciate my second point, though. The CEO of Vodacom also attended the hearing, as did executives from Neotel, Telkom, the CEO of Vox Telecom etc.

Since I was in Cape Town only for a few hours, I heard only two other submissions – that by Telkom, for which the time of three senior executives could apparently easily be free up, and a personal submission by Thabiso Mokgoro from Accenture. Telkom's entire contribution consisted of (as far as I could tell) some slides from their annual report and a plea to regulate a special interconnection rate from public phones to mobiles. Has anyone actually seen people use public phones? Mokgoro's submission recounted his personal experience of excessively high roaming rates. MTN had charged him around R25 000,00 after a visit to Botswana. I really think it would not be disturbing if these operators alerted one by SMS each time the unbilled amount went up by more than R1 000,00 (say) - even if it is only to express their gratitude for the custom.

Links

Cellphone operators under fire over rates http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1078069
Parlement kap selfoongroepe http://www.sake24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?ArticleId=6-104_2556976

Standard Bank spam

Just to show that I don't pay several hundred rand per month in fees for absolutely nothing, Standard Bank was kind enough to send me the following spam earlier this week. How do they expect me to take an e-mail from “Standardbank” that addresses me only as “Dr,” seriously? Somehow, I do not remember where I put the Tardis.

The message continues to be misleading and, generally, not helpful. The description of phishing

“a form of identity theft in which fraudsters masquerade as reputable institutions such as banks or retailers”

is not that useful since many readers might not know how easy it easy to register a domain name such as stundardbank.co.za which was available at the time of writing for R50/year and copy an entire website. Instead, we get the following waffle.

“These fraudsters then urge you to provide your sensitive information such as identity numbers, card numbers and PINs. They then use this information to defraud you.

Please remember that we will never ask you to update/confirm personal or secret information like PINs or passwords via an email or over the phone. We urge you to remain vigilant at all times.”

Actually, I think that Standard Bank asks me for my ID number on the telephone all the time. Have you tried refusing to give it? What about mentioning that all of the above can happen on an exact copy of the Standard Bank website? They continue with

“Never click on a link in an email that takes you to another website”

but their own e-mail contains two such links. Better advice would be to never click on a link in an e-mail message. Further, my Internet banking profile clearly states that I prefer plain text e-mail over HTML and my correspondence language with Standard Bank is Afrikaans. Would they not engender more trust by sending me a plain text message in Afrikaans? After all, phishing is all about confidence. But, please Standard Bank, do not send an update.

Parlement praat oor seltariewe

Die parlement se portefeuljekomitee oor kommunikasie (PPKK) het verlede week vergader oor Suid-Afrika se skokkend hoë interkonneksietariewe, die gelde wat betaal word deur telefonieverskaffers aan ander netwerke vir die terminering van 'n oproep op die netwerk waaraan die geskakelde nommer behoort. In spitstyd is dié tarief R1,25 vir die selfoonnetwerke, m.a.w. die netwerk van die geskakelde party sit R1,25 per minuut in die sak en die bellende party se netwerk móét nog hulle koste en winse bó dit verhaal. Dié besonder hoë interkonneksietarief is bepaal deur onderlinge ooreenkoms tussen Vodacom en MTN sowat 10 jaar gelede, net voor die toetrede van Cell C tot die mark. In wese is dit 'n uiters onmededingende situasie omdat nuwe toetreders deur dié prysvasstelling – die meeste geskakelde partye is immers op die gevestigde netwerke – verhoed word om op prys mee te ding. Suid-Afrika het dan ook van die wêreld se hoogste beltariewe.

Bovermelde komitee, waar welige baarde by sowel die voorsitter as die DA se skaduminister (het iemand hulle vertel ons het nie meer die Westminster-selsel nie?) spruit, het aangekondig dat hulle teen 1 November 'n verlaagde tarief verwag. Alhoewel feitlik almal dít sou verwelkom, hoort die ekonomie nie uit parlementêre komitees bestuur te word nie. Die toepaslike owerheid is die Mededingingskommissie of OKOSA (ICASA). Die einste komitee sou egter reeds in 2005 kennis kon neem van 'n voorlegging aan hulle deur (toe) professor Alison Gillwald van Wits, waarin sy waarsku dat onder nuwe wetgewing

“with the retention of certain regulatory and licensing powers by the Ministry, together with some of the necessary provisions of the ICASA Amendment Bill not being in place, the constitutionally required independence required for the broadcasting regulator in Section 192 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa is probably not met.”

Op daardie tydstip was die openbare mening nie soseer op dié kwessie toegespits nie, en kon die PPKK die professor se goeie advies maar rustig diep liaseer. In Namibië het hulle reeds na goeie advies geluister en aangekondig dat die interkonneksietariewe stelselmatig sal daal tot R0,30 per minuut teen Januarie 2011.


Bronne


Selgroepe moet hul tariewe sonlig gee
www.sake24.com/...
High Interconnect rates: The PPCC and ICASA Independence
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Cellular/9668.html
Parliament attacks South African telecom operators
http://www.itnewsafrica.com/?p=3146
Submission to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications on the 2005 Convergence Bill (Notice 27294 of 2005) by the Wits LINK Centre
http://link.wits.ac.za/papers/conv-bill.pdf
Telecom laat sak belpryse
http://www.republikein.com.na/...

Zuma's office not taking my free call

It was announced yesterday that call to South Africa's new Presidential Hotline 17737, instituted by President Zuma, would be free from all operators. This is clearly an enormous mistake as everybody (and there are more than one million citizens per operator) with time on their hands can now just call the Hotline and tie up the lines for people like me. This morning, after having navigated through the friendly multilingual (English, Afrikaans, generic Nguni, generic Sotho, Venda, Tsonga) menus, I was told that my call was being forwarded to an "English" operator. After a few more minutes, a message was played saying that they are extremely busy and I should try again later. Line disconnected. Why not just play this message right at the beginning?

In spite of assurances from Cell C that the number is reachable from their network and free, my Virgin Mobile phone gives me the famous Cell C husky voice, informing callers that the number is "not available" when I dial 17737 from my cellphone. The cause of my original complaint? The Post Office's "Expedited Mail Service" does not answer their call centre number more than 10% of the time and in those cases, the system is reported to be down. I am trying to track a US Express Mail International item that is reported (by the USPO) to have arrived in SA three weeks ago. Never again!

Source

Free calls to Zuma from all operators http://mybroadband.co.za/news/General/9614.html

Waarom 0861-nommers?

Die gebruik van 0861-inbelnommers in Suid-Afrika grief my al 'n geruime tyd. Eerstens is 0861-nommers oor die algemeen nie uit die buiteland (en/of deur Skype) bereikbaar nie en indien 'n mens dus nodig het om 'n betrokke instansie van oorsee te kontak dan sit jy sonder 'n spaan. Voorts kos hierdie nommers altyd soveel as 'n binnelandse langafstandoproep - selfs al bel jy van langsaan. 0861-nommers heet immers nie MaxiCall vir niks nie. Laastens, is dit ietwat onduidelik of selfoondiensverskaffers 0861-oproepe onder sogenaamde naweekminute tel. Waarom adverteer Unisa, byvoorbeeld, 0861 670 411 sowel as +27 11 670-9000 (vir "internasionaal") indien dit oënskynlik vir almal goedkoper is om eenvoudig 011-670-9000 te skakel?

Bronne

http://www.telkom.co.za/common/pricelist/prices/local/custtomer_to_automatic_exh.html