Monday, September 06, 2004
Voice over IP will be legal in SA and Internet Week
Hello – good morning and welcome to Cybersurf – your weekly window where web matters. I am your Cyberhost Steven Lang.
In the last week or so the Department of Communications has made some very important announcements - about the licensing of the Second National Operator and the legalisation of Voice Over IP.
Most of the good news is for Internet and telephone users in South Africa – but the cell phone operators will also gain because, as from next year, they will not be forced to use Telkom lines for their infra-structure – yes – did you know that currently all the cell phone operators use Telkom lines for certain parts of their networks. The latest developments will add competition to the markets and competition usually means better prices for consumers.
Telkom will probably lose ground as a result of the announcements, and I will not be surprised if they use the announcements to justify re-trenchments – however, competition need not be bad news for Telkom.
In many other countries where the entrenched telephone operator suddenly had to face competition, the Telcos were able to adapt to the new markets and maintain some sort of profitability.
The decision to allow Voice over IP means that users will be allowed to use the Internet to make cheap long distance phone calls. Essentially you will be paying the normal rate to your local ISP for a phone call to anywhere in the world. At the moment this is illegal in South Africa, although many countries have long since bowed to the inevitable and licensed private businesses that allow users to make cheap international calls.
This week is Internet week in South Africa. The Internet Service Providers Association of South Africa – or ISPA will be holding their annual conference in Muldersdrift just outside Johannesburg. To find out more – check out their web site at http://iweek.ispa.org.za/.
Issues on the agenda include an assesment of the current state of the industry and also a full session on the state of the industry in 2007 – in other words, where are we going to? Other issues include cybercrime, spam and the establishment of AfriNIC. - www.afrinic.net
AfriNIC is an acronym for African Network Information Center – and it is essentially a domain name registry for Africa. The whole process of establishing AfriNIC is almost complete and will probably be formalised at a high profile meeting in Cape Town this December.
More on AfriNIC in later editions of Cybersurf.
Rapid change of tack now – the United Nations has just given a susbtantial boost to the distribution of open source software. The UN has funded an organisation called the International Open Source Network that aims to encourage the take up of Linux in the developing world.
If you would like more information on this you will find the web address to this and other sites I have mentioned in today’s program at the following address:
www.cybersurf.blogspot.com – one more time for luck – www.cybersurf.blogspot.com.
Thanks for your attention – and remember to tune in again next Monday for more Cybersurf..
Links to web sites mentioned in this program:
Internet Week: http://iweek.ispa.org.za/.
AfriNIC: http://www.afrinic.net
International Open Source Network: http://www.iosn.net/
In the last week or so the Department of Communications has made some very important announcements - about the licensing of the Second National Operator and the legalisation of Voice Over IP.
Most of the good news is for Internet and telephone users in South Africa – but the cell phone operators will also gain because, as from next year, they will not be forced to use Telkom lines for their infra-structure – yes – did you know that currently all the cell phone operators use Telkom lines for certain parts of their networks. The latest developments will add competition to the markets and competition usually means better prices for consumers.
Telkom will probably lose ground as a result of the announcements, and I will not be surprised if they use the announcements to justify re-trenchments – however, competition need not be bad news for Telkom.
In many other countries where the entrenched telephone operator suddenly had to face competition, the Telcos were able to adapt to the new markets and maintain some sort of profitability.
The decision to allow Voice over IP means that users will be allowed to use the Internet to make cheap long distance phone calls. Essentially you will be paying the normal rate to your local ISP for a phone call to anywhere in the world. At the moment this is illegal in South Africa, although many countries have long since bowed to the inevitable and licensed private businesses that allow users to make cheap international calls.
This week is Internet week in South Africa. The Internet Service Providers Association of South Africa – or ISPA will be holding their annual conference in Muldersdrift just outside Johannesburg. To find out more – check out their web site at http://iweek.ispa.org.za/.
Issues on the agenda include an assesment of the current state of the industry and also a full session on the state of the industry in 2007 – in other words, where are we going to? Other issues include cybercrime, spam and the establishment of AfriNIC. - www.afrinic.net
AfriNIC is an acronym for African Network Information Center – and it is essentially a domain name registry for Africa. The whole process of establishing AfriNIC is almost complete and will probably be formalised at a high profile meeting in Cape Town this December.
More on AfriNIC in later editions of Cybersurf.
Rapid change of tack now – the United Nations has just given a susbtantial boost to the distribution of open source software. The UN has funded an organisation called the International Open Source Network that aims to encourage the take up of Linux in the developing world.
If you would like more information on this you will find the web address to this and other sites I have mentioned in today’s program at the following address:
www.cybersurf.blogspot.com – one more time for luck – www.cybersurf.blogspot.com.
Thanks for your attention – and remember to tune in again next Monday for more Cybersurf..
Links to web sites mentioned in this program:
Internet Week: http://iweek.ispa.org.za/.
AfriNIC: http://www.afrinic.net
International Open Source Network: http://www.iosn.net/
