Cybersurf

How ugly is the spat? Well Telkom essentially said that ICASA, the organisation meant to regulate our telecoms, did not understand what it was supposed to be doing, the phone company also threatened legal action against the regulator – while ICASA said that Telkom was holding the country to ransom and was stiffling the economy.

All this ugliness began in April at a series of ICASA hearings into Telkom’s pricing structure of its ADSL services. To oversimplify the hearings – Telkom said it was not over-charging while just about everyone else said it was.

An ICASA panel heard all the oral submissions, accepted a number of written submissions and then put together its findings in a report which was released at the end of last month.

Still keeping it simple, ICASA essentially agreed with all those who sided against Telkom – and now the swords are drawn.

One of the most vocal complainants, a web site forum known as myadsl, said the report acknowledged that:

• ADSL access charges are not justifiable.
• The current bandwidth caps are inadequate
• Local traffic should not count towards the cap.
• and that Telkom should guarantee certain levels of service.

Monthly charges for Telkom’s home ADSL services have come down considerably since they were first introduced, and they have also dropped since the hearings in April – but most analysts believe that they are still way too high.

Since the ICASA report was released, Telkom has threatened to cut its ADSL

Services to its customers and to sue the regulator.

So is Telkom the victim of a spiteful campaign while it tries to roll out capital intensive services to underprivileged communities or is it a greedy monopoly trying to make as much profits as possible while government stalls competition from the second national operator?

Well, I am not quite sure, it is a little confusing. There are many strange aspects to this story for example I could never understand why Telkom charges ninety rand for your phone line and then another three sixty for the ADSL if it is the very same line?

Oh well, perhaps I am like ICASA - not enough technical expertise.

A new spin on the story has come from Suzanne Vos of the IFP – yes even the political parties are getting involved. Vos issued a statement appealing to Parliament to protect the rights of the country’s citizens.

She said, - and I quote from the statement: “

Threats of crippling legal action against ICASA's decision-making and national economic sabotage cannot be allowed.

End of quote…..

So watch the battle unfold – and to help you watch, I will put up a few useful links on the Cybersurf Blog – which is tactically located at www.cybersurf.blogspot.com – one more time www.cybersurf.blogspot.com

Thanks for listening and tune in again next Monday for more on the best of the web.

Relevant Links (Courtesy of Peter Wakeford)

• http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A76611
• http://www.finance24.com/articles/companies/display_article.asp?ArticleID=1518-24_1748196
• http://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/tech_stocks/468802.htm
• http://www.finance24.com/articles/default/display_article.asp?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-24_1748905
• http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecoms/2005/0508041035.asp?A=AFN&S=All%20Africa%20News&O=E&CiRestriction=

Parties:

• ICASA (http://www.icasa.org.za)
• Telkom (http://www.telkom.co.za)
• MyADSL (http://www.myadsl.co.za)
• Internet Solutions (http://www.is.co.za/ - DimensionData company)
• IFP (Inkhata Freedom Party) - (http://www.ifp.org.za)
  
• Hellkom.co.za (http://www.hellkom.co.za - a website Telkom is suing for defamation. This site brings the facts to the SA public)
• Antitrust.co.za (http://www.antitrust.co.za - Telkom activist site)

// posted by Steven Lang @ 12:37 pm