The article "Broadband bullfight hots up" talks about communications, it was released by Toby Shapshak.
Competition is (slowly) bringing down bandwidth costs in
South Africa
Recently South African cyberspace was given an area code
(O87), the country's first report on wireless broadband
offerings was released and the cheapest asymmetric digital
subscriber line (ADSL) connection was announced. The suffix 087
was allocated for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) numbers by
the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa
(Icasa), effectively allowing calls routed through the Internet
to connect with the traditional tele-coms infrastructure.
It would allow users to dial a 087 nmuber much like a cellphone
number and connect to someone who also uses a VoIP system
instead of Telkom or a cellular network.
The call wuold be
routed through a data system, but be answered using a normal
telephone or computer, depending on how it is set up by the
service provider.
However, like most otehr telecoms issues, it is already
contentious, with one service provider, Storm, saying Telkom
believes it is illegal for Storm to provide voice services and
to interconnect with it. Telkom spokesperson Lulu Let-lape
explains, "According to Section 14 of the Telecommunications
Act, value-added network services (Vans) providers are not
permitted to carry voice until the communications minister
gazettes a change. According to Telkom, that hasn't changed,
that Act still stands".
Ironically, the 087 number range was used for the
notorious value-added lines 11 years ago which fetaured mostly
sex chatlines. It is common knowledge that Telkom suffered huge
losses when subscribers refused to pay or operators defrauded
them by skipping payment.
"Telkom lost a lot of money in the past; could lose a lot of
money in the future," says Storm's busniess development director
David Gale. He went on to say that Internet service providers
(ISP) and other telecoms providers could form their own
interconnect arrangement, and added that the upcoming
Convergence Bill wuold make a challenge to Telkom unnecessary.
There is an effort to lessen the cost of bringing bandwidth into
the country even as more complaints emerge about the price of
telecoms in South Africa.
Globally, the much-publicised purchase of Internet calling
service Skype by eBay for about $4-billion was concluded;
while BSkyB, the United Kingdom's largest pay-television group
was revealed to be interested in entering the broadband market
by acquiring ISP Easynet and offering so-called triple-play
services, combining voice calls, broadband Internet access and
paid-for television.
Meanwhile, M-Web, which is the largest consumer ISP, announced
the lowest monthly ADSL package, but one has to use
Telkom's entry level 192kps connection and M-Web's monthly fee,
which is the same cost as a nromal dial-up.
Broadband access and cost has grown into arguably the most
contentious issue after Telkom's call prices and the need to
allow access to the "local loop".
This is the so-called 'last
mile" that connects subscribers to the ecxhange. The largest
portion of the monthly cost is a second rnetal fee Telkom
charges for the ADSL line. Icasa slammed these fees as
"exorbitant" after hearings ealrier that year into the cost of
Telkom's broadband access; following a complaint by the
MyADSL.Co.Za website. The website has emerged as one of Telkom's
greatest critics as it is a forum for broadband users, many of
whom are disgruntled about the serivce that Telkom is offering.
While most criticism has been about the cost of doing business
and how it retards the country's economic growth the NGO,
Sangonet pointed out that it hindered development goals too.
"The high cost of access limits the use of the Internet as a
civil society tool and stunts the growth of a culture to use
technology as an information tool," Sangonet deputy
director Fzaila Farouk told ITWeb. She told the information
technology website that the 'about' 100 000 civil-society
organisations in South Africa - most of which are community
based - could use the Internet as a tool for fund-raising,
advocacy and working with otehr constituencies to share
information and coordinate development priorities, but cannot do
so effectively on dial-up.
Meanwhile, the first wireless broadband report, released by
Johannesburg University's depatrment of business information
technology and the MyADSL website, found that Sentech's
MyWireless was the best on offer.
Comparing price, speed,
reliability, and support through lab and user testing, the
report was a comparative analysis of the wireless alternatives
to Telkom's ADSL.
MyWireless scored 87%; Vodacom's 3G came
second with 81%; WBS's iBurst third with 80%; and MTN's 3G was
last with 78%.
Ironically, MyWireless has received the worst
publicity and there have been complaints of bad service and poor
speeds.
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