The weird and wonderful world of South African telecoms

South Africa is a strangely unique place when it comes to telecommunications and the high price thereof.

We have first world technology in a developing nation; alongwith a monopoly on fixed line [Neotel, our SNO, cannot yet be considered as competition / but hopefully that will change soon], 3 GSM network service providers, ISP's that have to buy bandwidth from the incumbent foxed line operator "Telkom" and a host of virtual GSM Networks.

The goverment own shares in Telkom, Telkom owns 50% of Vodacom [GSM SP], Vodacom is getting into the fixed line business in competition to their parent company Telkom, there is talk in the marketplace that MTN and Telkom will merge and the goverment is supposed to ensure the people [thats us] get a fair deal. We have interconnect fees [costs charged by one network to terminate calls on another] that should make network shareholders blush, but instead are making them rich.

And we have so much "smoke and mirrors" [read marketing gumpf] around products and their pricing, that people [including me], make a living out of understanding and managing telecoms for businesses.

Hopefully, this blog will give you those who need it, some insight into how to come to grips with your costs in your business, and how we can help you if you need it.

Peter Walsh_3rd June 2007 / http://www.dataroom.co.za/