Unexpected Continental Drift Hits McGregor Even by McGregor standards, this is strange, verrrry strange. The village has always been less than 50km from Worcester, a fact that can be checked on any map. Now, all of a sudden, the village is over the 50km mark ............!
 What otherworldly power has caused this weird movement?? None other than dear old Telkom, that most beloved of companies, who have decided that we are no longer within the radius allowed for dialling the internet via Worcester, and so cannot use their concessionary rates. They have informed us that they now charge by the length of their wires, and not by geographical distance; we expect that they will soon be coiling their cables so as to charge international rates for local calls.
Should we fight them? No, we just recommend our readers to the Hellkom site, confident that Telkom will soon be just a sad and distant memory. You can read more about Telkom, criticism, and upcoming competition on the ever-excellent Wikipedia.
The following advert was placed by the Telecommunications Action Group (TAG) in the Mail and Guardian of 19th Jan 2007.
"THE MORE OF THIS YOU READ, THE MORE INFURIATED YOU'LL BECOME.
Last year, Telkom recorded a staggering R9.3 billion in pure profit.
At your expense. Read on and find out why South Africans continue to pay some of the highest prices for telephony services in the world.
Don't expect the government to step in. They couldn't give a hoot.
They've got a 38% shareholding. This in itself is like a ticket to act with impunity. And anyway, it's the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) which acts as the watchdog for the telecommunications industry. Their central role is to regulate telecommunications in the public interest. So how come they're not barking noisily and waking up the country about the fact that South Africans pay five times as much for a local call now than they did in 1996? Or that internet access in South Africa is among the most expensive in the world (in fact, you'll pay less for broadband in Morocco, Egypt, Botswana, and Mozambique)? Or that Telkom is only too happy to pay a R15 million fine for failing to deliver basic services where "it was not economical to do so" (Hold the phone, could that be your area they were talking about?) Worse still, Telkom has laid off over 35 000 staff over the past seven years, ensuring that its profits continue sky-rocketing while the rest of the country continues at a snail's pace, waiting up to six inexcusable months or more, to get connected. To anything. And all this from a company that is supposedly "proudly South African"?
Indeed, something is very wrong when the only way the public can get through to Telkom is by running a full page newspaper advertisement.
Because clearly, Telkom isn't answering the phone.
THIS ADVERT WAS PAID FOR BY INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE EXTREMELY CONCERNED ABOUT THE STATE OF SA'S TELECOMS INDUSTRY AND THE EFFECTS THAT GOVERNMENT MISMANAGEMENT OF THE SECTOR ARE HAVING ON OUR ECONOMY.
PLEASE ADD YOUR VOICE TO OURS. YOU CAN START BY PULLING OUT THIS PAGE AND PASSING IT ON, OR POSTING IT ON YOUR OFFICE OR UNIVERSITY NOTICEBOARD. JOIN US AT ONLINE CONSUMER ACTIVIST GROUPS WWW.TAG.ORG.ZA AND WWW.MYADSL.CO.ZA AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE." |
