hey guys,

im a south african, currently living in england where you can get broadband on a copper telephone, sound familiar, telcom maybe, where line speeps of up to 24mbps is avaible for get this 15.99 pounds, or up to 16mbps from sky tv (i currently work for sky broadband) for 10pounds€¦. its done a system called llu or local loop unbundling, now im not familiar with south africas phone system but my question is why is this not possible in sa, it doesnt make sense and why is slow broadband charged at extortionate rates€¦.. so anything that will get a decent speed im all for bring on bpl, but once again there is technology for instance, there are things called radio waves.. travel near enough the speed of light€¦.. not rocket science but why not use this resource to its full capabilities….

why is south africa an apparently tring to be 1st world country left in the dark ages€¦€¦..

till now it seems if companies such as telkom want to rip customers off as badly as they do in the communication industry, its nice to see the councils and goverment are actually willing to do something bout it, im all for bpl, if the speed of 90mbps is actually archievble and uncapped that would be great.. but is the costs so high R500 odd where all over europe its costing about R200 per month for unlimited land line calls and unlimited broadband with up to 16mbps speeds..

in england for example a lady called margratt thatcher brought about deregulation, a legislation that stopped the abbuse of power and gas companies from providing sloppy service and charging high prices, it basically stopped the monoply of one corporation, why cant south africa deregulate the communications industry to allow for competion and to allow the end user, you and me, better service at a cost effective rate, seems like the way forward, sure telkom have set up th e infrastructure of our communication industry, but so did brittish telecoms in the uk, the have now broken down into different divisions, ie, openreach, wholesale, plan and build ect.. in the uk bb competion is fierce at the moment and the only people that benifit from this is the actual end user,

now to combat bt in the early days another company came out called ntl: telewest, there like dstv, your phone and net all in one, through a installed fibre optic line, fibre optic lines are capable of data transfer rates of litterally 200Gbps..

now all though the initail cost is high the return you would get from doing something similar would be hugh in the long term..

so it would seem the munciplalities are making way forward but how long before this just becomes a state of greed and prices get out of hand again…

im always hopefull and hope for the best as the world of communication is becoming more and more important, and is essential for business, which is essential for the goverment and just the general population… as the sasol add goes with an idea possibilties are endless… so when i return to sa next year im hoping for the best really….