hitting the wire*

Oops! ITWeb / Do Broadband - you have to love the irony here!

Spotted by some eagle eyes trawling ITWeb today: This.

OK, so they've fixed the faux pas, but that has to be the most ironic juxtapostion of content I've seen in a while.

my pipe's bigger than yours!

Business Day have published an article under my name today.  I'd love to claim the word-smithing was mine and mine alone, but alas I only briefed the copywriter who has an alarming ability to mimic one's style! 

Roger, how about ghost-writing my blog from now on!  ROTFL!

Good article though - and I can say so shamelessly. ;)

When will they ever learn?

The DoC have recently invited comment on the Draft Electronic Communications Amendment Bill.  Their invite is reproduced verbatim below.  I'd like to draw your attention to one paragraph:

"The Bill will also provide a forward looking legislative framework, which facilitates government's intervention in the ICT sector in line with a developmental state."

I think I prefer William Stucke's interpratation of that innocuous statement:

"The Bill seeks to provide an opportunity for Government to increase its meddling in the telecommunications market in RSA, and to further undermine ICASA ..."

Here's your invite:

Communications Ministry invites written comments to the Draft Electronic Communications Amendment Bill

19 September 2007

The Minister of Communications, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, invites members of the public to submit written comments to the draft Electronic Communications Amendment Bill due to be introduced in Parliament before the end of 2007.

The minister issued the general notice (No: 1200 of 2007) published in the government gazette on 17 September 2007. Members of the public have 30 working days to submit their written comments. The objective is to amend the Electronic Communications Act, of 2005, so as to empower the minister to issue a policy direction; and to provide an opportunity for government to make strategic interventions on infrastructure investments whenever it deems necessary.

In amending the Act, government will be able to address pertinent issues in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector such as reducing the cost to communicate by providing infrastructure at wholesale rate to other operators, link New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) Broadband with Africa/Latin America and Europe and provide the much needed bandwidth for strategic projects and consumers in general.

The Bill will also provide a forward looking legislative framework, which facilitates government's intervention in the ICT sector in line with a developmental state.

To access the draft bill, visit http://www.doc.gov.za, under news.

Telkom missing... but is that a bad thing?

The DoC was castigated recently (yes, there are people other than me who do chuck brickbats their way from time to time) for throwing a lavish party "to mark the occasion of the delivery of my vote in the National Assembly." according to Madame Matsepe-Casaburri.

ITWeb today reports that she has revealed that although the event cost R395 315.06, only R96,000.00 came from the DoC... the rest from corporate sponsors.

Who are they?  Acc. to ITWeb:

The companies which sponsored the department's event are: Dimension Data, Vodacom, Cell C, MTN, GijimaAST, ForgeAhead, Microsoft, Business Connexion, Neotel, Multichoice and Nokia Siemens Networks.

Telkom conspicuous by their absence.  Was it because they found it distasteful to fund a party for the telecoms policymakers of the land or did they decide they have no reason to suck up to government, or were they not approached?

I know lobbying government is part of life, but quite frankly, I'm not sorry that Storm's name is not on that list.  There are more constructive ways of spending money right now and when we see some real progress in making SA Telecoms more competitive I'll be ready to celebrate. 

Right now, I'm wondering what the fuss is about.

Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates

I don't usually find the patience to read Robert X Cringely's posts, but I did on this one .

Was is it wrong of Jobs to drop the price of the 8-gig iPhone from $599 to $399 less than three months after the product’s introduction?  I'm undecided no on that.  Was it a strategic move aimed to milk early adopters?  I suspect so. 

Has he beaten Gates?  Depends on how you view life, but the numbers have to count.

"Apple is the best-managed computer company on Earth" - eh? how so?

caveat emptor.

Google replaces sniffer dogs.

Is there anything this bunch will not get involved in?!?

"The Mountain View, California-based company has emerged as a potentially useful resource for search-and-rescue teams because of its connections to the dozens of contractors that provide satellite imagery for its popular Google Earth software."

Article on IOL here.

There is something you can do about Telkom.

Michael Alachouzos, a New York attorney and an SA advocate, was a surprise speaker at today's iWeek 2007 Conference (presentations available here).  He has asked me to make his contact details available for anyone who is interested (see below).

Why would you be interested?  Seems Michael has extensive experience of bringing  monopolies to book through shareholder rights.  If he can get a group of more than 100 like-minded Telkom shareholders together (you only need one share), there are certain obligations that Telkom have w.r.t. being more transparent and accountable.

He is offering shares in Telkom that Mark Shuttleworth will apparently pay for!

If you want to get hold of him:

Michael Alachouzos
011-886-0191
076-818-2653
smda (at) mkohlhaas.org
64 Waterfall Avenue, Craighall, 2196, JHB

I'm intrigued!

Errata

Seems I got the bull by the udder on a few points - please see Michael's comments on this post for clarification.  The concept of getting involved as shareholders in any public entity in order to influence accountability and transparency and general good governance is a good one if time and money allow.

in danger of losing the plot?

The Storm presentation for iWeek 2007 can be found here.

Telkom were "above the law"

Bretton Vine recently posted an article from Business Report by Ann Crotty on IOZ.legal. 

Willie Currie, a former counsellor of the Independent Communications Authority of SA; and Robert Horwitz, a member of the department of communication at the University of California in San Diego have authored an article entitled "Another instance where privatisation trumped liberalisation: the politics of telecommunications reform in South Africa - a ten year perspective".

In it, they claim that the shareholders' agreement signed by the government when it sold a 30 percent stake in Telkom to the Thintana Communications consortium placed both companies above South Africa's laws.  It also outlines how Southern Bell Company (SBC) played a significant role in slowing down the process of deregulation in order to extend Telkom's monopoly and their opportunity to milk the SA consumer to the profit of SBC.

I was working for the dark side at the time and recall finding the SBC guys who were brought in at exec level to be a generally arrogant and aggressive bunch.

We were ripped off.  By our own people too.  Makes my blood boil.

Update:

The academic paper "Another instance where privatisation trumped liberalisation: the politics of telecommunications reform in South Africa - a ten year perspective" can be found here.