hitting the wire*

Infraco - a double-edged sword?!

I feel a bit like a child who has won a consolation prize!

Rumours that have been doing the rounds for a while have just been confirmed.  The Dept. of Public Enterprises is starting its own Broadband company. With R627m of taxpayers money as seed capital and fibre network that Eskom built.

I'm both encouraged and dismayed.

I'm encouraged because we appear to be getting additional competition in an area where it is sorely needed - national and international bandwidth. Alec Erwin having been behind one of the DoC's famous "about turns" some years back when they announced that 2nd and 3rd network operators would be appointed and then abruptly reverted to just a 2nd, it is only fitting he should now be behind Infraco. During the DoC sponsored colloquia last year, Dr Taylor Reynolds of the OECD (I've added his slides under the Presentations downloads) proved that adding only a 2nd network operator has had meagre impacts on telecoms pricing throughout history. At least we are seeing some definitive and bold action from Government after months if not years of talk. Interesting that it takes the DPE and not the DoC to do it!? If Infraco succeeds in driving down costs, it can only benefit the economy.

I'm dismayed because it means we have yet another telecoms entity in South Africa which is Government controlled. I have no idea how any entity with vested financial interests in a market can hope to create fair and effective policies to stimulate and nurture a competitive free market economy! Ideally, government should govern and stay the hell out of commerce. Government market interventions are a bit like using a blunt instrument to fix the intricate and complex movement of a watch - only the self-regulating mechanism of competition can fine tune a market well. If, as Erwin states, they do finally privatise, it may well be the most pragmatic approach. As I understand it (and contrary to the report) Transtel's network is not included in the Infraco deal, thus we will effectively have a 4th operator (albeit again with government interests). To what degree this further erodes the potential market for the 2nd operator Neotel, only time will tell.

So, reserved applause for the DPE, for at least taking a bold step into the future. We're so used to years of ceaseless debate with little to show, decisive action is somewhat unnerving. Sadly, this is more often like Lewis Carrol country than an ideal world - let us hope we have not unleashed the Jabberwock.

That's me for now.

an ass-kicker for a kick-ass offering?

I'm not dead.  I've just been locked out of my blog while I wrestled with the vagaries of online credit card payments to international entities.  Stuck between Six Apart & Standard Bank, both of whom claimed the problem lay outside of their domain.

Sarah was unsure from one of my previous postings as to whether I'm positive about Sentech's Biznet Xpress offering or not.  Let me set the record straight if I can.  Biznet Xpress rocks.  It is the first genuine last-mile, constant bit rate, Diginet alternative we at Storm have found to run our toll-grade corporate VoIP product over.  We tested it.  We have a well known Joburg ad agency's voice (they are all jumpy about being named since they do work for a telecoms company who do not compete directly with us for some reason!) running over it.  It works.  "Like a bought one" as Rob Fisher would say.

I've just taken a look at the metrics for the day, which pretty much look like the past few weeks since install.  Here's packet loss and MOS:

 

Not shabby eh Nige?

Did I mention they're a lot cheaper than Diginet?  And we're talking retail pricing... the reseller discount scheme has yet to kick in.  A kick-ass last mile option where you're wanting a quality, uncontended link to run VoIP.  Now that Quality is out of the way and Price is looking rosy... how about Service?

And this is where I'm reserving judgement right now.  Two week turn-around on installs is supposedly in the contract addendum I have yet to see.  That would be very sweet. Very.  But track record so far tells me they've a bit of work to do to measure up.

We just need someone to whip Sentech into a more responsive, service-oriented outfit.  Any volunteers with steel-capped boots?

That's not me!  A tough ask.

when is enough enough?

Everyone likes to bash the dominant national telco, Telkom (can't call them the incumbent/monopoly anymore even though Neotel are barely beyond neonatal!).  Almost as popular a national sport as Rugby.  And everyone likes to find some stats to back up how telecoms prices are 10 gazillion times higher here than they are in {fill in the name of  a developed country here} - hell, I've done it.  We are more expensive, on most services and compared to most 1st world countries, but here are a few interesting observations:

1) Earlier this evening, Jennigay Coetzer from Business Day had me checking an article on DSL she is prepping for an upcoming Telecoms Survey.  We were discussing how we're seeing 4 to 6 month lead times on Telkom ADSL installs, with Storm's ADSL user base having grown by over 100% in the last 6 months. A year ago, a 512kbps ADSL service was setting you back R800.00/month.  The same service today (actually it is probably more consistent and average throughput is possibly higher) is R318.00/month.  A 60% drop in price.  No wonder demand has shot up.  Use a dial-up for 30 minutes a day (at less than 56kbps) and you've justified a move to a 512kbps ADSL service.

2) Just read an email from a potential business partner who'd asked us for a quote for an upstream link of 5Mbps local and 1Mbps international bandwidth. His email response to the quote from our Product Manager was just two words : "holy sh*t".  Our margins are not high, but when you've been used to UK or US pricing (a 1Gbps Metro Ethernet link across London only cost less than what we quoted him when I last checked) I'm sure it is a bit of a shock.  To think that not so long ago (maybe 2 years?) international bandwidth was costing us 5x what it is now.

So... a long way round to a question I'd love to know the answer to: When will one have enough bandwidth?  Right now there is plenty price elasticity - drop the price and the latent demand swells. More BW for your budget. But, what is that magical R/Mbps and Mbps/user point where you no longer want to beef up your link just because you can afford to?

I think it is when you're able to do what you want to over that link without frustration.  Email? Surfing? Audio streaming? VoIP? Video streaming? Video conferencing? IPTV? Video on Demand? Online gaming?  Depends on the application.  Which makes me wonder if applications will follow the Microsoft route and gobble up more bandwidth the way process power has been progressively pillaged? Terabits/second to the home!?

 OK, enough - I'm hyperventillating!  That's me.  I'll see you on the pause. ;)

connecting 'on the pause'

So many blogs, so many news feeds, so much happening, so many opportunities, sometimes I feel like a dog in duckpen – not quite sure which noisy, tasty thing to chase next. 

Which has led me to start listing and rating (mainly for my personal use) the newsletters, websites, commentators and blogs I get real value from.  They’re not necessarily the ‘best of breed’.  They do however challenge me and inform me on topics I need to better understand. 

One such site is www.silcon.com – just today I took time out to read an article which I spotted in their daily newsletter by Richard Leyland, called “Unwired: Prepare for the next generation (Today's teens will change the way we work...).  It’s worth a read.  Cliff, our Data Product Manager and I have been discussing how poorly we ourselves at Storm make use of Instant Messaging as a work tool, although many of us have it on our desktops.  With no policy (yet) and rules, it is used by some for business, but by many just for chatting to mates – in whatever corner of planet Earth they're in. 

A phrase Richard Leyland uses to describe how young people communicate is “…connecting 'on the pause' wherever they happen to be…” how very apt.

IM is just one such young person’s comunication tool – combined with other technologies (it already has limited Presence fuctionality), it gains in usefulness – yourattempt to connect and share information with someone needs to be guided by what you know of their whereabouts and activity at that moment and how they are choosing to make themselves available.  Witness the phenomenal growth of MXIT, where IM meets Mobility and threatens SMS.  The BusDev Manager at ClockSpeed Mobile’s sister company today tells me that the “bad PR” on Carte Blanche has caused MXIT sign-ups to accelerate even faster and prospective partners and funders are now beating the door down.  Bad press? Not.

Another site, which is actually a blog (EuroTelcoblog), is that of James Enck, who I met at VON Europe in 2004.  He does a darn fine job of keeping abreast of lots of bleeding edge news in the telco world in Europe and makes snippets and pointers available as they break.  I’ve added his blog to the list of blogs I visit.

Come to think of it, it was he that warned the VON audience of 2004 to ignore the usage patterns of the youth at their peril.  The youth of today populate the “office” of tomorrow (whatever that will be!).  This was one of his slides:

See you on the pause.  That’s me for today.

the old carrot or stick dilemma.

I'd like to challenge you (as I have your attention for a short while). I ranted about the appalling apathy that seems rife in school management within certain schools w.r.t. taking up an offer of assistance. I huffed about contacting Cameron Dugmore, MEC for Education here in the Western Cape. I now have his contact details. But then... what to say to him? I'd klap me (if I was him) if I came at him with yet another ranter/moaner/"you-people"'r approach.  Come to me with a problem and no proposed solution and I'm likely to chase you away.

Effective teaching in my limited experience is more related to enthusiastic, passionate teachers and not the quality of the resources they have. Hell, it helps to have a classroom, desks and chairs at least, not to mention the wizardry of interactive this and broadband access to that. But how do we, with pockets that are not bottomless, focus the energy we have in the time that is available to us, to make a difference?

Do we take the "starfish on the beach" approach - where the lad throwing starfish back into the sea is heard to remark when questioned on the efficacy of his approach that "well, it made a difference for that one!". Do we push water upstream by trying to change the system? There have to be some buttons that we can push, some pressure points we can find, some fulcrum which when used with us as a lever shifts the balance and changes the course of things.

Great to have ideals of using telecoms technology to "better the schools". Not so easy in reality.

How about adding your comment or idea or thoughts to the mix here?

stalled... on the starting grid.

Ever watched a Grand Prix where one of the guys stalls his car on the starting grid? Painful. You want to offer him a shove. I watched a Men's Health biathlon down at Llandudno some time back when one poor sod was so tired after the run that when he got to the surfski leg he could not get his ski beyond the first breakers without losing headway, broaching and coming off.

A bit like watching Sentech trying to get Biznet Xpress off the ground. Got the license. Got the network. Got the technology. Got the opportunity. Can't get going. With Telkom taking at times over 13 weeks to install Diginets, Storm is itching to find a viable alternative.

A year after starting to test this wireless Diginet replacement product, Sentech installed the first commercial Biznet Xpress link for us last week. Tests have shown it to meet, if not at times exceed the quality parameters of Diginet. Quality is not an issue with Diginet. Price is and so is lead time to install. We need better pricing - Xpress has it. We need links in within 5 to 10 working days. ya-well-no-fine!

The SLA, when we finally get it, promises to install within 2 weeks. I'm not going to be holding my breath, but if they get their act together and make that happen... I'll be the first to pop the bottle of bubbly!

"you people..."

Bear with me while I have a quick rant!

I overheard a restaurant manager (white female) use the words "you people..." while addressing a group of staff (coloured and black men and women).  I cringed involuntarily.  It has to be the most innocuously demeaning phrase around & those who use it seem not to realise!

But, my rant is about another aspect of 'you people' ... the tendency we have to see issues as someone else's problem, outside of ourselves, having no accountability or inclination to "get my A into G and DO SOMETHING!".

We are beefing up Storm's CSI programme.  The budget is not huge, but hey, we're offering to link a school to the Net, and work out how else we can add value to Educating PDI kids.  We shortlisted 3 schools near our Cape Town office and called.  Not one principal would take our call - we were asked to send the a fax.  We faxed.  No reply.  A month later, we called again.  One phone remains engaged, another the principal is not available, the 3rd he was heading out for the weekend (it is not even 3pm yet!) and fobbed us off by saying he could not comment and would need to refer to the Governing Body.

These are not wealthy schools.  You'd think they'd gag at being offered resources?

How do we expect to improve the standard of education if the management seem more interested in their weekend away than in empowering their staff and kids!

I think an email to the local MEC for education is needed - anyone have the address?

the devil is in the detail.

It is 10pm Wednesday night and I am knackered and a nervous wreck.  Monday I was told my 10yo daughter Brynn's Science Expo project was due next Wednesday - she wanted a mouse powered light (I kid you not) - hey no sweat! Tuesday I was told she has to present it THIS Thursday.  panic, but quietly.  Dad's are not allowed to panic loudly.  7pm today - even with the most suitable dynamo and LED I could find... mouse (furry brown creature, not the gadget on your desk) can't run fast enough to raise even a glow. panic.  Plan B - the 10 minute electric motor from http://www.scitoys.com.  Mark I - a dud.  panic again + quiet tears from her ladyship. Mark II - the d*mn thing runs! - not exactly smooth as something out the Bavarian Motor Works, but it actually turns... phew!

All looked easy, until we actually started making it happen. 

I'm regularly asked to comment on regulatory issues here in the SA Telecoms environment and have often expressed my frustration at some short-sighted actions taken in the past.  So today, one of the guys involved in drafting a proposal for a wholesale / retail market structure for among other things DSL asked me for input.  He sent me 10 or so pertinent questions.  Brainteasers all.  Made me realise again that it is so easy to criticise - especially laws and regulations, but oh so difficult to craft simple, yet effective ones in the first place.  To achieve "light-touch" regulation which allows for fierce yet fair competition is as much an art as it is a science.

Let's hope we get the new Act and its regs working better than my 10-minute motor - that took all of 3 hours!