I'm often leaping on the old soapbox to rant about the need for government to get the hell out of telecoms and concentrate on setting up clever policies to lure the private sector into achieving their goals for them. If there is one area which is proving me right, it is the undersea cable 'race' that is underway,(not that any clever policies are involved - just good old fashioned competition and profit motives).
I often find Ivo Vegter's pen more negative and biting than even I can enjoy, but his article in today's ITWeb column "the spike" entitled "Seacom walks on water" is very good.
I can't wait to see broadband made more accessible, cheaper and actually broad enough to deliver the likes of Software as a Service to South Africans. I will personally be very annoyed with Seacom if they do not follow through on their promises to drop prices of international bandwidth by close to an order of magnitude.
we live in hope.
