Paul Jacobson

Just when I was beginning to think there will always be something to grouch about with our Department of Communications, the Minister has made a series of very encouraging comments and issued a series of directives that lead me to believe that she is starting to do her job!  According to MyADSL:

Government’s department of communications (DoC) has made a number of key pronouncements with regard to enabling a freer telecommunications market in South Africa.

These include a commitment to local loop unbundling, self provision of international traffic and the fast implementation of the new Electronic Communications Act.

The DoC will also use state-owned signal distributor Sentech to build an extensive wireless broadband network.

Technorati Tags: department of communications, electronic communications act, local loop, sentech

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I have been working on the assumption that if I charge less for comparable services to larger firms clients will flock to me to take advantage of those lower fees.  While lower fees do make a difference, they don’t seem to be as big an attraction as I initially thought.  In fact it seems that the fees I charge are not as important as other factors like value received, certainty and quality of service.

I am beginning to wonder if my insistence on lower fees isn’t a little silly.  I have this image of myself standing at my lemonade stand with my low prices advertised on the stand watching potential clients drive into the local service station and pay more as they have always done.  Maybe if I charge a bit more there will be more perceived value in my services and the number of clients bringing me work will outnumber the clients who can’t afford the higher fee?

Tags: perceived value, cheap services, low fees, raising fees, higher prices

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We took ourselves off to see The Da Vinci Code last night at the Sandton City Ster Kinekor.  I heard from a friend that the movie follows the book pretty closely and while it has been a while since I read the book, it does fit with my memory of the storyline.  One thing that does make the movie enjoyable for me is the special effects which really brought some of the historical stuff to life.  I read in a recent Time magazine that the director of the movie, Ron Howard, saw his purpose as being to bring the historical background to life in the movie and I think he did a great job.

Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou were good but I think Paul Bettany was fantastic as Silas (although I did imagine Silas as a bit bigger when I read the book).  He played the tortured and fanatically loyal character really well and I almost felt sympathetic.

We noticed a PG-13 warning when we walked in.  It was on the poster and warned that people who are religiously sensitive may object or find the fictional story offensive.  This was a little annoying as there wasn’t a similar caution when Passion of the Christ was released and painted a particularly dark picture of Jews of the time.  I guess it makes more of a difference if the movie deals with a topic that is offensive to a more visible demographic even if that movie is publicised as fictional (the printing of the book I read claimed that Dan Brown based his book on historical fact - I understand that has subsequently been changed) whereas Mel Gibson’s movie was supposed to be based on historical fact.

Notwithstanding the controversy, the movie was great and really takes you on a ride like the book does.  I enjoyed it!

Technorati Tags: audrey tautou, da vinci, da vinci code, dan brown, paul bettany, controversial movie, ron howard, the da vinci code, tom hanks

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I have been using Plaxo for some time now to keep up to date with people in my address book.  Plaxo is a web-based service that enables you to upload your address book to the Plaxo website and to link to other users of the service who are in your address book and to remain updated with their latest contact details as and when they update their contact details.  The service is useful for a few reasons.  First, you have an online and up-to-date backup of your address book which you can access from any point with access to the Web.  The more useful benefit is that when one of your contacts updates his/her address details, your address book will be updated almost automatically.  You will also link automatically to any of your contacts who use Plaxo.

The idea behind this service seems to be that you can stop constantly checking whose contact details have changed and updating your address book.  There is even a service available where you can request updates from people in your address book and who are not Plaxo members.  Those changes from those people will be incorporated into your address book automatically.  Yet another valuable feature is the ability to determine who can view your business and/or personal cards.

In all, this is a pretty useful service and it is worth trying it out.  I believe the basic product is free too!

Technorati Tags: plaxo

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Just take a look at the MyADSL home page and you’ll see half a dozen articles about broadband in South Africa and beyond.  It seems that the Communications Ministry has woken up to the importance of broadband (or at least it is making more noise about broadband’s importance) just as Telkom is getting spanked by ICASA over its high charges (Telkom is only succeeding is looking increasingly evasive and not the kind of company I’d like to do business if I had a choice).

One of the more interesting questions asked of Telkom was what makes the local market so different from the international market.  As usual Telkom only came up with excuses and instances where it is continuing to abuse its position as the sole provider to further its own goals.

When asked about high prices, Telkom’s response was as follows:

John Joseph, the executive for marketing at Telkom, responded that there have been price reductions over the last 2 years due to the significant growth in the ADSL sector. He stated that as the network grows towards the quantities they need, the prices will go down. He stated that current uptake of the service was reaching the critical demand stage.

Basically, when enough people have subscribed at these outrageous prices, Telkom will drop their prices.  Why do it this way?  Well, presumably when Telkom reaches the subscriber base it is aiming for, it won’t hurt its profits if it drops its prices.

When asked when these price reductions could be expected, Telkom implied it required a comparable amount of time required by its international counterparts to build up to price reductions and wouldn’t give any idea when that would happen:

The Regulator continued to probe Telkom for a basic outline of their long-term broadband strategy, focussing on possible price reductions.

Here Josephs urged the panel to look at time frames within international countries when comparing Telkom’s service to overseas offerings.

“When you start comparing South Africa to other countries you need to look at the time when these countries started offering broadband. We are now at the phase when we are rolling this service out. We need to look at it from a timing perspective,” said Josephs.

The Authority requested that the incumbent provide some sort of time frame for when South Africa could be compared to international pricing considering the service has been around since 2002.

Vincent Maleka, a lawyer representing Telkom, responded that if the Authority wanted a response from the corporate entity they would provide it in writing within 7 days since only the board of the company are able to provide timelines regarding the strategic future of the company.

I fail to see why Telkom couldn’t leapfrog ahead of whatever challenges were faced by international telcos and provide cheaper broadband at comparable levels to what is available at the moment.  Actually, I believe that Telkom could do this if it was serious about serving us customers, which it isn’t.

The clincher, for me, is the following paragraph from the MyADSL article:

The access portion is paramount to the high pricing of ADSL in South Africa, and it is not surprising that Telkom wanted to stop this questioning as quickly as possible. How exactly does one justify pricing structures that are many times more expensive than international standards?

Technorati Tags: icasa, myadsl, Telkom

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