Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      Vodacom’s Maziv deal gets makeover ahead of crucial hearing

      18 July 2025

      Takealot taps Mr D to deliver toys, pet food and future growth

      18 July 2025

      Cut electricity prices for data centres: Andile Ngcaba

      18 July 2025

      ‘Oh, Ani!’: Elon’s edgy bot stirs ethical storm

      18 July 2025

      Trump U-turn on Nvidia spurs talk of grand bargain with China

      18 July 2025
    • World

      Grok 4 arrives with bold claims and fresh controversy

      10 July 2025

      Samsung’s bet on folding phones faces major test

      10 July 2025

      Bitcoin pushes higher into record territory

      10 July 2025

      OpenAI to launch web browser in direct challenge to Google Chrome

      10 July 2025

      Cupertino vs Brussels: Apple challenges Big Tech crackdown

      7 July 2025
    • In-depth

      The 1940s visionary who imagined the Information Age

      14 July 2025

      MultiChoice is working on a wholesale overhaul of DStv

      10 July 2025

      Siemens is battling Big Tech for AI supremacy in factories

      24 June 2025

      The algorithm will sing now: why musicians should be worried about AI

      20 June 2025

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025
    • TCS

      TCS+ | Samsung unveils significant new safety feature for Galaxy A-series phones

      16 July 2025

      TCS+ | MVNX on the opportunities in South Africa’s booming MVNO market

      11 July 2025

      TCS | Connecting Saffas – Renier Lombard on The Lekker Network

      7 July 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E4: Takealot’s big Post Office jobs plan

      4 July 2025

      TCS | Tech, townships and tenacity: Spar’s plan to win with Spar2U

      3 July 2025
    • Opinion

      A smarter approach to digital transformation in ICT distribution

      15 July 2025

      In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

      30 June 2025

      E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

      30 June 2025

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » Alistair Fairweather » SA’s operators must stop their whining

    SA’s operators must stop their whining

    By Alistair Fairweather6 October 2014
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp

    Alistair-Fairweather-180-profileIf there’s one group of local companies that doesn’t need help, it’s our telecommunications providers. For decades, this cosy oligopoly has reaped the enormous benefits of rapidly growing new markets, from cellular telephony to data. And yet now they are whining about unfair competition.

    Two weeks ago, MTN South Africa’s CEO, Ahmad Farroukh, told TechCentral that over-the-top (OTT) services like WhatsApp and Skype were unfairly benefiting from his company’s costly infrastructure. He warned that MTN was not prepared to spend billions on its network just for the OTTs to have a “free ride”.

    True to odious form, Telkom was quick to jump on the bandwagon, declaring that OTT services were “skimming” its voice revenues. Without these extra revenues, the company claims, it cannot afford to provide telecoms to poor rural areas, where it runs at a loss.

    Yet this selfless protector of the downtrodden masses made nearly R3bn in profit in its last financial year. Its generosity clearly has limits. One of those limits includes requiring said masses to pay per minute for a service that is free (apart from a small line rental) in most other countries.

    But the most galling thing about this pious nonsense is its self-serving logic: “OTTs use our networks, so they must pay us.” Never mind the fact that we consumers have already paid over the odds for the data required by those services. Our data prices are already high even by the standards of other emerging economies like Brazil and Russia. Now the networks want, essentially, to be paid twice for the same service.

    Our local heavies are taking their cues from their betters in the developed world. Large American and European broadband carriers have long been threatening to begin charging popular video-on-demand services like Netflix for the privilege of using their pipes. This is particularly convenient since many of the owners of said pipes also own cable television channels.

    In both cases, large established companies are dressing up anticompetitive behaviour in regulatory double talk and veiled threats. The three largest local telecoms companies — Vodacom, MTN and Telkom — are all lobbying communications regulator Icasa furiously to allow them to begin charging OTTs directly. The current situation, in which their own expensive services are being replaced by cheaper and better international equivalents, is simply “unfair”, they say.

    And if they don’t get their way, they warn that they might not spend any more money on upgrading infrastructure. In other words: this is my game and these are my toys, and if you don’t like it I won’t play with you anymore. So there!

    Sadly, we’re used to this kind of petulance and entitlement. These self-appointed telecoms barons are so used to winning by default that when anything disruptive comes along, they cry foul.

    Over-the-top players like WhatsApp have got local telecoms companies hot under the collar
    Over-the-top players like WhatsApp have got local telecoms companies hot under the collar

    But they have lost touch with a few essential realities. Firstly, people will use whatever works best for them. Voice calls and SMS messages, once the bread and butter of networks, are in terminal decline. WhatsApp is always better than SMS and often better than a phone call.

    This isn’t only because of price, although that is a factor. It is also because society is changing faster than these companies are willing or able to. And there’s no use in whining about it, or trying to block OTTs. You will only make your customers angry.

    Secondly, if they decide to sulk and refuse to invest in infrastructure, someone else will do it. Some kid in a garage somewhere is already working on the technology that will make her a billionaire and kill the current paradigm stone dead. This protectionist nonsense will only hasten the demise of our current titans.

    Our telecoms industry is like a pack of schoolyard bullies. As soon as they’re confronted with a superior force, they run whining to teacher. Their clumsy PR campaign is intended to sway public opinion. In their arrogance they do not realise in which direction they are swaying it.

    • Alistair Fairweather is chief technology officer for integrated advertising agency Machine
    • This column was first published in the Mail & Guardian Online, the smart news source


    Alistair Fairweather Icasa Ahmad Farroukh MTN Netflix Telkom Vodacom WhatsApp
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleVodacom talks music with Deezer
    Next Article No letter to suspend SABC chair: presidency

    Related Posts

    Vodacom’s Maziv deal gets makeover ahead of crucial hearing

    18 July 2025

    Netflix premieres first AI-generated scene

    18 July 2025

    MultiChoice: We can’t afford to compete without help

    17 July 2025
    Company News

    Vertiv to acquire custom rack solutions manufacturer

    18 July 2025

    SA businesses embrace gen AI – but strategy and skills are lagging

    17 July 2025

    Ransomware in South Africa: the human factor behind the growing crisis

    16 July 2025
    Opinion

    A smarter approach to digital transformation in ICT distribution

    15 July 2025

    In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

    30 June 2025

    E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

    30 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.