South Africa

So I've decided to give up on getting ADSL. For two reasons.

Firstly, I don't think Telkom will actually give it to me where I currently live. They've had various contradictory excuses about why they can't give me ADSL, and I'm really just sick of fighting.

Secondly, we have to move out at the end of the year, and so it doesn't make sense to order it, wait 2 months, and then just as we get it, we move out.

So recently CITI, the Cape Information Technology Initiative, had a competition in the schools in the Western Cape to promote IT in the youth, called Youth in IT, and had a few winners. That's great, so they're promoting use of computers, and IT skills. I only have one problem. They're not promoting Open Source Software like they're supposed to.

This morning I read a news article on MyADSL about how Telkom is making life very difficult for ISP's who want to make use of it's ADSL reseller package. Apparently they "lose" orders, their support is just as atrocious as ever, they have to wait for as long as 500 hours before getting an order number at times, and the excuses they get for all the above problems, as well as excuses about not being able to give the user a line, are just pathetic.

So Telkom responded to my last complaint... only after I'd added a comment to my complaint about how they still hadn't gotten back to me after 4 days...

Yet another post to hellopeter.com:

I'm so sick of Telkom... what is a guy supposed to do to get a decent Internet line to his house? Reposted from hellopeter.com

So after more waiting, and Web Africa telling me nothing, essentially, I went to www.hellopeter.com and complained about Telkom. And I got a phone call from them the next day.

A very nice customer service chap (aren't they all nice...?) phoned and asked me for my telephone number and then promised to get back to me. He did too, which was somewhat of a surprise, but he had disappointing news. He told me that according to Telkom's systems, there was no application against my telephone number.

If I remember correctly, ICASA told Telkom that they have to take a minimum of 3 weeks to install an ADSL line. So I ordered my ADSL line (hoping that by this stage they have most definitely finished the "project") on the 30th of July (I think), and so I'm now in the 4th week of waiting for my line. Granted, I was told it would take 4 to 6 weeks, but that's just ridiculous!

And now, this takes the cake. A friend of mine also did a self-install, and he was up and running in 3 days! Yes, THREE DAYS!

Yep, my review of the HTC S710 is on IOL Technology. Here's the blurb: Sliding out the QWERTY keyboard keeps our reviewer amused as he takes a look inside the S710 smartphone from HTC.

Read more in my review on IOL Technology.

We all know about the appalling state of broadband Internet access in South Africa, and Telkom's stranglehold on growth in the Internet market. However, sometimes I don't think we realise how BACKWARD Telkom really is.

Take this for example...