Here's a couple of informative articles on the ongoing problem in South Africa with the telecom monopoly over there. Pricing and penetration are major concerns in the country, as only 30% of the population has a phone line (or can afford it). A South African has to pay up to 69% of his monthly income towards the ADSL service. Self-imposed line rentals are another concerned where you are charge a line rental fee on the actual copper line for the ADSL service, in addition to a phone line rental fee and ISP fees. The TELKOM SA, ADSL broadband service also imposes an unrealistic 3GB traffic cap on users of the service.
While the rest of the world is offering faster ADSL speeds, TELKOM seems to be going the other way by releasing 384k, then a 192k service. At present we have 512k offered as our fastest broadband service (the 192k, and 384k shouldn't even be considered broadband services).

The government has also had it's share in the problem, where it announced that it would allow VANs to self-provide their infrastructures and not depend on the monopoly's network. At the last minute the minister of communications retracted the statement.

A SNO (Second Network Operator) license has been legalized in the country to offer a competitive solution to the monopoly's deterimental affect on the country, but South Africans's will have to wait and see if there are any pricing and service benefits from the 2nd operator.

Here is a comparitive table highlighting the pricing and service differences between other countries offering ADSL: »www.hellkom.co.za/research/adsl2.htm

Govt admits SA telecoms prices ‘prohibitive'
»www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecom···EL&O=ql

South African Department of Communication admits failure
»www.moneyweb.co.za/news/tech_sto···179.htm

'Pricey phone calls choking SA growth'
»www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sund···44.aspx

Spending more on telephony than your bond?
»www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?ar···siness/

Only open market will solve bandwidth woes
»mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=466