antitrust.co.za

All factual information is copied with permission of the owner of hellkom.co.za

Financial and General Facts

Profit after tax: 2000: R1,540 billion 2001: R1,690 billion 2002: R1,280 billion 2003: R1,735 billion 2004: R4,592 billion (Equates to R12.58m profit per day) Telkom CEO's salary this year: R11.1 million which equates to: R1,267/hour or R30,410/day or R213,461/week or R925,000/month Sizwe Nxasana's R11.1 million could keep 183 people employed for 1 year at R5,000 a month. Employee expenses include retrenchment costs of R302 million, R244 million, R373 million, R132 million and R303 million in the years ended March 31, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001 and 2000, respectively. Telkom Directors were paid R60 million last year, one American receiving over R15 million, another almost R11 million, and others between 4 and 8 million. Wonder where your money goes. Telkom is a founding member of Proudly South African, even though: They were managed until end 2004 by Americans from SBC who dictated pricing They are contributing to our rampant unemployment by firing 10% of their staff every year - in fact they have almost HALVED their workforce since '99! They are the most expensive Telecoms provider in the world [Telecoms Report] Over 80% of the population cannot afford their basic telephone service. Almost 90% of business users have been locked into 3-5 year contracts to stifle the SNO in acquiring customers at startup. Telkom is cutting its staff by 30% over the next 3 financial years (10% per year) reducing staff costs as a percentage of revenue to 17% from the current 22,6%. In 1999, there were 61237 Telkom employees, by September 2003 this had been reduced to about 33800 - simply adding to the country's almost 40% unemployment rate. Exchanges, equipment and lines have been paid for many times over the decades but we are still faced with ridiculously high voice and data charges. Costs for international bandwidth and interconnection are dropping almost monthly. Vodacom contributed 22% of Telkom's group revenue and 33% in operating profit in 2002/3. Telkom has a 50% stake in Vodacom. Telkom's shareholders consist of Government 39.3%, Thintana 30% (60% owned by SBC), and retail and institutional investors like Ucingo 30,7% (Sep 30 2003). SBC also has an 8% indirect share in Vodacom via Telkom's 50% share. [ NOTE: Thintana has sold their shares and ran back overseas with around R9 billion ]] Government and businesses accounted for around 71% of Telkom's earnings last year. XtraTime offers hundreds of 'free' minutes, except that these don't apply to Internet calls, cellular calls, special numbers, operator assisted calls, international mobile numbers or calls terminated on the SNO's network. Telephony and Voice Call Facts Growth in prepaid customers slowed to 4% " due to a clean up of all inactive customers." Which in corporate speak means disconnecting poor people who can't afford the high prices. Landlines disconnected due to non-payment/inability to pay: over 2 million S.A. is the most expensive country for local call rates [R22/hour] (Telecoms Report). S.A. is the most expensive country for national call rates [R59.40/hour] (Telecoms Report). S.A. is the most expensive country for international calls, being just under 3 times more expensive than 2nd place (Telecoms Report). Local call costs rose by 12.5% in 2003, 24% in 2002, 16% in 2001 and 10.5% in 2000. Nothing incredible here, but Cellphone calls are routed between towers via Telkom lines, not through the air from tower to tower. Data and Internet Connectivity An Internet Service Providers Association of South Africa (ISPA) report given to the Independent Communications Authority of SA last year shows that Telkom telephone call charges are gradually consuming the overall cost of connecting to the Internet.

The report shows that Telkom's call charges rose from being 59% of the average consumer's combined telephone and ISP bill in 1993, to 85% of the bill by 2003. According to Internet World Stats, SA's Internet growth increased by 29.2% last year as opposed to Africa's growth of 123.6% and Europe's growth of over 100% ADSL customers have surged 661% despite ridiculous limitations and limits placed on the service. As an example, one ISP in the UK - Wanadoo - receives over 25,000 orders per week - this is due to the affordable prices. Around 50% of a South African ISP's charges are Telkom-related. Telkom has access to 20% of the SAT-3 AND safe cable even though it only purchased 13% (Total of 27.3Gbps). ADSL costs R680 (home) and R800 (biz) excluding ISP charges of R250 upwards. In the UK you get all that for £15 with no restrictions ADSL's bandwidth cap is 3GB - local AND international download AND upload usage is counted towards that, whether it be e-mail, FTP, chatting - anything going in or out of your ADSL modem. After downloading for 13 hours at full speed with ADSL you reach your cap and international access is virtually non-existent and slows to around 20Kbps (local remains unaffected - until they change that too). If you need more you need to purchase another account from your ISP, ranging from R250+. Schools, Universities, NGO's, charities and the like don't receive discount from Telkom for Internet access. U.S. Universities have up to Gigabit internet connections and free access for students. NOTE: Our Communications Minister Ivy announced last year that schools will be receiving a 50% discount on internet access. This should be happening this year - but with current prices as high as they are 50% off isn't enough for an educational institution, it should be free, and the public should get 50% off. Please visit HellKom for more info.

The above information is taken whole and unedited from hellkom.co.za. We greatly urge you to visit the site to get more information about Telkom.

Published on: 2005-05-26 (7776 reads)

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