Broad band in SA

[Dave A]

Have you contacted QuickBooks SA (PTY) LTD to see if maybe they couldn't shed some light on your issues? http://www.quickbooks.co.za

Oh yes. Although the primary cause for my contact with them has not been the speed over network issue - for standard operations it is a non-issue.

Quickbooks has some absolutely amazing plug-ins which I'm interested in. And this needs a recent version. I'm simply not excited about getting a 2006 version where support will drop off at some point in 2009.

[RKS Computer Solutions]

Taking into account the time you have to wait for a new version, and knowing that it's support will drop off in a certain timeframe anyway, how long are you willing to wait for a new version just so you can get the newest features...

That's a standard problem in the software industry... Waiting for new software releases with all the bells, then it's released and a few bugs needs to be sorted... People then wait for the next version or service pack.... and so on... and so on...

Technology will always be moving forward, no matter how much forward thinking has gone into a current release. The moment you buy a piece of software, it's already old news... The fact that the moment after you install any piece of software, you notice something better or faster or something with more features, is a fact of life...

[Dave A]

You're right - but consider this for a moment.

When you buy Quickbooks, you will receive updates on that version for any changes in the operating environment until they bring out the next version. Thereafter, you will receive support if something breaks for the next two years. And thereafter, if it breaks, tough luck.

This is not the usual lifetime support thing. Although Quickbooks is sold as a once-off fee (no annual licence fee), there is a built-in obselesence in there that forces you to buy an upgraded version sooner or later.

The trouble is, despite this fact that you are going to have to spend money from time to time, it still is more cost effective - not to mention a considerably superior product, than most other well known accounting packages out there.

As for the delay - well bear in mind that what I need is not an entry level product. It might look like I only need to spend a few thousand - but it's actually closer to 30k. At 10k per year of supported product, I can just live with that.

[Eugene]

State firm to slash Internet costs to 5% of Telkom rate

The government revealed plans yesterday to slash the wholesale price of broadband access by 95percent within five years.

But the state encountered new obstacles in Parliament to the licensing of the company that will make this possible.

Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin told the Sunday Times last week that the new state-owned enterprise, Broadband Infraco, would market bulk broadband to value- added network providers, known as VANS, at 35 percent of Telkom’s 2006 cost.

Yesterday, Public Enterprises director-general Portia Molefe went further, saying the cost would come down in steps to five percent of Telkom’s price by 2011 and would stay there.

She also promised that the new company, Infraco, would stay out of the value-add sector.

Infraco will take over the fibre- optic networks of Transnet, and Eskom will lay undersea digital links to Brazil and Europe at a cost of R3-billion to R3.75-billion.

Infraco’s price targets would be measured against Telkom’s 2006 STM-1 benchmark price for 155 megabytes/second.

Telkom recently slashed its retail prices for always-on Internet services in a bid to ward off increasing competition, but declined to say what its wholesale price was.

Molefe told Parliament’s portfolio committee on public enterprises that South Africa ranked 25th out of 122 highly connected nations on regulatory provision for digital access — but only 75th on the ratio of people able to use the Internet.

She said the wholesale price was the primary obstacle.

Urging MPs to use their power to circumvent the requirements of the Electronic Communications Act and license Infraco, she said this would be the quickest way to get the new prices into effect.

Detailing Erwin’s concession announced last week, she said the department’s second choice would be to amend the ECA as quickly as possible to allow the Independent Communications Authority to grant Infraco an immediate licence without having to put it to open tender.

Source: http://www.suntimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=545906

[Dave A]

Urging MPs to use their power to circumvent the requirements of the Electronic Communications Act and license Infraco,

You know what - I want this to happen as much as anyone else (except Telkom probably), but I get more than a tad troubled by these short cuts of convenience. If the law isn't right, it needs to be changed, not "circumvented".

But then I think we're way past the thin end of the edge on the "short cuts of convenience" front.