[Opinion] The Undersea Cable, how will it affect all of us?

[Superscenic]

If you are as excited as I am about the new undersea cable arriving sometime this year, you may have some information or views to share.

I was told that the cable would bring us bandwidth in excess of a 1000 terabytes a second.

I would like to start this thread so some of our resident brains can share their projections.

How will it affect South Africans and our economy?

How will our stone-age internet conditioning via Telkom monopoly affect us when dealing with increased competition?

What can we expect regarding latency and affordability.

And of course When is it getting here exactly?

[Dave A]

Well, Seacom reckons they've already helped bring down pricing.

I'll be pretty pleased if the new cable gets rid of this local vs offshore capping and pricing nonsense.

There could also be some dramatic changes in the hosting business. I don't know if it will mean we could set up a server farm that would be competitive on a global level, but certainly local hosting pricing should come under pressure.

[twinscythe12332]

as long as telkom doesn't find a way to make it theirs or make it disappear, I think the dip in pricing should be substantial. as much as it would drain from our economy, I would love a few american broadband companies to start offering services here. at least then it would knock telkom aside a bit. plus the capital they have from their american business would mean they could offer very competitive pricing and AWESOME UNCAPPED (as opposed to a crapload per GB)

[Dave A]

Maybe Telkom will move its HQ to Nigeria

[twinscythe12332]

Maybe Telkom will move its HQ to Nigeria

wow, its slow and steady domination of africa =/. seriously, when is there going to be someone stepping in? if this was america, they'd be hit by anti-trust left right centre and from below.

[Superscenic]

Obviously some scumbags prefer to cripple the entire country to maintain their monopoly Personally I believe there is more money to be made from a wealthy happy country as well ethical business.

But on a lighter side: Here is a helpful blog of undersea cables on their way here and their details

http://manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables/

ETA for three are 2009 with Seacom being the earliest at June.

I doubt even the "telkom" group can keep us in the stone ages forever with all these arteries eager to boost the continent up to speed. Just thinking of all those fat fiber optics wrapped in their snug rubber blankets make me happy.

[twinscythe12332]

I think i will honestly be happy the day I can play on an american server and not get a ping of 800 (yes, it does go that high, wireless sucks)

[Dave A]

I'm getting an average ping time of 347ms over ADSL to my US server, so for wireless your 800ms is not that bad at the moment. But if we get down to 50ms with the new cables, that 450ms wireless overhead is going to seem an age

[twinscythe12332]

at the moment would be the key phrase. I'm talking about when I was using my HSDPA phone as a modem, at about 5-6 months ago.

[Loman]

It all sounds wonderfull. But since my hometown only have dial up (i've applied for ISDN november 2007 and after over 50 calls have given up) i doubt that i will see it very soon.

[Frankincense]

@ Superscenic "The Undersea Cable, how will it affect all of us?"

In my opinion - It will affect those who use it and allow it to define their lifestyles and philosophies, whether consciously or subconsciously, in a very negative way as it will assist in catching more flesh in the web....(if we care?)...we could chat about reduced financial costs for gaming and business'ing...broader bandwidth ...and inevitably...virtual Joy...and finally...virtual reality.

It would seem good at first glance, but too me there's an underlying judgment that comes along with it....

It will be in the wrong hands from the start to end.

[Superscenic]

It will be in the wrong hands from the start to end.

We'll isn't that a constant with most forms of bureaucracy/ government?

At the risk of sounding like an esoteric cliche: I believe positive thinking works and good will triumph over evil. Us "little" people have plenty of power if we just stay informed and speak out.

I choose to believe that this is the era for the small business owner to step up and benefit from change and opportunity. That is also why I like forums like these where I can stay in touch with good, honest, level-headed business individuals to cure me of those nagging dysfunctions like fear of conspiracy and racism.

I look forward to creating bandwidth intensive video clips to promote myself and my colleague's business in the future when the capacity for such things here have improved. As art is my primary ability I favor visuals and graphics.

[Dave A]

It will affect those who use it and allow it to define their lifestyles and philosophies, whether consciously or subconsciously, in a very negative way...

My thought is that the same argument could be used against books.

I'm with Superscenic - you've got to look at the positive effects and you can't blame (or worse still, stunt) the technology because of the presence of the negative.

It's how people use it. Educated, informed people make better decisions and this helps us achieve better informed, more educated people.

A classic example was Verwoed's resistance to television. We've had television here for years now and were his concerns valid? Yes, it can produce couch potatoes, but it also has been a great tool for education too.

[twinscythe12332]

if the cable can get "uncapped" into a more reasonable view, I'll be happy. I don't mind 512k, or even 1Mbit connection, it's having the "per GB" associated to it that just makes internet here... suck.

[msmoorad]

i have been following this issue quite closely-
mid 2008, many "analysts" etc were saying that seacom would mean 10 times faster & upto 90% cheaper internet with little or no capping.
now these same people together with reps of ISP's are saying we should realistically only expect caps that will be 3 times bigger .
WTF!
what about faster & cheaper? and only 3 times bigger caps-thats nothing much.
there is collusion amongst the bigger ISP's together with Telkom & ICASA & Dept of Telecomms.
i know that many ministers are private shareholders in Telkom and Telkom throws parties etc where they entertain the good folks of ICASA-
talk about sleeping with the enemy!
i thought that Neotel will be better- but they also appear to be in cahoots with the rest, their offers/pricing etc are only just a bit better than telkoms.
why should they lower prices?
they can all have high prices and make a fortune since we have no option.
Icasa is a toothless dog- and the monkeys & babboons employed by them have no real idea of what real internet usage is : 1,2 &3 GB caps, what a joke
when do we get to do real P2P sharing?
you need at least 40-45 GB monthly for that.

i think thats enough for now