Home Gaming Openweb Founder Lashes Out At Seacom, Says Telkom Should “Wake Up”

Openweb Founder Lashes Out At Seacom, Says Telkom Should “Wake Up”

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Seacom.jpg

While this news is not strictly gaming related (and more like something you would see on MyBroadband), this whole Seacom debacle has stolen hours and hours of online gaming from our lives, so I get to write about it, ok? Awesome.

If you thought that having no internet was giving you a tough time, you must have no idea about how upset OpenWeb’s founder, Keoma Wright is right now. While I am not currently a customer of OpenWeb, I still receive their newsletters and the latest one that popped into my inbox struck me as rather odd when I saw things like *rant over* and “Telkom should also wake up” in the body of the text.

Is this a very unprofessional e-mail from the company’s founder, or does it just seem like everyone has had just about enough of the shoddy services that are being punted off in South Africa?

Hit the jump to hear what Mr. Wright’s angry newsletter had to say.

The mail begins with the founder saying that they have had a ton of calls coming in from angry customers and that everyone is pretty frustrated and that Seacom is to blame, here’s how it went:

“Today we have received alot of emails from many angry folks regarding the Seacom international outage. We understand. Everyone is frustrated.

Seacom should be held accountable for this. I am of the view that a carrier that do not [sic] have appropriate redundancy on their network should not be allowed to sell a so called ‘first class service’.

*Rant Over*. “

Eish… I guess that deserves a “burn”.

It gets better though, because just when you thought the rant was over, a second one begins nailing Telkom to the wall about some of their poor choices and he also pops a small vein in his head over the effect that the new uncapped internet packages have had on the local internet services:

“Internet in South Africa is worse off today with these cheap uncapped packages than they ever were before! At least in the past we had decent internet that hardly went down.

Telkom should also wake up and drop the price of their IPConnect, as they more than any other company are to blame for this. If their IPConnect did not cost so much, First Tier ISP’s would have more money to invest in redundancy measures.

*Second Rant Over*

Once again, I sincerely apologize about this. I am holding thumbs that tomorrow will be a better day. “

I’m just going to hazard a guess here and say that all of the issues with Seacom have given Mr. Wright a couple of grey hairs over the last couple of days. It’s understandable, considering the amount of crap these okes have to go though. Anyone who follows Afrihost CEO @gianvisser on Twitter already knows how much time these guys are spending doing damage control these days but you still have to wonder if a company newsletter is the right place to do your angry rants.

What do you think about OpenWeb’s open outburst? Justified? Not such a great idea?

Let us know in the comments.

Last Updated: July 8, 2010

20 Comments

  1. I went to school with Keoma (He was a year above me). I think he’s just fed up, could you imagine all the phone calls and complaints and knowing there is nothing you can do.

    Reply

  2. Gavin Mannion

    July 8, 2010 at 07:32

    While I understand what he’s saying I think it’s a bit off base to try and blame uncapped Internet for the problems.

    Uncapped Internet is the best thing to have happened to the local Internet scene since time began.

    I do agree with him about the IPConnect though, those prices are insane.

    Reply

  3. Krypty

    July 8, 2010 at 08:23

    What we do with every contract we sign with a business and ISP is we bring in penalties for downtime. (this includes Telkom) So once a line is down after x period of time our penalties kick in.

    This has a major effect on companies making sure redundancy is in place.

    I cannot think a company as big as Seacom would not have placed redundancy at the top of the priority list (I wonder where the project manager is now.)

    Reply

  4. Fred

    July 8, 2010 at 08:47

    Seacom is not cheaper for no reason. Redundancy costs a lot of money and that is why Telkom costs more . Quite simple really.

    Reply

  5. Deathbringersa

    July 8, 2010 at 08:54

    i agree telkom is to blame as they just don’t care cause they will always make their money so they don’t want to come to the party and pull poor SA out of the dark ages
    but alas seacom should’ve had redundancy but hey things break and all u can do is try and prevent it and fix it :kissing:

    Reply

  6. Hadlee

    July 8, 2010 at 08:56

    I don’t think a newsletter is the proper place to vent.

    In any case, redundancy was always a part of the plan for SEACOM. Ah well, here’s hoping that the EASSy and Main One cables make a difference!

    Reply

  7. GuvGeek

    July 8, 2010 at 09:42

    With the World Cup here, this was the best time for this to happen. Just maybe it will highlight the technical incompetence and lack of long term planning here in Africa. South Africa (like all African countries) is a 4th World country because there is no drive to excel and the status quo is just getting handouts from the “big” government redistribution of the “worker’s” wealth; most locals are just waiting for the next banana to fall from the tree while their “leaders” are plundering the gold mines. Gee, this reminds me of what’s now going on in America, but I don’t think Telkom, SEACOM, or even South Africa is too big to fail! All of South Africa is probably smaller than GM. I would work in almost any 3rd World Asian country again before coming back to Africa. At least they have a vision for a better future in Asia. REALITY CHECK! (My daughter has been driving me crazy without her Internet.)

    🙁 :unsure:

    Reply

  8. Gavin Mannion

    July 8, 2010 at 09:55

    I find it disgusting that people can be happy for something to go wrong… it’s that mentality that needs to change.

    The Internet in SA is improving all the time and the WC is obviously putting a huge strain on it but all in all I think we have done fantastically well.

    Reply

  9. Werner

    July 8, 2010 at 10:51

    I agree with you in regards with sadistic people (even though I’m one myself) but I have to agree with some of the points he made.

    When I started working at the company I am with now (little more than 5 years ago), our Dubai branch only had access to dial-up internet… no ADSL. While in SA at that time the 512 line was already up and running for a while. I’m now working at our Dubai branch and have the option to upgrade the ADSL here (in about 2 months) from the 4MB it is now, to a 32MB line (at the same price). The internet provider is almost done laying all the fiber optics in Dubai.

    So in the time SA took to go from 512 to 4MB uncapped, they went from dial up to 32MB uncapped. Yes, there’s more money here (or was before the recession) but if there was some proper plan in place in SA we wouldn’t be so far behind. Alas, sadly it is not so…

    Reply

  10. Fred

    July 8, 2010 at 11:11

    How on earth can you compare Dubai to South Africa. Dubai is in the middle east with easy and cheap access to lots of connectivity , while we are at the Southern tip of africa with major investment needed just to lay one cable in the ocean that can reach Europe or Asia. What will it help to have dsl access of 30 Mbps when the isp can not reasonably offer you that speed uncapped to the rest of the world.
    We have some of the best broadband wireless providers in the world at reasonable rates.

    Reply

  11. Gabriel

    July 8, 2010 at 11:12

    Yea, but Dubai is crazy wealthy with all their oil moneez and comparatively small dude

    Reply

  12. Werner

    July 8, 2010 at 11:15

    I’m comparing the fact that they set out with a plan and have been implementing said plan to upgrade their infrastructure (be that internet, structural and tourism). I’m not saying that SA should be at 32MB, I’m saying that there’s a lack of proper planning to get things moving forward at a better pace.

    Why should external non-SA companies be leading the way?

    Reply

  13. Werner

    July 8, 2010 at 11:22

    As I mentioned in my comment, yes they have lots of money due to being a wonderfully oil rich country (even though they were hit the hardest with the recession… Abu Dhabi had to bail them out).

    I’m just saying, perspective wise, we should have been a bit further along than 4MB. How long has the 8MB connection been on trial now? I know of a friend in Cape Town that was on the 8MB trial almost 2 years ago… (he has since then move to London). This just stresses my point that there is no proper planning.

    Reply

  14. Bobby Kotick weighs in

    July 8, 2010 at 11:24

    Fred has hit the nail on the head. People seem to forget where we are geographically. Contrary to popular belief, we’re not an island just offshore Europe or the States, but in fact, practically on the other side of the world. Our internet speeds will increase as the rest of Africa develops.

    PS: Werner, I had a 100MB connection in my flat while studying in Sweden. I just thought I should throw that bone out there. 😉

    Reply

  15. WitWolfyZA

    July 8, 2010 at 11:46

    Makes you laugh at those crap Telkom ads, with the unlimited cap. That was suppose to be here before the WC.

    those idiots should stop riding on those double-decker buses and get to freaking work. Pisses me off that the government made Telkom the only company allowed in SA to install ADSL lines ect ect… Freaking ANC and their never ending ways to corrupt our economy!

    And dont get me started and ESKOM either…

    Reply

  16. Uncle

    July 8, 2010 at 11:52

    I think he is 100% right. Internet is South Africa is worse than its been in years in SA. I agree with him 100% these uncapped accounts are slow and abusive to the network. Rather make BW cheaper and give 100gb – 200gb packages. :alien:

    Reply

  17. Bobby Kotick works for Telkom

    July 8, 2010 at 12:38

    (First the disclaimer) I think Telkom and the Department of Communication have squandered opportunities to upgrade our South Africa’s comm, however Werner regardless of our government’s incompetency, geography and even where our other African neighbours are in terms of their development are serious limiting factors to our comm. We will eventually hit the magical 25Mb connection number, but it will require more costly infrastructure (two more cables at least). Instead of comparing ourselves to areas that are closer to the connection hubs of Asia and Europe, let’s compare ourself to what’s happening in the rest of Africa, and strive towards what we see in Europe and Asia.

    Reply

  18. RSA-Ace

    July 8, 2010 at 13:28

    The problem is that the uncapped internet was a bit rushed. There isn’t enough capacity and redundancy to offer people a great service. Majority of the users are not okay with that. I’m fine with it though, cheap and unreliable is better for me than expensive and unreliable. I’ll always just have two accounts to be safe. My telkom one and another ISP.

    Reply

  19. nazcanlines

    July 8, 2010 at 17:59

    I think if we had more of a free market things would move along a lot quicker. Leave the able men free to excel to their highest capabilities and watch what happens. The bureaucratic red tape in place that holds us back whilst trying to create a higher equality for all is our biggest stumbling block in my opinion

    Reply

  20. easy

    July 8, 2010 at 19:10

    the guy’s grammar and spelling does not warrant any respect for his plight.
    totally unprofessional which compliments his conduct perfectly.

    Reply

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