Leon Perlman reports=20 on Telkom’s new range=20 of high-tech services State telecommunications monopoly, Telkom, is discovering the=20 joys of high-tech innovation and marriage with the=20 Reconstruction and Development Programme. But it had to be=20 dragged to the altar. Swiftnet, formed last month to run the FastNet service, is touted=20 by Telkom insiders as the beginning of many RDP-related=20 strategic alliances. FastNet is Southern Africa’s first wireless data network to=20 provide critical data communications facilities to businesses and=20 organisations in line-less areas of the country. Telkom owns 60 percent of Swiftnet with Thebe Investments and=20 Western Cape unknown Hoerikwagga each owning 20 percent. Hoerikwagga approached Telkom from the premise that there=20 should be more than one partner and that the “historically=20 ignored” Western Cape should also be represented. As a=20 consortium of grassroots organisations, it had the right RDP=20
Hoerikwagga’s investment is around R6,7-million which, says=20 Swiftnet director and Hoerikwagga head Ragavan Moonsamy, it is=20 hoped will be recouped by year two. FastNet offers that possibility,=20 backed as it is by Telkom and prominent banks.=20 The system uses special Radio Pad transmitters for wireless access=20 via a network of base stations countrywide, to Telkom’s fixed- * ine data network. FastNet technology, for example, allows=20 businesses — even taxis — without fixed telephone lines to obtain=20 almost instant credit card and cheque verification using PCs or=20 card-cheque readers plugged into a FastNet Radio Pad. Connect=20 costs of single verification are similar to those of fixed-line calls.=20 Says Telkom managing director and chief executive officer, Brian=20 Clark, “FastNet puts businesses in informal settlements on a=20 competitive par with businesses in more formal (fixed-line)=20 areas.” The Radio Pads can be bought outright for around R3 400=20 or rented monthly for R50. Another application is that of burglar-alarm notification. Chubb,=20 for example, has a number of sites linked via FastNet to its=20 control centre where alert messages are sent to either pagers or=20 SMS-capable cellphones. FastNet is also poised to facilitate=20 transactions for a national lottery as well as for the upcoming=20 municipal elections. Telkom is also set to launch a number of other innovative=20 services. It has entered the final phase of a voice-messaging=20 system (VM) pilot programme, and is set to launch it=20 commercially later this year. The asyet-unnamed VM service is=20 aimed primarily at rural users now without their own fixed-line=20 phones. It is touted to provide virtual telephone and voice- and=20 fax-mail boxes based on a new 088 prefix, where users will be=20 able to retrieve their PIN-secured messages stored on the system=20 using any touch-tone phone. Users will initially be offered a=20 choice of voice prompts in Nguni, Sotho, English and Afrikaans.=20 There are indications that VM costs will be well below that of=20 phone line rental. A pilot programme of some 2 000 users in the Gauteng area has=20 been underway since April. Of these, some 500 are residential=20 users using Telkom’s Plus facilities who simply forward their=20 messages to the 088-prefixed VM mailbox number. Telkom,=20 however, warns that not all digital exchanges serving residential=20 VM users will have the full range of VM facilities, like divert on=20 busy or no answer. The line-less remainder are piloting the 088- based virtual mailbox facility. Telkom is also set to launch its own Internet Service as well as a=20 fax broadcast facility later this month. The Internet service will=20 reportedly offer a standard bouquet of facilities, while the fax=20 broadcast service will allow users to use Telkom as a conduit for=20 disseminating hundreds of different or identical faxes to multiple=20 recipients in a fraction of the time it would take subscribers to do.=20 Users simply send the pages to be sent, as well as the distribution=20 * ist, to the Telkom fax broadcast facility which then does the rest.
Telkom’s customer relations found wanting Reg Rumney One of the basic precepts of marketing is not to promise what you=20 cannot deliver. Telkom’s marketing of itself as a caring company has improved=20 its image tremendously, proof positive that corporate image=20 advertising does pay. Telkom is aware of this.”The public=20 perceives Telkom as being the twelfth most caring company …” My own personal experience of Telkom’s service this week=20 means that claims of better customer relations ring as hollow as=20 the Ostrich egg the smiling Bushman gives the Eskimo in their=20
When I received a phone bill for around R1 300, more than four=20 times higher than usual, Telkom employees were neither=20 sympathetic nor helpful, insinuating, in time-honoured South=20 African fashion, that the maid must be to blame.=20 Eventually, an employee at the metering department brusquely=20 told me he would have to “put in a query”, which would take=20 four to six weeks to process. What do I do in the meantime? The answer is, again in time- honoured South African fashion, that I pay up while the query is=20 being sorted out, the presumption being that the customer is=20 wrong until proven right. Because my exchange is not digital, there is no way I can=20 establish what calls contributed to the unusually high bill and=20 when they were made. Telkom’s annual report says that all the electromechanical=20 exchanges will be replaced by digital exchanges by the year 2005.=20 Until then, the only sort-of competitor to Telkom is the cellular=20 phone service, which automatically issues itemised bills, but=20 where a R1 300 bill, thanks to the high cost of cellphone calls,=20 should not raise an eyebrow. I note too, that at an estimated 65 lines per employee,Telkom’s=20 basic level of efficiency has some way to go. Mexico, for instance,=20 has at least 138 lines per employee. Telecommunications and Broadcasting Minister Pallo Jordan=20 thinks privatisation is not the way to go. Jordan has been quoted=20 as saying that no one would be allowed to compete with Telkom=20 until it became “fat and lazy”. He is also supposed to have said=20 that Telkom should “serve the needs of all South Africans and=20 * ot merely a privileged few”. For Telkom properly to serve the needs of the privileged few=20 would be a good start.=20 Business dictionary for the new SA For those of you not yet au fait with the new business-speak, Reg=20 Rumney offers a ‘Devils’ Dictionary’ Affirmative action — (noun) Job-creation opportunity for=20 redundant white academics to run countless seminars and write=20 obtuse books about the subject. Alternatively, tokenism that=20 works. See Tokenism. Black economic empowerment — Joint venture where white=20 company supplies equity, management skills and product, in=20 return for which black partner brings a few black names and=20 street cred. Boesak — An expert in Swedish massage. Bosberaad — Expense account trip to the Game Reserve where=20 tough decisions are put off. Business development manager — affirmative action appointment. Community involvement/consultation — Talking to blacks, any=20
Corporate strategy — Making friends with the government. Flat tax rate — The 45 percent maximum rate we will all be=20 paying if the government doesn’t revise the tax tables soon. Ministerial adviser — I could never earn this much in the unions. Informal sector — Second job to keep up middle-class lifestyle. NGO — Acronym for Not Going On much longer. “I’ll have to=20 get a real job soon when the foreign funding dries up.” RDP — (adj) All-purpose word meaning good, nice etc. (noun). A=20 Good Thing. Small business — What will be left of big business if the economy=20 doesn’t show meaningful growth soon. Tokenism — Affirmative action gone wrong. See Affirmative=20
Hard lessons from Mexico’s crisis Two clear lessons have emerged from Mexico’s crisis: one=20 concerns the perils of unsustainable domestic policies and the=20 other the fickleness of international investors, writes Edward=20 Balls in London A gaping trade deficit, an over-valued currency, a burst of foreign=20 currency borrowing, a loss of financial market confidence, a=20 sudden jump in interest rates, an enforced devaluation, a=20 deepening recession, a further rise in unemployment, an austerity=20 budget and a sharp rise in VAT and fuel prices.=20 The Mexican public will take little comfort from the fact that=20 other, bigger and richer, countries have also trodden this painful=20 path in recent years.=20 This sequence of events describes the development of Mexico’s=20 crisis over the past year. More than 800 000 people have lost their=20 jobs since December, while the recession is expected to last into=20 * ext year.=20 The international community has been busy this year, learning the=20 * essons of the Mexican crisis. Two clear lessons do emerge.=20 First, in a world of fast-moving capital markets, it is almost=20 impossible for national governments to run unsustainable=20 domestic policies, as Mexico did last year.=20 Second, the very fickleness of international investors can quickly=20 turn the perception of unsustainability into a self-fulfilling=20 prophecy if remedial action is not taken early enough.=20 It is workers who bear the brunt of financial crises — in the form=20 of higher inflation, higher taxes and unemployment. It is labour,=20 above all, which has the greatest interest in preventing these=20 crises developing in the first place. This message figures prominently in this year’s World=20 Development Report. It highlights two reasons why workers tend=20 to pick up the tab. First is the obvious point that capital finds it ever easier to flee the=20 scene of any impending crisis. So long as the central bank still=20 has reserves to sell, investors can quickly get their money out. But=20 immobile labour — workers, taxpayers, domestic savers — does=20 * ot have the luxury of easy escape. Second, capital, once scared away, tends to be wary of returning.=20 This leaves labour short of investment, growth and jobs. The huge=20 shift in expectations about Mexico’s economic prospects after=20 * ast December’s devaluation shows how quickly reputations can=20 be lost. But this loss of access to global capital markets will mean=20 Mexican workers will suffer for some time.=20 In Mexico, and in a small but growing band of developing=20 countries, the availability of international new funds for=20 investment has been key to growth and jobs in recent years.=20 So when the World Bank report asks whether capital mobility is a=20 blessing or a curse for workers, the answer is that it depends on=20 whether they live in a country which is successful in attracting=20 and sustaining capital flows. For China’s city dwellers, capital=20 flows have had a positive impact. For Mexico’s workers, what=20 seemed a great opportunity has become the curse of 1995. But workers are not simply passive observers. They are voters too.=20 And the clear implication of the Mexican crisis is that it is labour=20 that has the greatest interest in arguing for the right mix of=20 domestic economic policies, which can both attract new=20 investment and avoid confidence-shattering crises.=20 Far from rendering national goverments impotent, the reality is=20 that global capital markets intensify the gains from sound policies=20 and intensify the losses from failure.=20 It is workers who have most to gain from government policies that=20 encourage new investment from national or international=20
Labour must be vigilant against the threat of exploitation,=20 particularly from footloose multinationals. That the World Bank=20 report also both rejects the crude dogma of labour market=20 deregulation and contains a strong endorsement of free trade=20 unions suggests, in theory at least, it also understands these=20
But multinationals are also a source of new, high-wage,=20 employment. Of the eight million jobs created globally by=20 multinationals since 1985, five million have been in developing=20 countries. And labour has a clear interest in arguing for=20 government investment in skills and infrastructure, and openness=20 to trade, which are preconditions of successful investment and=20
But labour also has a strong, self-interested motivation for=20 arguing for stable and sound financial policies. Transparent=20 institutional structures and the highest possible levels of openness=20 and surveillance, both domestically and from the International=20 Monetary Fund (IMF), are essential if Mexican-style problems are=20 to be spotted before they reach crisis proportions.=20 What remains to be seen is whether the IMF’s new surveillance=20 responsibilities, like the World Bank’s support for trade unions=20 in the right domestic environment, will amount to more than=20 words. Local populations have almost always been the last to=20 know when the IMF spots economic problems in developing=20 countries. And it will take more than one report from the World=20 Bank to persuade trade unionists in the developing countries that=20 it really intends to advocate their existence and listen to their=20
* Edward Balls was principal editor of the 1995 World=20 Development Report, Workers in an Integrating World, published=20 by Oxford University Press.