Slow internet throttles SA’s EDI ambitions

‘Telkom should be forced to drop its prices'
ALAN PEAT
NO AMOUNT of electronic sophistication will overcome South Africa’s inherent weakness – a truly inadequate band width in the country’s basic telephone network supplied by Telkom. According to Margrit Wolff, MD of Buffalo Freight Systems, her company has invested in a state-of-the-art, web-based, track-and-trace system. “But,” she said, “although I’m over the moon about a system which allows our clients to update everything they need to know about the status of their cargoes, I’m utterly devastated by how slow the internet is in this country. “It’s so bad that a lot of clients are happy enough to receive our daily e-mails, but won’t go into the internet for further updates because it’s so slow.” FTW found a lot of support for this argument, with one electronic boffin telling us that, as the country’s only landline telephone service provider, Telkom was “throttling the bandwidth” by “stuffing so many people into each pipeline”. “The equipment and the lines could handle more band width,” he added, “but it’s currently so expensive, you just can’t afford much. So you end up doing the same thing – stuffing as much data as you can through each pipe, and slowing down the whole system.” The feeling was that government should force Telkom to drop its prices and make band width more available. But then, as the only shareholder, it has already taken almost eight years to authorise a second service provider. In Wolff’s opinion, the answer would be for people to get away from Telkom. Wireless is one way, but it does have its drawbacks. “We find wireless connections a bit iffy where we are based,” said Wolff, “where line sharing also means that you get a limited connection with the international information providers. “Just when is SA going to catch up?” But, on the plus side of things electronic, Wolff told FTW she had “only praise” for her company’s software suppliers, Shipshape Software. “Evidence of this,” she said, “was Buffalo Freight having no problems whatsoever when it was connected up to cope with the new SAD 500 overborder transport documents from customs. “Shipshape gave us full and instant access.”