http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/ PC Doctors Online Technical Support en-gb This site is powered by e107, which is released under the terms of the GNU GPL License. it@nospam.com (Christo) it@nospam.com (Christo) Sat, 19 May 2012 19:06:15 +0200 Sat, 19 May 2012 19:06:15 +0200 http://backend.userland.com/rss e107 (http://e107.org) hourly 1 60 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/e107_images/logo.png http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/ 88 31 PC Doctors Online Technical Support http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.628.4
Shortly after learning Anonymous-affiliated LulzSec members were betrayed by their leader, Hector Xavier Monsegur, a.k.a. 'Sabu,' Anonymous retaliated by launching several fresh attacks.

The Antisec group attacked Panda Security's PandaLabs website, defacing the page and publicly mocking Sabu:

"Pandasecurity.com... has earned money working with law enforcement to lurk and snitch on Anonymous activists. They helped to jail 25 Anonymous in different countries and they were actively participating in our IRC channels trying to dox [obtain personal information about] many others."

Panda Lab officials said customer information wasn't compromised during the attack, which was directed towards an external Panda Labs server. Company technical director Luis Corrons believes his firm was targeted because of a supportive blog applauding action against Anonymous.

In a separate attack, hackers reportedly connected with Anonymous also attacked the Vatican's official website (http://vatican.va), crippling the site for a large portion of Wednesday. The targeted attack was justified for reasons ranging from actions against heretics, Inquisition book burning, and widespread child abuse by priests.

Hackers reportedly connected with Anonymous posted statements of support for their busted comrades, while also confirming attacks wouldn't stop.

Sabu's betrayal lead to a shakeup of the group, as it was the first major blow to the global hacker collective.

Sabu was originally arrested last June by federal authorities, and turned into a snitch to help bring down several others within the group. Despite global crackdowns against the group, it's unlikely Anonymous and any affiliate hacker groups are going to suddenly stop attacking high-profile targets.

Despite Sabu being seen as a leader of the group -- who turned on his own group in exchange for leniency -- the group will reorganize and select new senior leadership. In the past month, Anonymous posted an audio clip from a phone conversation between the FBI and Scotland Yard, while showing they can successfully plague authorities.

Source: BBC



[Submitted by Christo [PCD]]



Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]>
Shortly after learning Anonymous-affiliated LulzSec members were betrayed by their leader, Hector Xavier Monsegur, a.k.a. 'Sabu,' Anonymous retaliated by launching several fresh attacks.

The Antisec group attacked Panda Security's PandaLabs website, defacing the page and publicly mocking Sabu:

"Pandasecurity.com... has earned money working with law enforcement to lurk and snitch on Anonymous activists. They helped to jail 25 Anonymous in different countries and they were actively participating in our IRC channels trying to dox [obtain personal information about] many others."

Panda Lab officials said customer information wasn't compromised during the attack, which was directed towards an external Panda Labs server. Company technical director Luis Corrons believes his firm was targeted because of a supportive blog applauding action against Anonymous.

In a separate attack, hackers reportedly connected with Anonymous also attacked the Vatican's official website (http://vatican.va), crippling the site for a large portion of Wednesday. The targeted attack was justified for reasons ranging from actions against heretics, Inquisition book burning, and widespread child abuse by priests.

Hackers reportedly connected with Anonymous posted statements of support for their busted comrades, while also confirming attacks wouldn't stop.

Sabu's betrayal lead to a shakeup of the group, as it was the first major blow to the global hacker collective.

Sabu was originally arrested last June by federal authorities, and turned into a snitch to help bring down several others within the group. Despite global crackdowns against the group, it's unlikely Anonymous and any affiliate hacker groups are going to suddenly stop attacking high-profile targets.

Despite Sabu being seen as a leader of the group -- who turned on his own group in exchange for leniency -- the group will reorganize and select new senior leadership. In the past month, Anonymous posted an audio clip from a phone conversation between the FBI and Scotland Yard, while showing they can successfully plague authorities.

Source: BBC



[Submitted by Christo [PCD]]



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]]> Internet Christo [PCD] Thu, 15 Mar 2012 08:42:45 +0200 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.628.4 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.626.4
Microsoft is taking a chance to poke Google in the eye during all the concern and hubbub around Google changes to its privacy policies. On the Official Microsoft Blog, Microsoft even offers links to some stories on other websites that talk about concerns and complaints users of Google have with the privacy policy changes. It's clear that Microsoft is set to capitalize on Google's woes as much as possible.

The author of the post on the Microsoft blog is Frank X. Shaw, Corporate Vice President for Corporate Communications at Microsoft. Shaw writes that is clear from the coverage that consumers are looking for alternatives to Google services because they're concerned about their information. Shaw writes that Google's changes make it harder, not easier for users of its services to control their information.

Then Shaw takes the opportunity to promote Microsoft's alternative services that directly compare with Google services. The services Microsoft is talking up include Hotmail, Bing, Office 365, and Internet Explorer. Microsoft is also set to run ads touting its alternative to Google's services in major newspapers this week all around the country as a way to remind users that it also offers services similar to what Google has.

Google is taking a lot of heat over the changes in its privacy policies, and has even received a letter from Congress asking for clarification on the pending changes. Google says it's not changing anything, and is simply consolidating the policies for about 60 different services it offers into one document. Google maintains that its goal for the changes is to make it easier for users of various Google services to have their information available to them no matter what service they're using.

Some fear this is a way for Google to access more of their personal information for marketing purposes. However, Google is very clear that it is keeping all your private information private.

Source: Microsoft


[Submitted by Christo [PCD]]



Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]>
Microsoft is taking a chance to poke Google in the eye during all the concern and hubbub around Google changes to its privacy policies. On the Official Microsoft Blog, Microsoft even offers links to some stories on other websites that talk about concerns and complaints users of Google have with the privacy policy changes. It's clear that Microsoft is set to capitalize on Google's woes as much as possible.

The author of the post on the Microsoft blog is Frank X. Shaw, Corporate Vice President for Corporate Communications at Microsoft. Shaw writes that is clear from the coverage that consumers are looking for alternatives to Google services because they're concerned about their information. Shaw writes that Google's changes make it harder, not easier for users of its services to control their information.

Then Shaw takes the opportunity to promote Microsoft's alternative services that directly compare with Google services. The services Microsoft is talking up include Hotmail, Bing, Office 365, and Internet Explorer. Microsoft is also set to run ads touting its alternative to Google's services in major newspapers this week all around the country as a way to remind users that it also offers services similar to what Google has.

Google is taking a lot of heat over the changes in its privacy policies, and has even received a letter from Congress asking for clarification on the pending changes. Google says it's not changing anything, and is simply consolidating the policies for about 60 different services it offers into one document. Google maintains that its goal for the changes is to make it easier for users of various Google services to have their information available to them no matter what service they're using.

Some fear this is a way for Google to access more of their personal information for marketing purposes. However, Google is very clear that it is keeping all your private information private.

Source: Microsoft


[Submitted by Christo [PCD]]



Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]> Internet Christo [PCD] Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:33:52 +0200 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.626.4 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.625.4
Google announced a new addition to its Search service this week called "Search plus Your World," which brings a social aspect to the table. But social giant Twitter has made it clear that Google's latest release is stepping on its toes, and could likely take away some of Twitter's spotlight.

Search plus Your World is Google's most recent effort to apply a social touch to its search engine. The new tool will allow users to not only search the Web for public webpages as they normally would via Google, but also search their own pages and content as well as family and friends' pages and content. The whole idea mainly centers around Google+ pages and Picasa images on the Web, probably in an effort to attract more Google+ members.

Google is achieving this through three new features, including Personal Results, which allows the user to find information like Google+ photos and posts that include them or were created by them; Profiles in Search, which allows a user to find people they know, and People and Pages, which helps users find people they may not know yet, but may want to based on similar interests.

Google gives users the option to add Search plus Your World to normal search just by clicking a toggle button under the Search bar. Just click the icon of a person to see personal results. If you'd prefer to see public pages like usual only, there's an icon of a globe right next to the social icon that will remove results pertaining to you or people you know personally.


Google also assures that the privacy settings are easy to use for those who do not want certain things to show up in Search. Posts and photos can be marked with settings that will only be visible to the user, limited people or the public.

Google is rolling out the new feature over the next few days, and some are not very happy about it (cough TWITTER cough).

After Google announced Search plus Your World yesterday, Twitter responded negatively with both a formal statement and a Twitter post from company general counsel and former Google employee Alex Macgillivray.

"Bad day for the Internet," tweeted Macgillivray. "Having been there, I can imagine the dissention @google to search being warped this way."

Twitter later released the following statement in regards to Google's Search plus Your World:

For years, people have relied on Google to deliver the most relevant results anytime they wanted to find something on the Internet.

Often, they want to know more about world events and breaking news. Twitter has emerged as a vital source of this real-time information, with more than 100 million users sending 250 million Tweets every day on virtually every topic. As we've seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter; as a result, Twitter accounts and Tweets are often the most relevant results.

We're concerned that as a result of Google's changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that's bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users.

Google responded to Twitter via a Google+ post, saying it wasn't sure what Twitter's beef was considering Twitter chose not to renew it's two-year-old deal with Google to display real-time tweets last July, which likely decreased Twitter visibility.

However, many are now wondering if Google will attract attention from the Justice Department because of this new move.

Sources: The Official Google Blog, CNET


[Submitted by Christo [PCD]]



Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]>
Google announced a new addition to its Search service this week called "Search plus Your World," which brings a social aspect to the table. But social giant Twitter has made it clear that Google's latest release is stepping on its toes, and could likely take away some of Twitter's spotlight.

Search plus Your World is Google's most recent effort to apply a social touch to its search engine. The new tool will allow users to not only search the Web for public webpages as they normally would via Google, but also search their own pages and content as well as family and friends' pages and content. The whole idea mainly centers around Google+ pages and Picasa images on the Web, probably in an effort to attract more Google+ members.

Google is achieving this through three new features, including Personal Results, which allows the user to find information like Google+ photos and posts that include them or were created by them; Profiles in Search, which allows a user to find people they know, and People and Pages, which helps users find people they may not know yet, but may want to based on similar interests.

Google gives users the option to add Search plus Your World to normal search just by clicking a toggle button under the Search bar. Just click the icon of a person to see personal results. If you'd prefer to see public pages like usual only, there's an icon of a globe right next to the social icon that will remove results pertaining to you or people you know personally.


Google also assures that the privacy settings are easy to use for those who do not want certain things to show up in Search. Posts and photos can be marked with settings that will only be visible to the user, limited people or the public.

Google is rolling out the new feature over the next few days, and some are not very happy about it (cough TWITTER cough).

After Google announced Search plus Your World yesterday, Twitter responded negatively with both a formal statement and a Twitter post from company general counsel and former Google employee Alex Macgillivray.

"Bad day for the Internet," tweeted Macgillivray. "Having been there, I can imagine the dissention @google to search being warped this way."

Twitter later released the following statement in regards to Google's Search plus Your World:

For years, people have relied on Google to deliver the most relevant results anytime they wanted to find something on the Internet.

Often, they want to know more about world events and breaking news. Twitter has emerged as a vital source of this real-time information, with more than 100 million users sending 250 million Tweets every day on virtually every topic. As we've seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter; as a result, Twitter accounts and Tweets are often the most relevant results.

We're concerned that as a result of Google's changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that's bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users.

Google responded to Twitter via a Google+ post, saying it wasn't sure what Twitter's beef was considering Twitter chose not to renew it's two-year-old deal with Google to display real-time tweets last July, which likely decreased Twitter visibility.

However, many are now wondering if Google will attract attention from the Justice Department because of this new move.

Sources: The Official Google Blog, CNET


[Submitted by Christo [PCD]]



Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]> Internet Christo [PCD] Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:35:28 +0200 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.625.4 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.619.4
Saying Facebook has privacy issues is like saying the Earth revolves around the sun; it's just understood at this point. Facebook further solidified that viewpoint today when a flaw allowed users to peek at the private photos of others.

Facebook users were able to access the private photos of others today via a Facebook flaw associated with the "Report Abuse" tool. The flaw was identified by a body building forum earlier in the day.

Using the "Report Abuse" tool, Facebook users were able to flag profile photos as inappropriate. When checking the "nudity or pornography" option as the reason for the photo being inappropriate, Facebook offered the user a "take action by selecting additional photos to include with your report" option. This allowed Facebook users to see a number of extra photos, private or not.

The flaw can be abused by anyone, according to ZDNet, and users who were victims of privacy invasion have no way of knowing what happened. Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was a victim of privacy invasion today, as a few of his private photos (which can be seen to the right of this article) were posted online.

Later today, Facebook addressed the issue in a statement and disabled the tool until the flaw is fixed.

Facebook's statement is as follows:

Earlier today, we discovered a bug in one of our reporting flows that allows people to report multiple instances of inappropriate content simultaneously.

The bug, was a result of one of our most recent code pushes and was live for a limited period of time. Not all content was accessible, rather a small number of one’s photos. Upon discovering the bug, we immediately disabled the system, and will only return functionality once we can confirm the bug has been fixed.

What is especially interesting about this new security flaw is that Facebook just settled its major privacy case with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week, where Facebook agreed to obtain user consent when changes are made to privacy settings as well as 20 years of independent audits.

Sources: ZDNet, imgur


[Submitted by Christo [PCD]]



Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]>
Saying Facebook has privacy issues is like saying the Earth revolves around the sun; it's just understood at this point. Facebook further solidified that viewpoint today when a flaw allowed users to peek at the private photos of others.

Facebook users were able to access the private photos of others today via a Facebook flaw associated with the "Report Abuse" tool. The flaw was identified by a body building forum earlier in the day.

Using the "Report Abuse" tool, Facebook users were able to flag profile photos as inappropriate. When checking the "nudity or pornography" option as the reason for the photo being inappropriate, Facebook offered the user a "take action by selecting additional photos to include with your report" option. This allowed Facebook users to see a number of extra photos, private or not.

The flaw can be abused by anyone, according to ZDNet, and users who were victims of privacy invasion have no way of knowing what happened. Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was a victim of privacy invasion today, as a few of his private photos (which can be seen to the right of this article) were posted online.

Later today, Facebook addressed the issue in a statement and disabled the tool until the flaw is fixed.

Facebook's statement is as follows:

Earlier today, we discovered a bug in one of our reporting flows that allows people to report multiple instances of inappropriate content simultaneously.

The bug, was a result of one of our most recent code pushes and was live for a limited period of time. Not all content was accessible, rather a small number of one’s photos. Upon discovering the bug, we immediately disabled the system, and will only return functionality once we can confirm the bug has been fixed.

What is especially interesting about this new security flaw is that Facebook just settled its major privacy case with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week, where Facebook agreed to obtain user consent when changes are made to privacy settings as well as 20 years of independent audits.

Sources: ZDNet, imgur


[Submitted by Christo [PCD]]



Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]> Internet Christo [PCD] Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:05:52 +0200 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.619.4 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.618.4
Japan's largest weapons supplier, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, was the target of a cyber attack that was reported in August 2011. Now, the Asahi newspaper reports that sensitive defense information may have leaked due to the hacks.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, which is a partner of Boeing and creates military weapons for Japan, was the target of a hack that may have leaked important defense information such as warplane, helicopter, and nuclear power plant data. Viruses infected eighty computers/servers, while "dozens" of other servers in Japan showed signs of leaks of sensitive information.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd was late in reporting the hack, which became publicly known in August. According to Asahi, it is "highly likely" that someone breached the system to steal sensitive data.

The question at hand right now is whether the information taken from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd's systems was, in fact, sensitive defense information.

According to the Japanese defense ministry, it is unaware of any leaks of sensitive information, but the situation is currently under investigation.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd said that information such as IP addresses may have leaked last month, but it is unaware of any leaks in regards to its products.

"The issue is currently under investigation and I cannot comment on it," said Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd spokesman Hideo Ikuno.

Earlier this year, the U.S. experienced a cyber attack against its own defense technology company Lockheed Martin.

Source: MSNBC


[Submitted by Christo [PCD]]



Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]>
Japan's largest weapons supplier, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, was the target of a cyber attack that was reported in August 2011. Now, the Asahi newspaper reports that sensitive defense information may have leaked due to the hacks.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, which is a partner of Boeing and creates military weapons for Japan, was the target of a hack that may have leaked important defense information such as warplane, helicopter, and nuclear power plant data. Viruses infected eighty computers/servers, while "dozens" of other servers in Japan showed signs of leaks of sensitive information.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd was late in reporting the hack, which became publicly known in August. According to Asahi, it is "highly likely" that someone breached the system to steal sensitive data.

The question at hand right now is whether the information taken from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd's systems was, in fact, sensitive defense information.

According to the Japanese defense ministry, it is unaware of any leaks of sensitive information, but the situation is currently under investigation.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd said that information such as IP addresses may have leaked last month, but it is unaware of any leaks in regards to its products.

"The issue is currently under investigation and I cannot comment on it," said Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd spokesman Hideo Ikuno.

Earlier this year, the U.S. experienced a cyber attack against its own defense technology company Lockheed Martin.

Source: MSNBC


[Submitted by Christo [PCD]]



Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]> Internet Christo [PCD] Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:07:17 +0200 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.618.4 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.616.4
You can find out more about them and what they intend to achieve at the link provided below.


Source
[Submitted by Siversmith[PCD]]

Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]>
You can find out more about them and what they intend to achieve at the link provided below.


Source
[Submitted by Siversmith[PCD]]

Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]> Internet Siversmith[PCD] Wed, 24 Aug 2011 08:33:40 +0200 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.616.4 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.613.4

Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]> Internet Christo [PCD] Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:05:27 +0200 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.613.4 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.612.4
SEACOM has invested R100 million in additional South African infrastructure to meet the continuous high growth in demand for broadband services and applications.

The investment includes the purchase of physical optical fibre links from Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) as well as installing the equipment required for SEACOM to manage the network linking KwaZulu Natal’s coast where the SEACOM marine cable lands to two redundant Points of Presence (PoPs) in Gauteng.

Initially, 100 Gigabit per second (Gbps) of the fibre will be lit (using current 10Gbps technology) and a further 20 waves are expected to be lit within the next 12 months.

Modern transmission technology is being used with 100Gbps per wavelength which gives the new link a design capacity of over 8 Terabit per second (Tbps). This is in line with SEACOM’s plans to expand the marine portion of the cable to over 4.8Tbps.

This capacity enables SEACOM to align current and future customer needs with the explosion in broadband demand driven by a wave of content rich applications, such as cloud computing, to meet enterprise requirements, HD video streaming and IPTV services.

This investment also supports SEACOM’s recently launched Internet Protocol (IP) platform that will drive the proliferation of content created in Africa and the regional hosting of international content.

Brian Herlihy, SEACOM CEO, said: “South Africa continues to offer tremendous growth opportunities and this investment confirms SEACOM’s view that adequate infrastructure will ensure that the market can absorb new capacity within record time.

“In our continuous quest to improve quality of service, this is one of the many investments that we are making to ensure that we provide our customers with the best possible support as we continue to build the African Internet based on low-latency, high speed and reliable infrastructure.”

Managed by SEACOM and its suppliers, the route is the company’s first co-build of this nature. It will be operated in parallel with SEACOM’s existing routes and will provide customers with the benefit of protected services delivered across multiple, physically diverse routes and operated by multiple providers.

Suveer Ramdhani, SEACOM’s Head of Product Strategy, said: “This new capacity will benefit the end user by enabling SEACOM clients to bring new content rich products to market in a reliable and economical way.

“The scale of the capacity we are making available on the route is yet another first in Africa and you can expect us to continue rolling out more ground-breaking technological developments in the near future.”


Source
[Submitted by Siversmith[PCD]]

Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]>
SEACOM has invested R100 million in additional South African infrastructure to meet the continuous high growth in demand for broadband services and applications.

The investment includes the purchase of physical optical fibre links from Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) as well as installing the equipment required for SEACOM to manage the network linking KwaZulu Natal’s coast where the SEACOM marine cable lands to two redundant Points of Presence (PoPs) in Gauteng.

Initially, 100 Gigabit per second (Gbps) of the fibre will be lit (using current 10Gbps technology) and a further 20 waves are expected to be lit within the next 12 months.

Modern transmission technology is being used with 100Gbps per wavelength which gives the new link a design capacity of over 8 Terabit per second (Tbps). This is in line with SEACOM’s plans to expand the marine portion of the cable to over 4.8Tbps.

This capacity enables SEACOM to align current and future customer needs with the explosion in broadband demand driven by a wave of content rich applications, such as cloud computing, to meet enterprise requirements, HD video streaming and IPTV services.

This investment also supports SEACOM’s recently launched Internet Protocol (IP) platform that will drive the proliferation of content created in Africa and the regional hosting of international content.

Brian Herlihy, SEACOM CEO, said: “South Africa continues to offer tremendous growth opportunities and this investment confirms SEACOM’s view that adequate infrastructure will ensure that the market can absorb new capacity within record time.

“In our continuous quest to improve quality of service, this is one of the many investments that we are making to ensure that we provide our customers with the best possible support as we continue to build the African Internet based on low-latency, high speed and reliable infrastructure.”

Managed by SEACOM and its suppliers, the route is the company’s first co-build of this nature. It will be operated in parallel with SEACOM’s existing routes and will provide customers with the benefit of protected services delivered across multiple, physically diverse routes and operated by multiple providers.

Suveer Ramdhani, SEACOM’s Head of Product Strategy, said: “This new capacity will benefit the end user by enabling SEACOM clients to bring new content rich products to market in a reliable and economical way.

“The scale of the capacity we are making available on the route is yet another first in Africa and you can expect us to continue rolling out more ground-breaking technological developments in the near future.”


Source
[Submitted by Siversmith[PCD]]

Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]> Internet Siversmith[PCD] Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:56:32 +0200 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.612.4 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.611.4
Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) is widely seen as a driver of competition by giving competitors access to the incumbent telecom operator’s last mile copper infrastructure, which would prove very expensive for competitors to replicate.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) opened the debate around LLU when it unveiled the long awaited Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) discussion document on 22 June 2011.

Previously Telkom has not commented on ICASA’s LLU discussion document, but the company broke their silence today (14 July 2011).

Speaking at the South African Communications Forum (SACF) Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) workshop, Telkom’s head of regulatory affairs, Andrew Barendse, said that LLU is very complicated and very costly.

“I will be very surprised if any of the drivers of LLU in the European Union will advise LLU for South Africa as it will be counter-productive because of the cost and complexities associated with the process,” said Barendse. “LLU is not designed for developing nations like BRICS countries.”

He continued by saying that there are no peer reviewed studies which point to job creation or rural development related to LLU.

Barendse further questioned whether LLU results in the stated objectives, pointing to academic papers which show that LLU failed in various regions where it was implemented.

Barendse quoted Ewan Sutherland’s paper ‘Unbundling local loops: global experiences’ which states that “In Africa, unbundling the local loop may not be the answer or not a very significant answer. With the exception of a few countries, there are insufficient local loops for the enormous regulatory effort to be worthwhile”.

Barendse told delegates at the SACF LLU seminar to always keep the three ‘Cs’ in mind when thinking about LLU: Complex, Costly and Counter Productive in the case of South Africa.

While Barendse highlighted that his words should be seen as merely a conversation about local loop unbundling, it clearly shows that Telkom is not keen to see LLU being implemented in South Africa.

Barendse’s words may also indicate that the regulator and providers looking for access to Telkom’s copper infrastructure can expect a fight when it comes to full LLU implementation in South Africa.

This is not unexpected considering that Telkom CEO Pinky Moholi recently stated that local loop unbundling poses a major risk for the company – sending a strong message that Telkom is unlikely to make it easy for rivals to gain full access to its last mile infrastructure.

“Industry should not be surprised that we are cautioning against LLU in South Africa,” said Barendse. “It is not clear what the benefits of LLU will be, and how the benefits will exceed the cost associated with LLU in SA.”

Rudolph Muller

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/29060-telkom-looks-ready-to-fight-llu.html
[Submitted by Siversmith[PCD]]

Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]>
Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) is widely seen as a driver of competition by giving competitors access to the incumbent telecom operator’s last mile copper infrastructure, which would prove very expensive for competitors to replicate.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) opened the debate around LLU when it unveiled the long awaited Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) discussion document on 22 June 2011.

Previously Telkom has not commented on ICASA’s LLU discussion document, but the company broke their silence today (14 July 2011).

Speaking at the South African Communications Forum (SACF) Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) workshop, Telkom’s head of regulatory affairs, Andrew Barendse, said that LLU is very complicated and very costly.

“I will be very surprised if any of the drivers of LLU in the European Union will advise LLU for South Africa as it will be counter-productive because of the cost and complexities associated with the process,” said Barendse. “LLU is not designed for developing nations like BRICS countries.”

He continued by saying that there are no peer reviewed studies which point to job creation or rural development related to LLU.

Barendse further questioned whether LLU results in the stated objectives, pointing to academic papers which show that LLU failed in various regions where it was implemented.

Barendse quoted Ewan Sutherland’s paper ‘Unbundling local loops: global experiences’ which states that “In Africa, unbundling the local loop may not be the answer or not a very significant answer. With the exception of a few countries, there are insufficient local loops for the enormous regulatory effort to be worthwhile”.

Barendse told delegates at the SACF LLU seminar to always keep the three ‘Cs’ in mind when thinking about LLU: Complex, Costly and Counter Productive in the case of South Africa.

While Barendse highlighted that his words should be seen as merely a conversation about local loop unbundling, it clearly shows that Telkom is not keen to see LLU being implemented in South Africa.

Barendse’s words may also indicate that the regulator and providers looking for access to Telkom’s copper infrastructure can expect a fight when it comes to full LLU implementation in South Africa.

This is not unexpected considering that Telkom CEO Pinky Moholi recently stated that local loop unbundling poses a major risk for the company – sending a strong message that Telkom is unlikely to make it easy for rivals to gain full access to its last mile infrastructure.

“Industry should not be surprised that we are cautioning against LLU in South Africa,” said Barendse. “It is not clear what the benefits of LLU will be, and how the benefits will exceed the cost associated with LLU in SA.”

Rudolph Muller

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/29060-telkom-looks-ready-to-fight-llu.html
[Submitted by Siversmith[PCD]]

Click to discuss this news item in the forums
]]> Internet Siversmith[PCD] Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:39:38 +0200 http://www.pcdoctors.co.za/news.php?item.611.4