Re:[OT] South african laws - was [Asterisk-Users] iax2 jitter buffer help
On Thu, 5 Feb 2004, Chris Lee wrote: > On the subject of South Africa > What are the laws regarding using the Internet to carry telephone traffic? > What are the laws regarding connecting digium kit to Telkom equipment? > As I recall they are quite restrictive, have they been eased up a bit? The law is still very restrictive. Equipment should be ICASA approved for connection to the network. Digium equipment isn't. VOIP may be used on private networks. However such use is for office-to-office calls, and may not be used to bypass Telkom. This is generally understood to mean connecting in from the PSTN and then breaking back out again. Even VOIP on private networks is supposed to be dependent on getting a private telecommunications licence. In SA a "private network" means a network built out of Telkom data circuits. No actual "private" commmunications links are allowed. VPN-type networks are not included. Value Added network providers - including ISPs and suchlike are not supposed to allow the use of their service for transporting VOIP, and certainly may not market services like that. Of course they don't know and I'd guess they don't ask. Technically I guess using services like Vonage or whatever from SA is questionable too. Of course South African's have developed a certain attitude to the law, and enforcement is difficult, especially for small-scale private use. For example type-approval of equipment seems to be pretty much overlooked - see no evil, hear no evil. I'm no lawyer and perhaps Telkom/ICASA/Dept of Communications' interpretations of the law are wrong - I don't think they've really been tested in the courts. I also may have got some of the subtleties slightly wrong. You might ask why a country which could benefit so much from communication innovation has such restrictive law. It's a sad story of money, power and influence. You can read an interesting article on the SAT3 undersea cable and communications in Africa at: http://www.myadsl.co.za/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1635 Regards, Steve Davies PS: 512k down / 256k up ADSL, capped at 3GB total inbound+outbound traffic, brutal traffic shaping which (coincidentally?) often breaks VOIP: +/- US$120 per month to you, sir. ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [OT] South african laws - was [Asterisk-Users] iax2 jitter buffer help
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Basically voip is only legal if used between branch offices of a company that are connected using leased lines. Archaic.. yes, stupid... yes, but thats the law here..:( That is provided the leased lines are operated by Telkom.. ;) There is no getting away... ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [OT] South african laws - was [Asterisk-Users] iax2 jitter buffer help
Chris Lee wrote: On the subject of South Africa What are the laws regarding using the Internet to carry telephone traffic? Its 100% against the law, Telcom have the monopoly there still that requires ALL voice trafic to go via the Telcom network.. The Mobile phone operators there are in constant battles with them to tru and ease this so they can do some leased cost routing but they are not getting very far.. What are the laws regarding connecting digium kit to Telkom equipment? It should be fine, AFAIK they relaxed the rules about connecting third party equipment to their network a few years ago.. As I recall they are quite restrictive, have they been eased up a bit? Nope, and I don't see that they plan to ease up at all any time soon.. Which is why we scrapped the plans we had for setting up some of our facilities there.. We even had meetings with the DTI to see if they could put pressure on Telkom but seeing as the govenment own a majority share holding in Telkom why would they want to.. Later.. ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [OT] South african laws - was [Asterisk-Users] iax2 jitter buffer help
Basically voip is only legal if used between branch offices of a company that are connected using leased lines. Archaic.. yes, stupid... yes, but thats the law here..:( Our telco is strangling the country so they can line their pockets. On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 11:57:57 + Chris Lee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On the subject of South Africa > What are the laws regarding using the Internet to carry > telephone traffic? > What are the laws regarding connecting digium kit to > Telkom equipment? > As I recall they are quite restrictive, have they been > eased up a bit? > > Regards > Chris > > ___ > Asterisk-Users mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users __ http://www.webmail.co.za/dialup Webmail ISP - Cool Connection, Cool Price ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re:[OT] South african laws - was [Asterisk-Users] iax2 jitter buffer help
On the subject of South Africa What are the laws regarding using the Internet to carry telephone traffic? What are the laws regarding connecting digium kit to Telkom equipment? As I recall they are quite restrictive, have they been eased up a bit? Regards Chris ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users