Hellkom

Apparently, Katie and I aren't the only ones who hate Telkom, the South African phone company. With Katie, it's personal, since they put her on their list of potential fraudsters, but with the guy who runs a website called Hellkom, it's all about the ludicrously high cost of broadband internet access.

Which we grudgingly pay, since, given the fact that they still charge for dialup BY THE MINUTE, and given the amount of time we spend online, we were actually paying more for dialup than we do for our much faster broadband connection. Broadband is still much more expensive here than it is anywhere else in the world, but it works out because local and national calls are also more expensive than anywhere else, too.

Dozens and dozens of newspaper articles here have pointed out how this is crippling the growth of the South African economy, but so far, the rates haven't come down much.

The guy who runs Hellkom recently won a little court battle against Telkom. Or, rather, he scored a de facto victory when Telkom withdrew their lawsuit against him when they realized they had no case. Read about it here.