Making A Better World - Milton Louw

MTC has introduced Differential Data Pricing without consulting the regulator or consumers. Recently the telecommunications industry have seen the mushrooming of over the top (OTT) content providers as a threat to their business model. OTT refers to delivery of audio, video, and other media over the Internet without the involvement of a multiple-system operator in the control or distribution of the content - in other words the consumer chooses a data service not provided by the telco service provider. In South Africa the dominant service providers, (Vodacom and MTN), have instigated a parliamentary debate and are doing their best to introduce hurdles to customers using services such as WhatsApp and Facebook arguing that these services do not pay tax or contribute to the actual infrastructure that customers use. This debate is however not about services being offered - but rather the threat of losing revenue from voice and SMS. One of the options being put forward is th...

PUBLIC COMMENTS IN RESPECT OF MTC’S NEW NETMAN PRODUCTS (NETMAN TURBOBOOST) TARIFFS AS PUBLISHED ON 24 DECEMBER 2015 IN THE GOVERNMENT GAZETTE NO. 5908 GENERAL NOTICE 568 Allow me to first state that it is becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to be involved in the process of tariff determinations and other matters before CRAN as there are no consumer organization receiving funds to assist them in doing work on behalf of the consumer. Most consumer activists are doing the work on behalf of consumers only when the time allows and thus we will find that big corporations will increasingly get away with unfair business practices. Perhaps CRAN should consider the idea of using funds from the Universal Service Fund to assist consumer organisations with their activities. The Namibia Consumer Protection Group (NCPG) requests CRAN to have public hearings on MTC’S new NETMAN products (NETMAN Turboboost) tariffs as published on 24 December 2015 in the Government Gazette NO. 5908 ...

Namibia held its Regional Council and Local Authority elections on 27th November 2015. Probably the biggest lesson for the country is that so few voters (less than 40%) bothered to participate even after it was declared a public holiday. In the Regional Council election, each voter is expected to vote for an individual and it is easy for comparisons to be made between the individuals and the parties they represent. HOWEVER, our Local Authority elections are based on the party list system  - and very few voters even know who the candidates are they are voting for when they press the button next to their party of choice. Looking at the results from the Local Authority election, I am reminded of a quote from Henry George in 1833: "Much, too, may be done to restrict the abuse of party machinery, and make the ballot the true expression of the will of the voter, by simplifying our elective methods. And a principle should always be kept in mind which we have largely ignored, that the pe...

For the past three years, I have been working at the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) as the IT Project Coordinator responsible for establishing the electronic voters register. As an employee of ECN, I felt that I should restrict myself from writing about politics or electoral matters as  matter of principle. Thus my regular readers will note that I have largely written only about consumer issues and left out my usual weekly political commentary from my blog.  I resigned from ECN on 30 September and will now continue with this blog (which started in January 2009) as part of my contribution to a better Namibia.

(First appeared in New Era 16 September 2015) A few years ago my eldest daughter called me during a training session I held in the capital. At the time I was freelancing and training officials at a large OMA about how to use Facebook. When my daughter heard this she had to express incredulity and stated, “But how do you teach something which is so easy to use?” She was of course mistaking using the social media platform with managing the platform and the interaction you can have with the system when understanding how your followers or “likers” react to posts and photographs. I of course had to protect my business model and had to explain to her the difference. In essence, posting comment, publishing pictures or commenting on posts is all easy to do and allows your friends to see where you are, when and with whom. However, you want to know more about the people seeing your posts entails a lot more work in the actual engine room of the programme. Thus I was training managers of inform...

(First appeared in New Era 9 September 2015) One of the biggest problems is starting a family is that most of the things I want such as furniture, motor vehicle, etc. costs more money than what I earn in a month. The only option for purchasing these high cost items is to either save or to take it on credit. For myself, I have learned the hard way that it is better to save and buy later, rather than purchase on credit and not be able to afford the monthly payments later. Unfortunately, most consumers still prefer to buy on credit and can find themselves lending recklessly and then becoming “over-indebted”. In many countries of the world, a law has been enacted as a National Credit Act that promotes an effective, fair and accessible credit market and to help protect consumers from "reckless lending" and "over-indebtedness". Unfortunately, Namibia has not yet enacted many such consumer laws yet. Under such a credit environment, debt counselling is included as a too...

(First appeared in New Era 2 September 2015) “Phishing is the attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money), often for malicious reasons, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.” “Hi, I need some airtime urgently. Please send and I will refund you. This is Milton Shaanika-Louw.” A few hours later, the same cellular number sends another similar message but claims to be from someone else. Really, is this scam not easy to see through? After all, surely a famous and rich person would not need telephone credit. Perhaps our free calling now allows people to send this kind of phishing scam at little or no cost? This week I was very angry that people are still so gullible, but had to stop myself thinking like that because the confidence artists (con man) is making use of the good inside people to steal their money from them. Thus I should not be angry at the good intentions ...