ID COMMMUNICATION POLICY
Bridging the Digital Divide
The Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) Sector of the
South African economy plays a vital role in the development of this
country and its people. Not only does it allow for all South Africans
to have access to various forms of communications, such as television,
radio, telephony services, and the Internet but the ICT sector has the
potential to become the major economic driver in the country, thereby
alleviating and reducing poverty.
Key challenges in the ICT sector include:
- Fixed line penetration by Telkom remains at an unacceptably low level, especially in the less developed provinces of South Africa.
- SA is dismally lagging behind other countries in terms of connecting people to broadband.
- Telkom’s heavy investment in legacy technology, instead of new technology, has given them monopoly power and the power to charge higher costs to obtain return on their investment
ID Solutions
Independent regulation
Independent regulation of the ICT and broadcasting sector is an essential component in ensuring access to all. Government is currently both a referee and a player in the sector. The control of these assets should therefore be transferred to the Department of Public Enterprises.
ICASA must be sufficiently resourced to enable it to effectively regulate this multibillion rand industry.
• ICASA must be sufficiently funded through increased budgets from the fiscus, and given the ability to derive direct access to some of the licence fees it collects on behalf of the Treasury.
Pro-competitive Environment
The Independent Democrats believes in a balance between a complete free-market and one that is overregulated. The ID also believes that the number of operators in a particular market or market segment in the ICT arena should be between five and eight.
• Licences must be granted to at least three additional ECN licence holders in the core network market segment in addition to the three incumbents (Telkom, Sentech and Neotel). Government policy-makers as well as Icasa should use the provisions of the Electronic Communications Act to provide novel licences as by granting such licences, competition will be increased, thereby increasing customer choice, lowering costs and increasing teledensity and Internet penetration rates.
• Companies that have benefited substantially from their business activities in the ICT sector must be encouraged to plough back their profits into the sector to ensure universal access. This can be achieved by either licence conditions or by creating tax incentives for the rollout of services to these areas by the licence-holders.
• Schools as ICT hubs: Many rural and poorer communities do not have access to telephony and internet services. The ID believes that the Multi Purpose Community Centres (MPCCs) strategy could be refined and improved by using approximately 25 000 schools within South Africa as ICT hubs.
• Frequency spectrum: In an ever increasing wireless infrastructure regime developing globally, issues such as unbundling of the local loop become less and less important, while access to frequency becomes increasingly important. Unfortunately, the traditional wireless frequency, for example 2.8GHz and 3.4Ghz has already been allocated to a number of large incumbents. It would be essential for Icasa to ensure that an adequate policy be developed and implemented to ensure equitable access to radio frequency spectrum. Issues such as use-it-or-lose-it should be adopted in this policy.
• Promotion of small and new operators: It is essential that smaller new operators are protected from abuses from established and large incumbents. In terms of asymmetrical interconnect, the ID proposes that preference is given to smaller new operators, where they interconnect to larger and established incumbents. In addition, a default interconnect agreement, governed by ICASA, and implemented in the absence of a commercially and mutually agreed upon interconnect agreement between two operators will ensure that new and smaller operators are not unfairly treated by large and established incumbents.
• Competition in the core network: The ID believes that it is essential for competition to be introduced into the core network so as to drive down prices and encourage higher uptake of services amongst a majority of South Africans. This could be achieved by licensing more ECN operators within this area, or alternatively licensing the geographical ECN operators.
Key challenges in the ICT sector include:
- Fixed line penetration by Telkom remains at an unacceptably low level, especially in the less developed provinces of South Africa.
- SA is dismally lagging behind other countries in terms of connecting people to broadband.
- Telkom’s heavy investment in legacy technology, instead of new technology, has given them monopoly power and the power to charge higher costs to obtain return on their investment
ID Solutions
Independent regulation
Independent regulation of the ICT and broadcasting sector is an essential component in ensuring access to all. Government is currently both a referee and a player in the sector. The control of these assets should therefore be transferred to the Department of Public Enterprises.
ICASA must be sufficiently resourced to enable it to effectively regulate this multibillion rand industry.
• ICASA must be sufficiently funded through increased budgets from the fiscus, and given the ability to derive direct access to some of the licence fees it collects on behalf of the Treasury.
Pro-competitive Environment
The Independent Democrats believes in a balance between a complete free-market and one that is overregulated. The ID also believes that the number of operators in a particular market or market segment in the ICT arena should be between five and eight.
• Licences must be granted to at least three additional ECN licence holders in the core network market segment in addition to the three incumbents (Telkom, Sentech and Neotel). Government policy-makers as well as Icasa should use the provisions of the Electronic Communications Act to provide novel licences as by granting such licences, competition will be increased, thereby increasing customer choice, lowering costs and increasing teledensity and Internet penetration rates.
• Companies that have benefited substantially from their business activities in the ICT sector must be encouraged to plough back their profits into the sector to ensure universal access. This can be achieved by either licence conditions or by creating tax incentives for the rollout of services to these areas by the licence-holders.
• Schools as ICT hubs: Many rural and poorer communities do not have access to telephony and internet services. The ID believes that the Multi Purpose Community Centres (MPCCs) strategy could be refined and improved by using approximately 25 000 schools within South Africa as ICT hubs.
• Frequency spectrum: In an ever increasing wireless infrastructure regime developing globally, issues such as unbundling of the local loop become less and less important, while access to frequency becomes increasingly important. Unfortunately, the traditional wireless frequency, for example 2.8GHz and 3.4Ghz has already been allocated to a number of large incumbents. It would be essential for Icasa to ensure that an adequate policy be developed and implemented to ensure equitable access to radio frequency spectrum. Issues such as use-it-or-lose-it should be adopted in this policy.
• Promotion of small and new operators: It is essential that smaller new operators are protected from abuses from established and large incumbents. In terms of asymmetrical interconnect, the ID proposes that preference is given to smaller new operators, where they interconnect to larger and established incumbents. In addition, a default interconnect agreement, governed by ICASA, and implemented in the absence of a commercially and mutually agreed upon interconnect agreement between two operators will ensure that new and smaller operators are not unfairly treated by large and established incumbents.
• Competition in the core network: The ID believes that it is essential for competition to be introduced into the core network so as to drive down prices and encourage higher uptake of services amongst a majority of South Africans. This could be achieved by licensing more ECN operators within this area, or alternatively licensing the geographical ECN operators.
