across the bar

Competition: some brave words

by dominic - Posted 29 March 2008

ICASA is currently running a process (of sorts) to decide which of the current VANS licensees should be awarded an individual electronic communications network service licence - this licence will effectively give them the same rights as telkom and the mobile network operators, i.e. they will be able to compete nationally in the provision of electronic communications infrastructure and facilities.

This is essentially about opening up the market to a far greater level of competition (telkom remains largely a monopoly provider as I write0 and i am sure that most readers would agree that this would be a GOOD THING.

In the middle of March 2008 all those VANS seeking this licence were asked to make presentations to ICASA to provide evidence as to why they should get the licence.

One presentation stood head and shoulders above the rest - provided by Uninet (which has a history of being one of the few to stand up to ICASA and Telkom - google Uninet + Knysna). It was extremely refreshing to hear these words - as they came from the heart and lay bare the inability of the Regulator of the Department of Communications to get to grips with the single biggest challenge facing South African telecommunications: universal service and access at affordable prices.

When asked to make concluding remarks David J, presenting for Uninet - put this picture
http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/show...o=3109&cat=500 up on the big screen and said the following:

"I would like to close by presenting a picture of my son. My son, who is now 1 year old, was born 12 years into our fledgling democracy. I live with the untenable situation where his grandmother calls us to speak to him from Dieplsloot (an informal settlement outside JHB) and she pays R3 per minute for the call, while his other grandmother who lives in the leafy suburbs of Cape Town, pays R1.50. How is it that 13 years after the start of democratic rule in South Africa, policies aimed at disenfranchising the poor and oppressed in this country are being perpetuated in the Telecoms industry.

Dear councilors and ICASA panelists, you are presented with a unique and fortunate opportunity with this conversion process.
Stand up and be counted, this is not the time for business as usual, this is probably not even the time for business unusual. This is the time for Machini Zama. Machini Zama because you have a personal mandate and a constitutional mandate to ensure that these injustices continue no longer.

We need 50 Individual ECNS licencees out of this process, at least. Licencees who will bring real competition and delivery just like the process happened in the USA. Act now and don't find yourselves in a TRC process 5 years from now, having to justify why and how you were complicit in the process of perpetuating these discriminatory policies, when you have all the opportunity now to rectify the situation.

Thank you."

I wanted to clap...