WEDNESDAY, 8.30AM
THE SA Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has begun its long-awaited hearings on the claims by parastatal Telkom to a five year monopoly over basic Internet access provision.
Chariman Nape Maepa said the hearings are likely to take as long as three months, at the end of which, a regulatory framework would be set up.
Telkom argues that the telecommunications act prohibits private service providers from reselling telkom bandwidth without adding value. Private service providers, who slipped into a “regualtory vacuumn” when the Internet started out, should be limited to providing electronic mail, website hosting and database facilities. Sinced the Internet is a basic network service, it falls under Telkom’s five year exclusivity period, just as telephone networks do.
Opposing Telkom the Internet Service Providers’ Association, an interest group representing all the private service providers, argues that Telkom was attempting to take over an industry which had been created by private initiative. “Some service providers have invested millions of rands in their infrastructure and if Telkom gets its way, anyone who has invested any capital will go to the wall,” says joint chairman of the association David Frankel.