South African fixed-line monopoly Telkom and the Department of Communications portfolio organisation noted on Friday that Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri’s liberalisation determination on public payphones was a deviation from the Telecommunications Act.
Last September, the minister said value-added network service (Vans) networks can, effective from February 1, provide voice services and hence included the provision of payphone services on Vans networks.
Making its oral presentation at the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) public hearings on public-phones services, Telkom said Matsepe-Casaburri had deviated from the section of the Act that provides that “no person who provides a value-added network service shall permit that service to be used for the carrying of voice until a date to be fixed by the minister by notice in the Gazette“.
The monopoly argued that the wording in the ministerial determination has created an impression that Vans networks can now provide any form of voice services to the public, which can also mean that telephony services are now categorised as Vans.
“Telkom is of the opinion that any interpretation that would permit more than the carrying of voice by a Vans service would be ultra vires the Act.
“Alternatively, if the intention of the minister was, in fact, to fully liberalise the provision of voice services, then this should be done explicitly by way of an amendment to the Act,” the telecommunications group asserted.
“Payphone services cannot, in any way, be considered to be Vans,” it added. — I-Net Bridge