Government’s bid to speedily provide affordable broadband services which could be drawn into a possible legal battle suggests its conceptualisation may have been bungled from the start, Business Day reported on Friday.
At the root of the legal mess is Public Enterprise minister Alec Erwin’s decision to from a state owned broadband company, Infraco, the report said.
Neotel, a second broadband company, was formed on the basis that it would own the same communications network infrastructure which Infraco will absorb from Esitel and Transtel.
Government entered into a commercial agreement with Neotel, giving the company four years’ exclusive rights to market the use of Infraco’s broadband infastructure.
The legality of the agreement has been questioned.
The Broadband Infraco Bill, currently being heard by Parliament’s public enterprises committee, provides for Infraco to be ”deemed” to have been granted an individual electronic communication networks service license.
This bypasses the Independent Communications Authority’s (Icasa) licencing process.
Cellphone operators Vodacom, MTN and Cell C have told the committee that government attempts to undermine Icasa as a regulatory body in the establishment of Infraco could land up in the Constitutional Court.
The cellphone operators as well as Telkom and Sentech opposed the exclusive rights given to Neotel. – Sapa