If the United States needs a chief technology officer (CTO) to drive broadband penetration, why don’t we?
Earlier this year South Africa broke the one-million broadband consumers mark, which gives us a broadband penetration rate of about 2%.
Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Korea, Norway and Iceland are leading the way with more than 29%. The US is just behind with 23%, which goes to show how far behind South Africa really is.
As the US national elections are heating up, Democrat candidate Barack Obama has made the appointment of a cabinet-level CTO one of his key policies.
Obama is convinced that the US is not doing enough to create jobs through technology and sees greater broadband penetration as an enormous economic driver.
Sound familiar? Yes, the information communication technology (ICT) sector was singled out in government’s accelerated share growth initiative for South Africa (Asgisa) as a key driver of jobs by lowering the cost of doing business.
But, however honorable the intentions of the Asgisa policy are, the fact of the matter is that on the ground any ICT reform is being driven by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, whose general reign over the sector has been incompetent, to put it mildly.
The minister again showed her stubborn hand recently by clinging to a failed managed liberalisation policy when she announced her intentions to appeal against a high court decision, brought by Altech Cellular, over the ability of value-added network service (Vans) operators to self-provide their own network infrastructure.
The decision by the high court could have had major positive spin-offs for competition in the ICT sector and the result would have been lower prices and higher penetration levels.
So, with a shockingly low broadband penetration rate in South Africa, why are our politicians not lobbying for a CTO to fix our broadband woes?
The Industrial Development Corporation’s telecoms analyst, Richard Hurst, said the idea could be useful in South Africa.
“A cabinet-level CTO type of position would indeed be of great value to the sector and the country; however, clear boundaries and objectives of the position would need to be established, such as how the CTO of South Africa would interact with the minister of communications,” said Hurst.
He said another issue that would need to be addressed is how the CTO interacts with the ICT regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).
“I believe that the CTO of South Africa would need to look to drive down the cost of access to technology, ensuring a greater penetration of services plus a massive drive to nurture entrepreneurial spirit and development in the country,” said Hurst.
Anriette Esterhuysen, executive director of the Association for Progressive Communication, said the CTO idea in principle is good, but it would be difficult to make it work.
“This person’s primary role could be to facilitate cooperation and coordination and provide leadership,” said Esterhuysen. “Authority would need to be clear or he or she would not be able to act.
“Although I think it is a good idea, making it work in the current bureaucratic framework is not going to be easy,” said Esterhuysen. “But desperate times need desperate measures and although it might just muddy the waters more I think it is worth a try.”
Gartner telecoms analyst Will Hahn said that although the US can claim to be fairly well off in terms of broadband penetration, average speeds, homes passed, price and choice, South Africa cannot be as boastful yet.
Hahn said that the CTO’s job would be a tall order in South Africa as he or she would have to have the authority to override all stakeholders.
“Could the incoming administration make it inarguably clear that all parties, including the regulator, the Competition Commission and tribunal, the ministry of communication and the department of public enterprises, would have to yield in matters relating to, say, broadband build out?” asked Hahn.
The Shuttleworth Foundation’s Steve Song said there is no question in his mind that such a position would be a good idea.
“Technology pervades almost every aspect of society – almost every policy decision these days has a technology aspect to it,” he said. “Having someone at a high level in government with a broad understanding of technology is important in the same way that it is important to have high-level economic or legal expertise in governance.
“The CTO would be responsible for driving national strategic planning around technology issues,” said Song. “We live in a rapidly evolving technological environment and having a CTO could help provide government with more confidence to take forward-thinking decisions.”
But Genesis Analytics’s James Hodge said he didn’t think a CTO in South Africa would be such a great idea. “I think there is much to be said for a coherent government plan concerning infrastructure,” he said. “All too often the plans of one department are undermined by the uncoordinated actions of another, or departments have opposing goals.
“On this basis I would support the idea put forward recently by the new ANC of a centralised planning process to enhance coordination,” said Hodge. “It would seem that a CTO is yet another layer and unless there was buy-in from other departments, the support of which is needed for success, it would fail anyway.”
Who could be our CTO?
Some big names are reportedly sizing up Barrack Obama’s chief technology officer (CTO) position, including Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, Amazon chief executive Jeffrey Bezos and Princeton computer science professor Ed Felten.
But who could fill the role in South Africa and what qualities should the president look for in the candidate?
A panel of analysts surveyed by the Mail & Guardian threw up names such as entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, ex-Vodacom boss Alan Knott Craig, head of Datatec Jens Montanana, Dimension Data SA’s chairperson Andile Ngcaba and Kagiso Media chief exectutive Murphy Morobe.
“Industry leaders from the energy, telecom or information technology sectors would be likely candidates in South Africa,” said the Shuttleworth Foundation’s Steve Song. “Someone with a strong technical background who is articulate and can talk about complex technological concepts in a manner accessible to the lay person.
“It would also have to be someone comfortable operating at the highest levels of power,” said Song.
“In seeking to fill the CTO South Africa position I think we need to look for someone who has passion and experience in taking technology beyond the lab and into the lives of ordinary citizens,” said Industrial Development Corporation’s telecoms analyst Richard Hurst. “We need a visionary who would be able to look ahead to the next horizon and around the corner.”
“We need someone with great vision, thick skin and appropriate political credentials,” said the Association for Progressive Communication’s Anriette Esterhuysen. “That’s not easy to find.” – Lloyd Gedye