Government is assembling four puzzle pieces around communications, and you’re invited to help make them fit together. Deciphering the bigger picture is up to you — and to this article. Here’s what we have to work with:
1. Revised digital broadcast regulations. (Comments due by 2 October).
2. Imminent licencing of state-owned Infraco to deliver on broadband. (If nothing happens in a month, you should comment!)
3. Broadband draft policy document. (Comments deadline is 17 October).
4. Local and digital content production strategy. (Comments by 20 October).
Imagine these as parts of a jigsaw that need to articulate to each other for optimum value. To do so, you need to discern what they could potentially add up to as a totality.
The commonality is, of course, digital. Unfortunately, Piece number 4 errs by equating ”digital” to electronic content. But not all electronic communications are digital; if they were, we wouldn’t need Piece number 1, which regulates how TV will migrate from electronic analogue to electronic digital.
”Digital” refers to electronic information that is broken down into binary data formats — allowing for compression algorithms that save hugely on bandwidth. That’s why, crudely speaking, an airwave frequency that accommodates a single analogue TV channel can pack in up to 10 digital ones.
This advantage is why the Independent Communications Regulatory Authority (Icasa) has been working on digital broadcast regulations. We now have a second version, driven by the regulator’s hope of avoiding law suits over its plans to allot digital spectrum called Multiplexes.
In brief, Icasa proposes that, as of April 1 2010, SABC will get most of Multiplex 1; e.tv gets 60% of Multiplex 2, and M-Net has 50% of Multiplex 3. Wannabee broadcasters complain that this doesn’t leave much for them.
A related problem is that the new regulations seem to exclude the possibility of those subscription broadcasters who are already licensed, but not yet on air, delivering their services on Multiplex 3.
Somewhat bizarrely, the Icasa regulations also ban any Multiplex licensee from offering audio services. This ignores the fact that an ailing SABC will certainly be unable to provide any new digital channels on Multiplex 1 by April 1 next year.
Accordingly, much of SABC’s allocation will remain fallow, when it could at least temporarily be filled by the broadcaster’s audio channels — which would then enable the public to use TV sets to double up as radio receivers.
If such short-sightedness by Icasa isn’t enough to get you hot under the collar, you may want to object to other proposed regulations. One of these exempts private broadcasters from having to offer multilingual simulcasting on their Multiplexes; another shields them from public comments on their applications for new digital channels.
In short, while there’s huge potential in digital broadcasting, the Icasa regulations fall far short of realising this. The regulator needs to hear what South Africans think of these flawed offerings.
Icasa is also a problematic feature in puzzle piece number 2 — namely, the licensing of Infraco to build backbone broadband internet infrastructure. The push to set up Infraco came from the Department of Public Enterprises in 2007. However, the licensing of the state-owned company falls under Icasa — which, in turn, had to wait a year before the Department of Communications got round to issuing the required legal directive.
However, since this directive came in February this year, Icasa has been snail-paced — although it has also pledged to Parliament that licensing could be round about now. The regulator may just need to be jogged on this.
Complicating things has been a continuing dispute between the Department of Public Enterprises and the Department of Communications over Infraco’s mandate. There’s a major rift over whether Infraco needs two kinds of Icasa licenses, which in turn is linked to whether the company will offer retail services and possibly compete with private businesses.
Resolving this long-dragging saga is central to the third piece of the puzzle: government’s broadband policy.
This long-awaited draft policy document highlights how advanced internet connections can benefit economics and governance in South Africa. It states too that every citizen has a right to access a minimum level of broadband, defining this as a connection that is always available and multi-media capable.
According to the policy document, the private sector has played a role in bringing broadband to one million South Africans. But it envisages the state being the champion that deepens this rate and overcoming ”market failure”.
Too bad, though, that the policy document fails to acknowledge ”state failure”. The market has faced huge regulatory constraints in competing with Telkom and in self-providing own connectivity infrastructure. Then there is the Infraco snarl-up, the failure of state-owned Sentech to sustain its MyWireless internet service, and the dismal performance of the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa.
So while the state certainly has a role, ignoring its own record of limitations is sure to distort the draft policy. Whether you agree with that or not, you really should put in your pitch on this important debate.
The fourth piece of the jigsaw is the digital content strategy document. It proposes a Digital Content Fund for new players, to be managed by the Media Diversity and Development Agency. It also envisages state support for ”Content Generation Hubs” to be located elsewhere than Johannesburg and Cape Town.
According to the document, animation, wild-life, documentaries, games, ringtones and marginal languages will help turn ”people’s content into tradable commodities from which economic value can be extracted”.
This strategy amounts to an overly ambitious wishlist, which could certainly benefit from sober public comment. However, its spirit serves as an element that gives rationale to the other three pieces of the puzzle.
The point is that without local digital content, there’s only limited value in rolling out both digital broadcasting and broadband internet. On the other hand, without these digital infrastructures and services, South African digital content is not going anywhere fast.
In sum, much as each of the four puzzle pieces has specific challenges, it is the totality that gives perspective and shows up the significance of each.
The digital future is being designed this October; don’t delay if you want to chip in your own digits’ worth.
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