Posted: 2008-09-29 23:59 Minister blocks telco liberalisation  Presenter: Semeyi Zake Guest(s): John Holdsworth - Click here to listen to the interview Summit TV speaks to John Holdsworth from Electronic Communications Networks (ECN) about the Department of Communication’s latest move to prevent liberalisation of the telecommunications space Semeyi Zake: Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Cassaburi’s appeal against the recent Altec judgement has left many in the industry outraged. To discuss the implications of the appeal is ECN chief executive John Holdsworth. John, what did the Altec ruling mean? John Holdsworth: It effectively levelled the playing field for new entrants - what that meant is for the first time new entrants would have the same set of licences that both Neotel and Telkom have, effectively a big bang liberalisation of the ICT sector… Semeyi Zake: Assuming the ruling was left unchanged what are some of the benefits we would have seen, and would we have been seeing these? John Holdsworth: These benefits would have flowed immediately. We were due to pick up our licences last week - the minute we had those licences in our hands we would immediately have negotiated a bunch of regulations ranging from carrier pre-select, to fixed-line number portability, to interconnect and co-location - giving us effectively the same facilities the incumbent networks are enjoying. The licence also provided us with the right to self-provide - what that means is networks could deploy their own networks without having to lease them from the incumbent networks, and to determine their own cost. We could immediately have past some of that cost saving on to long suffering consumers… Semeyi Zake: Is the move by the Minister protection of current players in the sector? John Holdsworth: I personally believe that the Department of Communication (DOC) has a conflict of interest - it has a financial stake in Telkom, and it’s introducing policies and regulations that impact the industry. It’s clear to me that the major beneficiary of this appeal is Telkom - because it introduces more confusion and more delays. The only beneficiaries of that are the incumbent networks. Semeyi Zake: Is there perhaps a business case that the Minister might have besides the conflict of interest that you’ve talked about? John Holdsworth: Apart from protecting its shareholding in Telkom I can’t see a business case for the wider telecoms and ICT industry… Semeyi Zake: There’s been talk of the Minister amending the Electronic Communications Act - what are your thoughts on that? John Holdsworth: We are enormously concerned about that statement. I think it’s important to understand that Icasa chose not to appeal - they moved very swiftly to issue the new licences, and at the eleventh hour the DOC put the appeal in. We can see no benefit for the wider industry - other than effectively introducing more confusion, and more delays into the process. Semeyi Zake: Earlier we spoke about two scenarios whether the appeal should fail - could you speak on that issue and expand on that for us? John Holdsworth: What’s now happened is the appeal has gone forward and is being considered by Judge Davis. Judge Davis was the original judge in the court case. He is now considering the appeal - he is evaluating it for its merits - and if he decides the appeal goes forward then the appeal will be heard. We have no idea when the appeal will be heard but we are confident that the appeal will fail. Clearly the major concern for us is the threat by the DOC effectively to change the law should it lose the appeal. It’s always a major concern when governments change the law having lost a court case… Semeyi Zake: What other options do we have to increase competition in this sector? John Holdsworth: What we need is big bang liberalisation of the market. The Electronic Communications Act (ECA) was commenced almost two years ago and has a number of regulatory enablers within it that will change the telecoms landscape in this country in a fairly short space of time. What we need is for Icasa to effectively introduce those regulations starting off with cost-based interconnect. It’s very important that the interconnect rate is reduced so that can be passed on to consumers. We need to see carrier pre-select regulations introduced so new entrants can target Telkom’s fixed-line base. We need to see fixed-line number portability, we need to see facilities leasing and a whole range of regulations. It’s now two years since the ECA was commenced - we really need to get on with things. www.summit.co.za Transcripts: 082 962 2772 mvr/met Comments Related to this transcript: Comment on this transcript... Name : Email : Comments :