Telecoms industry players slam draft bill as unworkable

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/economy.aspx?ID=BD4A56763

CAPE TOWN — The draft convergence bill for the telecommunications sector is confusing and creating such uncertainty that it will discourage future investments in the sector, according to leading players in the industry.

Both Telkom and shareholders in the second national operator yesterday highlighted the deficiencies in the proposed bill during public hearings by Parliament’s communications committee....

another one of Matsepe-cassaburi's cockups

Oh look - ANC + Teklom throwing more confusion into the fire.
3 points were made:

1 - The cancellation of licences means that existing license holders will not know what they'll get.
2 - There is no Green and then White paper for the bill
3 - The methodologies described in the bill are confusing.

Point 1 = Damn right, it's back to square one. Proove that you deserve the licence, and that you can provide the most efficient service for the area, and you'll get the new licence. This country is not all that worried about lack of investment opportunity. The obvious 6.2 billion rand a month profit that teklom are wearing is proof enough that there is money to be made. So shutup and note that things are going to change.

Point 2 = Can you spell red tape ? We're short of time as it is. Howz about you tell us how you want it worded, what procedures you'd like to see in the bill and why, and then we'll take your suggestions to heart and see if they fit. Your useless statement about White and Green papers is non constructive.

Point 3 = All bills are confusing. The reason for these meetings is to try to sort these issues out, not for you to point out the obvious.

These big business players are the biggest crybabies I've ever seen. Not one of them has the balls to stand up and say - we'll work with you to come up with a solution. All of them say - "You never consulted with us" - but non of them say - here is our correspondent, this person is available for 4 months, or whatever it takes, LETS SORT IT OUT !

i.e. These beeg players could have stood up and said - here's our wording of this portion, here's our procedure list, but they just moan.

I rember them being given the draft bill, like we were, and being asked to comment, let me guess, they did not comment.

Any technology based bill requires many various-skilled people's viewpoints, and the more players, the better.

I'm not sure whether the bill is really as "flawed" as Telkom (and the SNO) set it out to be... (for own selfish reasons???)

Or whether Poison Ivy's bill really is not workable; something which is HIGHLY possible because we all know how incompatible she is.

Either way, it seems like this telecoms deregulation process is still going to take a while to come into effect. As the bill stands at the moment, do you guys think it's good enough???

If the SNO isn't happy with the bill then I'm not happy with it either.

Just remember MaD, the SNO is attempting to protect its own interests. Likely in the hope that it can take some profit away from Telkom but not actually have to improve service levels. A duopoly with mutually agreed upon pricing is almost guaranteed to occur much like what happened between Vodacom and MTN (and now includes Cell-C).

Remember, Tata and the SNO as a whole has been against "big bang" liberalisation and VANS self provision (along with Telkom), purely because of the fact that it would mean less business for themselves. I would say that's a red flag right there.

warichard, I 100% agree.

If Telkom and the SNO are unhappy with the bill, then I don't even need to look at it --- I know it's a good bill

Seriously though, their complaints (re: "consultation" and "investor certainty") sound like they are really just complaining that the bill may actually introduce competition and that it may not protect a 'duopoly cartel' status effectively enough. Which sounds great to me - that is how free markets are supposed to work. There is supposed to be genuine competition, and you're supposed to be terrified of it - that's how prices get lowered and digital divides get bridged. This has been proven over and over now in dozens of countries all over the world.

"Investor certainty" is a euphemism for "no competition, guaranteed by government" --- like the current Vodacom/MTN/Cell C price-fixing price-gouging cartel.

I was thinking more along the lines of them being unhappy with interconnecting and LLU etc. not so much the other issues such as them being opposed to the big bang.. they're gonna stand all over Telkom's feet with many issues, no doubt