Yes, of course it's nice to get more bits, better service, and pricing more in line with international standards.
If that'll actually happen, that is.
So I'll hold off any enthusiasm. Talk (and this is only draft talk) is like free bandwidth, and that aint the real world.
But it's also a sad day.
From a polity perspective, this is a retrograde step.
What we are also seeing is further state intervention in the economy.
A small step towards fascism.
A little slip towards socialism.
At issue is human liberty.
The real root of the 'Telkom problem' is government interference in market mechanisms. For years SA was a Post Office State - remember, the national telco was part of the poskantoor, which is state controlled. In other words, the state owned telecommunications equity and controlled all players through regulation. We forget that the final enforcer of pricing and ownership was the police. Yes, if you competed with the government monopoly they'd send the police to stop you. The Post Office State ultimately relied on the Police State to enforce prices and restrict competition. Pricing was determined by bureaucrats instead of the free market. Yes, they split off and 'corporatised' the telco and called it Telkom. And then they 'privatised' it (ie they moved share ownership from the state to state-lackeys, with a little sop to the market). But privatisation only pretends to be free enterprise because state manipulation of ownership and prices remains, even if the players are privately owned. And we still sit with the legacy of a highly distorted ownership of the telecommunications infrastructure (ie Telkom owns the pipes and wires), so everyone's still snookered.
What we really need is privatisation and deregulation, especially of the key international pipes that are still state owned.
As a lover of freedom, I am dismayed to see such naked intervention in what should be a free market. I am extremely suspicious of the state (and am resisting the temptation to remind everyone that states are the largest oppressors and destroyers of human liberty).
Need I remind you that the reason we are paying such outrageous prices for bandwidth is precisely because Caesar (ie the State) has for years interfered in the economy. The current distortions in pricing and infrastructure ownership are caused by Caesar's meddling. The solution is not more State interference, even if it's the kind that seems to get us a slightly bigger cap and a few more bits down the pipe.
So it's with very mixed feelings that I see these draft ICASA regulations.
Today Caesar seems to be a nice guy, because in his beneficence he grants us more bread and circuses.
But beware, citizens. It is really a grab for power.
And Caesar is already far too powerful.
Like the overtaxed peasants, my real cry is laissez faire!.
Leave us alone!
