Icasa fights to keep name

[dominic]

ic

agree with the most part

icasa is a converged regulator - previously we had SATRA dealing with telecommunications regulation, the IBA dealing with broadcasting & a postal regulator dealing with....posts

in a converged environment these will all come together and hence the need for a single regulator to deal with postal services (and the post office is a big player in electronic communications)

now independence in posts and telecomms is one thing but independence as regards broadcasting is quite another - the relevant legislation is the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act (IBAA) which was passed in a hurry to change the legislation regarding broadcasting before the 1994 election, i.e. to get rid of the aparthied era influence on broadcasting and try and create a level playing field for parties participating in that election....the independence of the IBA was therefore crucial and it was guranteed its independence in terms of chapter 9 of the SA Constitution

so when they talk about icasa's independence and the latest shenanigans being potentially unconstitutional it has everything to do with broadcasting and very little to do with telecomms

& as stated elsewhere the D-G needs to learn very quickly that a closed mouth gathers no feet

 

[MaD]

Why not just make it IECASA? The I can stay even if it's just for show, and people from Benoni can still pronounce it the same way as always..

 

[bwana]

Why not just make it IECASA? The I can stay even if it's just for show, and people from Benoni can still pronounce it the same way as always..

E-I-E-I-O? (As in Old Macdonald)

 

[dominic]

Dominic, you lost me there - IMO post is all the mashed-up-trees that arrive in my PO Box - usually demanding my money, email is the environmentally-friendly replacement for post, not so?

I agree with the rest of your post [ag no please tell me my online/electronic posts here, are not part of the DoC's portfolio ].

afaik there is now provision for registered e-mail!! the SAPO is meant to play a major role as an authentication service provider i.e. provides digital signatures and the like

 

[mbs]

@ic: besides things like digital signatures, the post office has an increasing role in electronically-based activities that traditionally are their mandate - think money order transfers, for example. All these are included in what is generally known today as 'e-post', though there is an increasing overlap and convergence (interesting term, that) between its activities and that of banks, clearing organisations, customs, etc. The concept, principle and definition has also been endorsed internationally - I had to do some research work a few years ago for PAPU (see site http://www.upap-papu.org/ ) on exactly this aspect. See also the UPU site (http://www.upu.int/ )...

 

[SeanH]

Guys cant you see that our government is too busy renaming cities and streets, as well as ICASA, to worry about such trivial things as managment of the country?

 

[R4tt3xx]

E-ish, E-casa

 

[dominic]

ic it is extremely difficult to find this info for some reason - www.sapo.co.za is a pathetic attempt at a web site...there is some info under e-services re dig signatures and public info terminals (PITs) + some others

there is a section in the ect act dealing with authentication and accredited authentication providers - i seem to remember that the post office was granted accreditation first and that pres mbeki in fact got a digital signature from them which he used to "sign" the ect act into law

 

[dominic]

I wonder if it would be worthwhile running a mainsite poll to find out if anyone actually has obtained a digital signature from the SAPO - other than Mbeki that is, and has our president used his digital signature to sign any subsequent acts into law...?

i know a university professor who got one just for interest's sake but yeah, i'd have some reservations about the post office

re our technopres - pretty sure that he signed only the ect act and also that he signed that with a traditional or "wet" signature before using the digi version....chicken and egg conundrum - signing with a digital sig ("advanced electronic signature") would only be allowed once the Act came into operation by proclamation in the Gov Gazette so it appears to have been more of a song and dance than a genuine use of technology

 

[dominic]

If there is one thing that would make me happy, it would be the abolishment of MoC veto rights over ICASA's regulations - let ICASA do its job independently. The existing parliamentary process of appointing ICASA councillors is ok as it is and should not be changed to satisfy her Poisonous Ivyness' ignoramousness egocentricity. I would also like ICASA to be given the power to heavily fine the likes of Telkodemonopoly whenever they contravene ICASA's regulations - IMO it would help with funding, and would give ICASA an incentive to get regulations drafted and in place sooner rather than later, although public hearings should still be held to refine draft regulations...

the ministerial veto is largely gone under the convergence bill....history; she will have this kind of power only in respect of frequency licences and of course there is the "managed liberalisation" "handbrake clause" to the effect that new licences for communications networks service providers (i.e. entities that provide infrastructure without necessarily using it themselves to send a signal from point to point) can only be called for after the minister has made the necessary policy determination in the gov gazette

indepedence of icasa? i think the whole selection process thang is a bit of a red herring (although i cannot support it and see no need to change)...what is crucial is the funding aspect. This was meant to be dealt with in the ICASA Amendment Bill but has disappeared. All the Bill says is that aside from the current funding framework further funds can be given as determined by agreement between the Minister and the treasury

wtf? there has been general agreement that the Authority is under-resourced and under-staffed since it was established in 2000 and the perception that it has been controlled through funding / lack of funding has been with us since the SATRA days in 1996

Bill inserts section 15(1A)
“Financing of and accounting by Authority
15. (1) The Authority is financed from money appropriated by Parliament.
(1A) The Authority may receive money determined in any other manner as may be agreed between the Minister and the Minister of Finance and approved by Cabinet.

so there is still ministerial control over funding and we still have not got anywhere....with all the work contemplated by the convergence bill - postal regulator, conversion of licences, massive interconnection and facilities leasing disputes etc etc - ICASA will be a complete dead duck unless this is sorted out now

at the same time there is now all this focus on telecomms as a business facilitator and a crucial driver in SA's push to reach 6% GDP by 2010...also the Minister warbling on about how she feels that a properly functioning telecomms sector (not in her lifetime) could by itself add as much as 2% to GDP....whatever...if we accept that a strong, well-resourced and independent regulator is a necessity in ensuring a vibrant telecomms industry (and i think this relationship should be a given - there were 13 communications regultors in the world in 1990 while there are now 132 so it seems to be working for many countries) then i wish to know the following:
wtf are we still trying to figure out funding issues for ICASA?....doubling, tripling or even quadrupling their current budget (somewhere around R169 million per year) would be not even a drop in the ocean compared to the broader economic benefits of even a 0.25% increase in GDP!

it makes very little sense - probably a lack of political will although with all the verbiage and the pricing colloquiums recently there are some hopeful signs that there is currently a sea change in this lack of political will

interesting that the ICASA Amendment Bill also introduces performance management - the chair has to sign a performance management agreement with the minister and the other councillors have to sign one with the chair...on the face of it this is a good thing (increased accountability) but as always there is a danger that it will simply be a further means of control

imho most of this carp is a result of strained relations between the DoC and ICASA going back to the initial stages of the SNO licensing process and significantly worsened by the whole VANS self-provision debacle where the Minister basically screwed ICASA over and gave the lie to any notions of independence

 

[dominic]

http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/bus...sp?A=AFN&S=All Africa News&O=E&CiRestriction=

"Ntsundeni Madzunya, CIO the SA Post Office, was named IT Personality of the Year 2005."

"This award has elevated what we are doing at the Post Office and is now a challenge for us to do more through this recognition. In order to achieve something of this nature, one must work hard but also work smart,” said Madzunya on receiving the IT Personality award, which recognises exceptional individual contribution in the past year.

He admitted that overhauling service delivery systems at the Post Office had not been an easy task, but was very rewarding. “My dream is to bring services closer to the people of SA. We need to realise that technology is only a tool with which we can make our lives easier. My vision is to have a single architecture through which all our services can run,” he said.

Madzunya's achievements led to the SA Post Office winning the technology accolade at the World Mail Awards in 2004. He spearheaded the development of the Post Office's new banking, electronic mail delivery and e-billing systems. He says the new biometric payment system is now used by 180 000 social grant beneficiaries and before the end of October, every Post Office in the country will be online."

go figure

 

[Kalvaer]

I was thinking about it and I think I can understand why the DoC wants to change the abbreviation for ICASA... Its to long.

A 3 letter abbrevation is much shorter and therefore uses much less bandwidth. Since the DoC know they are going to force ICASA to let telkom keep their prices but will still have to get the funding for ICASA, The new three letter abbreviations will save them money in the long run with the new billing sytem

 

[Kalvaer]

I was thinking more along the lines of ECA as BTTB mentioned or ETR (electronic telecomms regulator).

I really cant believe that they want to put an "e" infront of e-verything. E-specially with that e-joke that went along e-lines of .. "e-nine, e-ten, leven"

 

[Roman4604]

I think ICASA should be split in two again. Content regulation can stay with DoC, while infrastructure regulation should go to DTI ... after all the point of regulation is growth.

 

[mbs]

@mbs, what's your take on the whole sad state of affairs?

Much like dominic's, except that I believe the political will does now exist to effect change and can be said to be a given. The scope and extent of that is currently an unknown, however, or at least is being kept very close to the chest, by those in the know. As someone who has been involved in audit in the past, I also tend to view formal performance management as vital to assure governance, and not necessarily as a means of control for nefarious reasons. The thing that does irritate the hell out of me, is the inordinate length of time all of this is taking - while we all know that the wheels of government usually grind exceedingly slow, those involved seem not to realise the urgency of the need for transformation of the sector, and prefer debating and pontificating on irrelevancies, while we all continue to suck the hind tit. Hell, what's wrong with fixing the niceties that may have been missed, later through regulation? *sigh*

 

[mbs]

http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/bus...sp?A=AFN&S=All Africa News&O=E&CiRestriction=
"Ntsundeni Madzunya, CIO the SA Post Office, was named IT Personality of the Year 2005."
go figure

Masturbation/self-gratification par excellence, nothing more...

 

[mbs]

... why is the MoC not required to sign a performance management contract with the presidential appointee...? - call it 'the anti-shambles clause/ammendment' .

Presumably you mean with the Prez - the MoC is a 'presidential appointee', in a sense. Ministers are allocated a specific portfolio based on the recommendations of the ANC national executive committee, which the Prez then in turn decides on finally, together with his 'inner sanctum' of advisors. The most powerful of those advisors is Essop Pahad (he and the Prez were at college together). It's clear that political appointees enjoy exclusion from the dictates of formal performance management - unfortunately, the measure of their success is popularity with the voting fodder and populist support in congress at whatever level.

...it would be nice if these politicos could think ITO distinct phases - as in project management, where each phase is a separate act/bill/ammendment/annexure to the '[post=303547]Electronic Communications Bill[/post]: Phase 1', where subsequent phases deal with distinct issues that require minimal changes to the existing phases that have already been signed into law...

*chuckle* Man, you just don't know the extent of the relevancy of your comment - talk about out of the mouths of babes! Can't elaborate further, unfortunately, except to say that project management principles must apply across the board when it comes to service delivery, irrespective of whether it's public or private sector.