Cable talks turn ‘sensitive'
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By Paul Vecchiatto
Posted: 20 August 2007
All sides involved in the issue of granting landing rights to the Seacom East African undersea cable in SA bunkered down this morning as discussions between the parties continue.
Department of Communications, Neotel and Seacom representatives would not elaborate on last week's discussions concerning government's alleged opposition to a commercial undersea cable being landed in SA.
Late last week, a meeting took place between communications director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole and Neotel representatives. The second national operator has entered into an alliance with Seacom, over the proposed landing of the cable in the country.
This deal will allow Neotel access to the international gateway, liberating local operators from being dependent on bandwidth access through Telkom's SAT-3 undersea cable.
However, industry sources say Shope-Mafole told Neotel it would not be allowed to land the cable because the country had not set guidelines for such an event. However, ITWeb could not ascertain details of exactly what was said.
Cut short
Shope-Mafole has made it clear she is not in favour of a commercial cable landing, as she feels it would not contribute to reducing the cost of broadband connectivity. Shope-Mafole stands firmly for the Nepad Broadband Infrastructure Network, which would consist of land and sea cables.
Earlier this year, Shope-Mafole severely curtailed SA's involvement in another commercial undersea cable, the East African Submarine Cable System (Eassy). She insisted national signal distributor Sentech withdraw from Eassy.
She later protested, in Parliament, against Telkom signing the Eassy supply contract – which is also a shareholder agreement among the participating telecommunications operators.
Telkom's signing of the Eassy contract, which allows it a stake of 11% in the consortium, was a major factor in the ejection of former Telkom CEO Papi Moletsane just before Easter.
Taking control
A communications department spokesman says it is planning to issue a press statement later today on the issue. A Neotel spokesperson would only say “talks are at a sensitive stage”.
Independent Communications Authority of SA councillor Tracy Cohen says the authority is drawing up regulations for essential facilities. However, these are not guidelines for the landing of an undersea cable, she notes.
“We are not drawing up any landing guidelines at the moment.”
Dene Smuts, Democratic Alliance communications spokesperson, says it appears the communications department wants to control the East Coast cables. The Department of Public Enterprises, through its newly formed Infraco, will control the West Coast cables, she adds.
“With the communications department having made a mess of things, it gives a person such as [public enterprises minister Alec] Erwin, an opportunity to come in with a reason to exert more control in the sector,” Smuts says.
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