Underserviced area licensees (USALs) are beset with problems, including the misuse of their annual R5 million subsidies for operational, rather than infrastructure expenditure, the Universal Services Agency (USA) told Parliament yesterday
The range of issues that has impacted a key part of government's plans to ensure that areas, mostly rural, are connected to the information society astounded members of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications.
According to USA CEO Sam Gulube, two out of the seven USALs licensed in 2004/05 are technically bankrupt and a remaining five will see their licences expire this year as they have not used their subsidies as intended.
