OECD: No Reason for Local Capping
Speaking at the recent ITWeb broadband conference, Reynolds – a world renowned telecommunications expert – said that he was surprised at the bitcaps (simply known as caps locally) in South Africa. “The highest bitcap I could find from Telkom is 4 GB. That is nothing,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said that when bitcaps are found in the OECD, it is generally around 30 GB per month.
One of the reasons for the low bitcaps in South Africa is most probably [a lack of] access to international bandwidth, according to Reynolds. He suggested the removal of all foreign investment barriers to providers of international connectivity coming into South Africa.
“It does not matter who provides bandwidth connectivity to the world, you just need more of it. The more that comes in, the better it will be for consumers,” Reynolds said.
This is quite different from the Department of Communications’ latest comments, suggesting that potential cable systems will have to abide by a set of conditions before they will be able to land, and hence provide connectivity, in South Africa.
Reynolds further suggested the development of open access fiber infrastructure in South Africa. This bandwidth can then be tapped by innovative ISPs to develop improved broadband services. “ISPs can only innovate if they have access to backbone connectivity,” Reynolds said.
No local capping
Speaking about capping in general, Reynolds said that there is no reason why you should have a cap on domestic bandwidth. “All of that traffic should be exchanged locally for next to zero cost,” Reynolds suggested.
Uncapped local bandwidth will “encourage the development of content industries here in South Africa,” he pointed out.
Reynolds recommended greater local traffic exchange and more peering between local operators.
It is interesting to note that local bandwidth was initially uncapped in Telkom’s ADSL services prior to November 2005, allowing users unlimited local connectivity after reaching their 3 GB monthly usage limit.
Telkom has since then introduced a ‘low rate’ local bandwidth offering, and despite the ICASA ADSL regulations explicitly stating that local bandwidth may not be capped, Telkom continues to disconnect users who reach their monthly usage limit.
Hearings into Telkom’s non-compliance with the ADSL regulations are scheduled for 24, 25 and 26th October 2007.
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