Internet petition calls for open telecoms
Online South Africans have been urged to electronically sign an Internet petition calling for a more open telecoms market, to be handed to the incoming administration.
The petition calls for broadband to be recognised as an essential right, in line with other basic infrastructure such as water, sewerage and electricity.
It can be signed at www.broadband4africa.org.za , the site of the South African National Broadband Forum, a coalition of four civil society groups: the Shuttleworth Foundation, SANGONeT, South Africa Connect and the Association for Progressive Communications.
The petition will be handed to whoever replaces the late Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri as minister of communications at the first sitting of Parliament following tomorrow’s election.
Steve Song, telecommunications fellow at The Shuttleworth Foundation, said the past government’s failure to liberalise the local telecoms industry hobbled the South African economy.
“Progress was marred by politics, cronyism and infighting, which stifled competition at the cost of the consumer,” he said.
“As we deal with a new government, we see the opportunity to mobilise public opinion to communicate that broadband is a critical requirement for South Africa’s development,” Song said.
The South African National Broadband Forum wants affordable broadband access in every town and village by 2014, to claim its place as number one in terms of broadband penetration on the continent.
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