Telkom welcomes competition, again
At the recent ICASA End to End Leased Lines and Other Wholesale Market Hearings in Johannesburg Telkom was accused of anti-competitive behaviour by players like Cell C and Neotel.
According to Cell C the monopoly operator Telkom is deliberately hindering Neotel’s progress by locking the second national operator out of its exchanges.
Cell C said that while it would like to buy some of its infrastructure from Neotel, it had based their current infrastructure in telephone exchanges owned by Telkom. Neotel will need access to these exchanges if it would like to provide players like Cell C with bandwidth, but Telkom is denying Neotel access to these facilities.
In an official statement Neotel said that it is facing some challenges in its ability to connect customers and they are having to find alternatives — although it would be faster and more efficient if they could work more easily with Telkom.
“These issues are slowly being resolved with Telkom, or alternatively Neotel is working around problem areas as it lays more of its own access network,” the second national operator said.
Neotel said that they would like to see strong and clear direction from ICASA so that all players know where they stand, and so that they can move forward.
“Competition is good for business and consumers, and for SA to be a world class player it is critical that all operators build a competitive culture, where service and performance should dictate business decisions, not manipulation of procedure or loopholes," Neotel pointed out.
Telkom has often been accused of anti-competitive behaviour by various telecoms players, and the Internet Service Providers Association of South Africa (ISPA) has two complaints pending against Telkom with the Competition Commission.
Telkom denies allegations
Telkom however denies that it engages in anti-competitive behavior, saying that it is simply protecting and growing its market share.
“Telkom has consistently welcomed the liberalisation of the telecommunications landscape which has brought about increased competition. As an industry leader, Telkom will remain competitive in protecting and growing it's market share. Being a good corporate citizen, Telkom will not engage in anti-competitive behaviour,” said Lulu Letlape, Telkom’s Group Executive for Corporate Communication.
At its recent Annual General Meeting the Telkom Chairperson Shirley Lue Arnold also said that it is a misconception that Telkom behaves anti-competitively, reiterating that it welcomes the liberalization of the telecoms market.
History repeating itself?
Telkom has however in the past fought against Value Added Network Service Providers being allowed to self provide, something which many see as key to allowing a more competitive telecoms market.
Earlier this year the Competition Commission also slammed Telkom for ‘downright dishonesty’ after it submitted to the authority that it supported self-provisioning by Electronic Communications Service licensees, hence allowing for competition, while it told ICASA that it opposes such rights.
Despite Telkom’s lip service about welcoming competition it still has a very tight grip on the local fixed line market and it is unlikely to relinquish its hold any time soon unless it is forced to do so by law.
ICASA’s lack of funds and other resources means that the Regulator will have a hard time trying to rope in Telkom – something that it has failed to do since the company received monopolistic status in the nineties.
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