Department of Non-Communications
When South Africa’s new communications minister Roy Padayachie first took the reins at the Department of Communications (DoC), he stated that the DoC will always respect the right of the media to engage openly and transparently.
“It is our view that the media is a critical force in the development of society and has a positive and leading role to play in educating the general public about the importance of ICTs in the advancement of society’s goals and the creation of a better life for our people,” said Padayachie.
“We have invited you here at the DoC to demonstrate to you that the DoC is open for business. We want to do things differently- working faster, harder and smarter,” Padayachie told journalists.
Padayachie continued outlining various ambitious plans and objectives for the DoC, including unbundling the local loop by November 2011, building an integrated national broadband plan and fixing up Sentech, the SABC and ICASA.
These ambitious goals are nothing new and Padayachie’s predecessors have said more or less the same during their stewardship of the communications minister position.
MyBroadband put Padayachie’s department to a quick test using the official listed communication channels and found that they fell short.
During the whole digital terrestrial television (DTT) standard saga Padayachie offered no comment.
TechCentral recently reported that cabinet had discussed the issue of South Africa’s digital TV standard, but had empowered Padayachie to make a statement on the matter when he was ready to do so.
Requests for confirmation and comment on what was delaying the decision have been met with silence.
It could be speculated that the Minister has delayed pronouncement on the issue of South Africa’s DTT standard in order to consult with industry. This would be a good thing and allow one to understand the reason for the delay.
Unfortunately the DoC isn’t communicating at all about what is causing the delay, leaving no choice but to speculate on the reasons.
Digital TV issues aren’t the only topic the department is mum on, however.
After MyBroadband published an article outlining the difficulties we experienced trying to contact Minister Padayachie his ministry finally got in touch and requested that we send our questions through for comment from the Minister.
We sent through the following questions for the minister to answer.
Some uncomfortable questions
1. To date the DoC has developed many high-level strategies to try to improve broadband access in South Africa, but to date these strategies have not reaped many rewards. Even the telecoms pricing colloquiums have not had much of an effect and was widely seen as talk shops without much positive effect in the market. How will you change this to ensure that policies and strategies turn into deliverables and result in better and cheaper broadband services?
2. Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) was supposed to start in late 2007, with Telkom starting to unbundle its copper loop in early 2008. To date very little has happened, and to start with LLU many regulatory tasks must be completed and regulatory guidelines must be published. These are time consuming tasks, and incumbent operators are well known to stall LLU for a long as possible. Why do you believe everything needed to achieve full LLU in SA can be done in one year when very little has been achieved for the past three years?
3. The deadline for the switch off of analog television broadcasts in SA is currently November 2011. Do you think it’s realistic to still aim to have all South Africans capable of receiving digital TV signals by that date?
4. Does the department think there is any benefit to switching to a different digital broadcasting standard?
5. Would the department choose to stick with the DVB-T DTT broadcasting standard even if the SADC task group recommended ISDB-T? (This question has since been rendered moot as SADC has recommended DVB-T2 for the region)
6. Will the department address the issue of Sentech’s spectrum allocation in the 2.6 GHz band? Is the department considering revoking some of Sentech’s spectrum for use by other operators who may want to roll out mobile broadband services?
No response from the DoC
MyBroadband sent these questions through a month ago and they have yet to be answered.
Numerous follow-up calls and emails with follow-up questions ensued, yet the department has still not provided any response.
The DoC may find it hard to defend themselves against consumers that take promises made by the department with a pinch of salt when one considers the seeming lack of open communication from the ministry.
If Padayachie wants to engage ‘openly and transparently’ with the media, a good starting point may be to remove the ‘engagement bottlenecks’ which exist.
Department of Non-Communications << Comments and views
Related Article: Talk is indeed cheap.
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