{"id":171,"date":"2007-06-04T15:45:30","date_gmt":"2007-06-04T13:45:30","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-11-14T14:44:53","modified_gmt":"2012-11-14T12:44:53","slug":"datapro-clear-llu-timetable-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/telecoms\/171-datapro-clear-llu-timetable-needed.html","title":{"rendered":"DataPro: Clear LLU timetable needed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u201cWe hope to see ICASA publishing a clear timetable for local loop unbundling by the third quarter of this year at the very latest,\u201d says Group Chairman Tony van Marken. \u201cWe all need to know exactly what milestones Telkom must reach and what the deadlines are. Most importantly, there needs to be clear penalties for missing those deadlines.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Otherwise, says Van Marken, \u201cwe\u2019ll have the same story we had with the interconnection regime. Telkom will stonewall until the very last moment and the process will only start in 2011, instead of being completed by then.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Van Marken pointed out that Telkom are sitting in the pound seats as they currently have full control over the local loop and forcing them to open up this segment of the market will take a firm hand from the SA telecoms regulator, Icasa.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u201cIf we were Telkom, we wouldn\u2019t do a thing about unbundling until 2010 at the earliest, and then make lots of excuses about how technically difficult it is,\u201d adds Van Marken. \u201cWalking very slowly backwards, as Telkom has been doing for years, is an entirely rational strategy for a monopoly under threat. That\u2019s why ICASA needs to manage the programme of work very clearly and force adherence to a strict timetable. There needs to be a cost to dragging things out.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">The pricing of access to local loop facilities is one of the issues that needs to be clarified well in advance, says Group CEO Douglas Reed. \u201cNone of the other players in the market can invest in facilities or developing services until there is a clear pricing structure from Telkom,\u201d says Reed. \u201cIf South Africa is to have any hope of actually seeing the benefits of unbundling by the end of 2011, we need to have our business plans in place several months in advance.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php?t=77151\">Comments<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DataPro has welcomed government&#8217;s announcement that local loop unbundling (LLU) should be complete by November 2011 but warned that without a clear timetable the process is certain to be delayed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-telecoms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}