{"id":548313,"date":"2006-03-22T22:48:02","date_gmt":"2006-03-22T22:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/548313-sno-urges-competition.html"},"modified":"2006-03-22T22:48:02","modified_gmt":"2006-03-22T22:48:02","slug":"sno-urges-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/548313-sno-urges-competition.html","title":{"rendered":"SNO urges competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a submission to Icasa, SNO MD Ajay Pandey implored the statutory authority to move speedily to finalise interconnection and facilities leasing guidelines, saying these formed an important aspect of creating a competitive market. <\/font><\/p>\n

Pandey said: "In the light of the pent-up demand we have found in the South African market for competitive services, the process of creating suitable regulation must continue apace, and not be delayed." <\/font><\/p>\n

Retarding development<\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

He asserted that Icasa did not need to wait for the passing of the Electronic Communications Bill to implement the draft interconnection and facilities leasing guidelines. To do so would unnecessarily retard the further development of a competitive and robust ICT sector, he charged. <\/font><\/p>\n

"To this end, the SNO’s supplementary written submission attempts to provide the authority with a compliance audit of what the its statutory mandate includes in terms of regulating interconnection and facilities leasing. <\/font><\/p>\n

"The SNO believes that the authority is empowered to regulate certain aspects of interconnection and facilities leasing in terms of the Telecommunications Act, whilst it is not empowered to regulate others. <\/font><\/p>\n

"Specifically, the SNO is of the view that one of the authority’s statutory powers include its right to determine access prices, particularly in markets where no or insufficient competition exists. <\/font><\/p>\n

"Additionally, the SNO is of the view that the authority should, through the Interconnection Guidelines, require major operators to provide interconnection to public operators at cost-based prices. <\/font><\/p>\n

Creating a competitive market<\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

"Our starting point is the application of sound principles of economic regulation, in the interests of creating a competitive market. The authority should intervene in markets where there is insufficient competition, and forbear where there is sufficient competition. <\/font><\/p>\n

"Development and implementation of these sound economic principles in other markets has consistently demonstrated itself to be the hallmark of competitive and vigorous provision of telecommunications services." <\/font><\/p>\n

He noted that in the SNO’s early rounds of interactions with the major players in the South African market, it had found that there was a tendency not to embrace competitive practices. <\/font><\/p>\n

Too often, regulation was viewed as a safe haven, a shelter from market forces. <\/font><\/p>\n

"The role of the authority, as much as it is to enforce regulation, should also be to promote the spirit and objects of the Telecommunications Act – to ensure fair competition – and to use all of the legal tools at its disposal to do so. <\/font><\/p>\n

"Its greatest challenge is to apply these tools within the bounds of current legislation. We will co-operate with the authority in this endeavour, and we will not shy away from a competitive market."<\/font> <\/p>\n

Inet-Bridge ||\u00a0 <\/font>Discuss this article<\/font><\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The country’s second fixed- line telephone operator SNO on Wednesday urged the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to ensure competition in the telecommunications sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"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":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548313"}],"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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}