{"id":552519,"date":"2007-06-08T17:07:35","date_gmt":"2007-06-08T17:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/552519-sentech-takes-a-beating-at-icasa-hearings-2.html"},"modified":"2007-06-08T17:07:35","modified_gmt":"2007-06-08T17:07:35","slug":"sentech-takes-a-beating-at-icasa-hearings-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/552519-sentech-takes-a-beating-at-icasa-hearings-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Sentech takes a beating at Icasa hearings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font size=\"2\">What started out as a sedate hearing for broadcasting licence applications turned into a royal battle that reduced grown men to tears. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">On Thursday saw signal transmission giant Sentech (in alliance with the SABC) receiving a spanking from smaller competitors including E-Sat, On Digital Media and Q Vision. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">&quot;As we have stated before, it would be highly anti-competitive to have any organisation that is in any way controlled by the government,&quot; said E-Sat legal representative Dan Rosengarten. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">SABC chief executive officer Dali Mpofu said: &quot;Although we will be a shareholder, the SABC will deal at arm&#8217;s length with Viewsat (Sentech&#8217;s satellite operator).&quot; <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">Sentech was dealt a blow when opponents pressured Icasa to take a closer look at the relationship between Sentech and the SABC when they launched the failed satellite service, Astrasat. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">&quot;Unfortunately we are not in the position to discuss why Astrasat failed,&quot; said Sentech chief executive officer Sebiletso Mokane-Matabane. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">Q Digital Cable Vision programming director Majota Kambule (better known as Phat Joe) broke down in tears on Tuesday after a grilling session from competing applicants. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">Kambule bounced back to contest the Sentech application saying: <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">&quot;It seems that the limitations on providing more than two licences do not apply in this case. I would urge Icasa to acquire information on why Astrasat failed.&quot; <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">&quot;You have enjoyed several licences, including a multi- channel licence, but have done nothing with them,&quot; said Ndabentle telecommunication general manager Selwyn Matlaletsa to Sentech. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">&quot;Sentech has proven to be nothing but a comedy of technological errors,&quot; he added. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php?t=77685\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<p \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sentech was the latest victim of a barrage of corporate interrogation in the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) boardroom this week. <\/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-552519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552519"}],"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=552519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}