{"id":70082,"date":"2013-02-11T12:02:56","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T10:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=70082"},"modified":"2013-02-11T15:04:36","modified_gmt":"2013-02-11T13:04:36","slug":"llu-a-lost-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadband\/70082-llu-a-lost-opportunity.html","title":{"rendered":"LLU: a lost opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOf course I am disappointed,\u201d said Tshilidzi Marwala<\/a>, former chairman of the local loop unbundling (LLU<\/a>) committee and dean of engineering at the University of Johannesburg, about the LLU process in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Marwala’s words were in response to a question on whether he was disappointed that the LLU process did not finish by the November 2011 target set by former Minister of Communications, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a pity that this critical and vital milestone that could have broadened broadband access was not met,\u201d Marwala said.<\/p>\n

In May 2007 Marwala said that by January 2008 all the mechanisms would be in place for Telkom<\/a>\u2019s rivals to access the local loop, beginning the unbundling process.<\/p>\n

He conceded at the time that the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA<\/a>) considered the 4 year time-frame within which to finalise the necessary regulations \u201coverly optimistic\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, South Africa would be able to learn from the experience and mistakes of other countries to achieve the unbundling in record time, Marwala said.<\/p>\n

\"Tshilidzi

Tshilidzi Marwala<\/p><\/div>\n

Sadly, ICASA was only able to convince Telkom to lower the rates for IP Connect<\/a>, its wholesale ADSL product, by 30%.<\/p>\n

This price cut took effect on 1 April 2012, five months after the original LLU deadline.<\/p>\n

ICASA went on to promise that it would ensure the implementation of a Bitstream product by November 2012.<\/p>\n

While a far cry from full LLU, and a year late, Bitstream Access would have been a step in the right direction. As of February 2013, however, Telkom has yet to commercially launch its Bitstream Access product.<\/p>\n

Asked why he believes the targets weren\u2019t met, Marwala said that ICASA did not have enough resources to implement the LLU process.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur job was to make recommendations and for ICASA to implement,\u201d Marwala said. \u201cThe process reached a deadlock somewhere between my final report and ICASA\u2019s implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marwala was recently appointed to the ICT Policy Review Panel by current Minister of Communications, Dina Pule<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The panel met for the first time in January 2013<\/a> to \u201cmap out the scope of work for the panel; delineate responsibilities; design a strategic approach to tackling the ICT policy review process; and address administrative issues\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Telkom

Telkom LLU<\/p><\/div>\n

More LLU news (from newest to oldest)<\/h3>\n

Big names on ICT Policy Review Panel<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

ADSL IPC price cuts next week<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Hoorah! More deadlines to miss<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Deadline schmeadline<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Local Loop Unbundling: Wait and see<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Remember, Remember, next year November<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

ICASA looking for LLU help<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Fixed-line rivalry from next year<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local loop unbundling could have broadened broadband access in South Africa, says former chairman of the LLU committee, Prof Tshilidzi Marwala<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":27311,"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":[4],"tags":[6002,35,18090,1663,18092,1419],"class_list":["post-70082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadband","tag-dina-pule","tag-headline","tag-independent-communications-authority-of-south-africa-icasa","tag-ivy-matsepe-casaburri","tag-local-loop-unbundling-llu","tag-tshilidzi-marwala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70082"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70120,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70082\/revisions\/70120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}