{"id":91065,"date":"2013-11-05T12:02:57","date_gmt":"2013-11-05T10:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=91065"},"modified":"2013-11-05T12:32:06","modified_gmt":"2013-11-05T10:32:06","slug":"wait-a-minute-telkom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/telecoms\/91065-wait-a-minute-telkom.html","title":{"rendered":"Wait a minute, Telkom"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Internet Service Providers\u2019 Association (ISPA<\/a>) slated statements attributed to Telkom Group<\/a> CEO Sipho Maseka<\/a> regarding Local Loop Unbundling (LLU<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Telkom CEO was reported in late September 2013 as stating that the incumbent would fight LLU as it amounted to \u201csubsidising\u201d competitors who wanted to \u201cride on Telkom\u2019s network\u201d.<\/p>\n

Maseko also expressed the view that \u201cTelkom has been trampled on for quite a while\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile ISPA has great respect for the turnaround work Maseko is doing at Telkom, these statements are not correct and cannot remain unchallenged,\u201d ISPA said in a press statement.<\/p>\n

ISPA said that nobody is looking for an \u201ceasy ride\u201d on Telkom\u2019s network through LLU. \u201cThe provisions of the draft LLU Regulations issued by ICASA are quite clear as to compensation payable to Telkom by those seeking access to the Local Loop\u201d ISPA said.<\/p>\n

ISPA regulatory advisor Dominic Cull<\/a> said that it has never been ISPA\u2019s contention that anything other than fair and non-discriminatory pricing should be applied.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that Telkom would be better served by viewing LLU as a wholesale opportunity to recover its investment and a co-investment opportunity,\u201d said Cull.<\/p>\n

\u201cLLU can also ensure that fixed line broadband remains relevant at a time where substitution for mobile broadband is already widespread and growing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cull added that Telkom\u2019s view that it has been \u2018trampled on\u2019 is extremely hard to sustain given its historical relationship with the ISP sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is evidenced by the substantial fines imposed on two separate occasions by the Competition authorities in respect of anti-competitive conduct over the past decade,\u201d said Cull.<\/p>\n

He noted that Telkom\u2019s position regarding LLU would make its control over the fixed last mile increasingly irrelevant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe failure to complete unbundling along with the failure to licence radio frequency spectrum suitable for wireless last mile services is having the unintended consequence of an explosion in last-mile fibre deployments which are displacing the copper local loop,\u201d said Cull.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will intensify in the next two years as further national long distance fibre networks dramatically reduce the cost of this connectivity, leaving the local loop as the only major short-term infrastructure bottleneck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cull said that a failure to shift from a \u2018threat\u2019 to an \u2018opportunity\u2019 mind-set regarding LLU to ensure the continued relevance and competitiveness of the local loop also appears to ignore clear Government policy regarding infrastructure sharing and the reduction of the cost to communicate.<\/p>\n

More on LLU<\/h3>\n

Internet Solutions slams Icasa over LLU<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Local loop unbundling gets new deadline<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

LLU: a lost opportunity<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISPA challenges Telkom CEO\u2019s latest statements on local loop unbundling, arguing that the company should change its mindset<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":85799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3004,35,459,279,109],"class_list":["post-91065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecoms","tag-dominic-cull","tag-headline","tag-ispa","tag-sipho-maseko","tag-telkom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91065"}],"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=91065"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91079,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91065\/revisions\/91079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}