ShaunSA
Derailment Squad
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article.php?a_id=109845
1 Executive summary
This report is a response to the mandate by the Honourable Minister Ivy Matsepe-
Casaburri for the Local Loop Unbundling Committee (LLUC) to recommend how
Telkom’s last mile network should be unbundled. Unbundling is intended to facilitate
affordable open access, lower prices of telecommunications and offer a wide choice
of access to ICT services. Such open access and customer choice will not be
meaningful without ensuring that customers can switch between service providers
expeditiously. The overall task of the committee was to investigate possible local loop
unbundling (LLU) methods and to make appropriate recommendations in this regard.
In this report, the local loop is that portion of the telecommunication network that is
situated between the end of subscriber’s telephone connection and the Main
Distribution Frame (MDF), where all the user lines come together before being
connected to the telephone exchange.
In this report the LLUC has assumed that the local loop will continue to be owned by
Telkom, and therefore this report does not deal with issues of ownership. Furthermore the
report does not deal directly with the pricing of access to the local loop.
This report covers the technological aspects, legal and regulatory issues, as well as the
economic implications of unbundling the local loop. Firstly, the report gives a general
introduction on issues around unbundling the local loop, including the characteristics of
the incumbent operator and new entrants, and gives the background to broadband
technologies and relevant applications. Secondly, the report explains the forms of
collocation in the unbundled local loop, the LLU methods and explains the technical
limitations of the process of the LLU. Thirdly, the report discusses the issues relevant to the
implementation of the LLU, the incumbent’s anticipated response to this process based
on foreign experience as well as strategic issues that need to be considered in the
process of the LLU. Fourthly, the report explains the economic, legal and regulatory
impact of the process of the LLU. Lastly, the report presents a design and
2
implementation process based on case studies for the LLU from countries such as the
USA, Europe and Asia.
Based on the above the LLUC has come up with the following recommendations:
• That it is appropriate to have a combination of three unbundling models,
namely,
o Full unbundling
o Line sharing and
o Bitstream (wholesale) access
• That a new facilities and services management entity be formed by the
incumbent on such terms and conditions as shall be agreed with ICASA (Refer to
case studies in this report).
• That the pricing levied by the incumbent for access to the local loop be
regulated.
• Regardless of who owns the local loop, any operator appropriately licensed by
ICASA should have access to the local loop to deliver voice and/or broadband
services.
• The regulator should implement carrier pre-selection as soon as possible so that
customers would have a choice on who would transmit voice and data on the
local loop infrastructure to their premises regardless of who owns the local loop.
• That any form of collocation of facilities for LLU be fully allowed as may be
necessary to ensure flexibility and reasonable access to the LLU for the new
entrants.
• The costs of collocation must be regulated taking into account factors such as
cost of renting space, electricity and security
• That ICASA be capacitated to physically inspect the incumbent’s premises to
establish the size, location and other information about the incumbent’s
premises as may be required for the implementation of the unbundling of local
loops.
• That a regulatory guideline be developed and overseen by ICASA to ensure
that strategic issues such as the quality of the local loop, its maintenance,
technical compatibility are optimized for regulation and service delivery.
3
Based on these recommendations the LLUC believes that customers will be able to:
• Select carriers of their choice for the transmission of voice and/or data
• Exercise carrier pre-selection choice as effortlessly as possible.
It is postulated in formulating this report that the implementation of the LLU process
should improve the prospects for better pricing, affordable services and improve the
quality of services.
1 Executive summary
This report is a response to the mandate by the Honourable Minister Ivy Matsepe-
Casaburri for the Local Loop Unbundling Committee (LLUC) to recommend how
Telkom’s last mile network should be unbundled. Unbundling is intended to facilitate
affordable open access, lower prices of telecommunications and offer a wide choice
of access to ICT services. Such open access and customer choice will not be
meaningful without ensuring that customers can switch between service providers
expeditiously. The overall task of the committee was to investigate possible local loop
unbundling (LLU) methods and to make appropriate recommendations in this regard.
In this report, the local loop is that portion of the telecommunication network that is
situated between the end of subscriber’s telephone connection and the Main
Distribution Frame (MDF), where all the user lines come together before being
connected to the telephone exchange.
In this report the LLUC has assumed that the local loop will continue to be owned by
Telkom, and therefore this report does not deal with issues of ownership. Furthermore the
report does not deal directly with the pricing of access to the local loop.
This report covers the technological aspects, legal and regulatory issues, as well as the
economic implications of unbundling the local loop. Firstly, the report gives a general
introduction on issues around unbundling the local loop, including the characteristics of
the incumbent operator and new entrants, and gives the background to broadband
technologies and relevant applications. Secondly, the report explains the forms of
collocation in the unbundled local loop, the LLU methods and explains the technical
limitations of the process of the LLU. Thirdly, the report discusses the issues relevant to the
implementation of the LLU, the incumbent’s anticipated response to this process based
on foreign experience as well as strategic issues that need to be considered in the
process of the LLU. Fourthly, the report explains the economic, legal and regulatory
impact of the process of the LLU. Lastly, the report presents a design and
2
implementation process based on case studies for the LLU from countries such as the
USA, Europe and Asia.
Based on the above the LLUC has come up with the following recommendations:
• That it is appropriate to have a combination of three unbundling models,
namely,
o Full unbundling
o Line sharing and
o Bitstream (wholesale) access
• That a new facilities and services management entity be formed by the
incumbent on such terms and conditions as shall be agreed with ICASA (Refer to
case studies in this report).
• That the pricing levied by the incumbent for access to the local loop be
regulated.
• Regardless of who owns the local loop, any operator appropriately licensed by
ICASA should have access to the local loop to deliver voice and/or broadband
services.
• The regulator should implement carrier pre-selection as soon as possible so that
customers would have a choice on who would transmit voice and data on the
local loop infrastructure to their premises regardless of who owns the local loop.
• That any form of collocation of facilities for LLU be fully allowed as may be
necessary to ensure flexibility and reasonable access to the LLU for the new
entrants.
• The costs of collocation must be regulated taking into account factors such as
cost of renting space, electricity and security
• That ICASA be capacitated to physically inspect the incumbent’s premises to
establish the size, location and other information about the incumbent’s
premises as may be required for the implementation of the unbundling of local
loops.
• That a regulatory guideline be developed and overseen by ICASA to ensure
that strategic issues such as the quality of the local loop, its maintenance,
technical compatibility are optimized for regulation and service delivery.
3
Based on these recommendations the LLUC believes that customers will be able to:
• Select carriers of their choice for the transmission of voice and/or data
• Exercise carrier pre-selection choice as effortlessly as possible.
It is postulated in formulating this report that the implementation of the LLU process
should improve the prospects for better pricing, affordable services and improve the
quality of services.
Last edited:
