Marc Furman of Internet Solutions and Jaap Scholten of eNetworks have been appointed as co-chairs of the Internet Service Providers’ Association (Ispa), an industry body. Mike Silber of Liquid Telecom has been named as treasurer.
Other members of the management committee include Graham Beneke (Neology), David Gentleman (Enyuka Internet Access), Rob Hunter (Neotel), Jenny King (e-Schools Network), Ant Brooks (Future Foundation), Wilmari Hannie (MWeb Connect) and Elaine Zinn (Future Foundation).
Scholten says that although “many of the regulatory building blocks for the SA Internet industry’s growth are now in place”, Ispa will “continue to lobby government, regulators and the telecommunications industry to create a market that is fair and transparent to all Internet users and providers”.
The new management team will push for industry regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) to “resolve the last few remaining roadblocks to a truly competitive industry, including the delays holding up the spectrum allocations needed for wireless broadband services as well as the slow pace of local-loop unbundling”.
The organisation will also continue to work with international Internet service provider bodies and local “stakeholders” to address global issues such as spam and child porn. “Helping to nurture black-owned technology enterprises and supporting technology training in SA schools will also be priorities.” — Staff reporter, TechCentral
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