TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Huge Group to acquire what was Virgin Mobile in South Africa

      6 July 2022

      TechCentral needs your feedback – 2022 reader survey now live

      6 July 2022

      Call for ‘energy emergency’ to end load shedding

      6 July 2022

      What South Africa can learn from India’s IT boom

      6 July 2022

      Where to next for Dimension Data

      5 July 2022
    • World

      China accuses US of ‘technological terrorism’

      6 July 2022

      Apple devices to get ‘Lockdown Mode’ to fight spyware

      6 July 2022

      Scientists at Cern observe three ‘exotic’ new particles

      6 July 2022

      Bitcoin’s first African adopter plans own digital currency

      6 July 2022

      Bitcoin hints at a bottom – but it may be different this time

      5 July 2022
    • In-depth

      The bonfire of the NFTs

      5 July 2022

      The NFT party is over

      30 June 2022

      The great crypto crash: the fallout, and what happens next

      22 June 2022

      Goodbye, Internet Explorer – you really won’t be missed

      19 June 2022

      Oracle’s database dominance threatened by rise of cloud-first rivals

      13 June 2022
    • Podcasts

      Demystifying the complexity of AI – fact vs fiction

      6 July 2022

      How your organisation can triage its information security risk

      22 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E06 – ‘Apple Silicon’

      15 June 2022

      The youth might just save us

      15 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E05 – ‘Nvidia: The Green Goblin’

      8 June 2022
    • Opinion

      South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

      4 July 2022

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Opinion»Duncan McLeod»Here’s a better way to roll out rural broadband

    Here’s a better way to roll out rural broadband

    Duncan McLeod By Duncan McLeod1 March 2015
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    Duncan-McLeod-180-profileThe announcement by President Jacob Zuma in his state of the nation address that Telkom will be the “lead agency” for the roll-out of broadband in underserviced parts of South Africa has ignited a political firestorm.

    Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille has accused Zuma of giving Telkom, in which government still holds a direct 40% stake, a monopoly over the provision of services to the poor.

    Indeed, Zille said the decision runs contrary to the constitution, which states that when government contracts for goods or services, it must do so “in accordance with a system which is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective”.

    “The story of how Telkom ‘won the bid’ is so brazen that it demonstrates just how complacent the Zuma administration is about placing itself above the constitution and the law,” Zille said. She labelled Telkom boss Sipho Maseko a “Zuma crony” and alleged he received exclusive access to senior government leaders to lobby Telkom’s case.

    She also suggested that ANC insiders, with knowledge of government’s plans, had profited unlawfully by buying Telkom shares, though she didn’t offer evidence to back this up and, indeed, the rise in the shares is more likely to do with management’s turnaround plan than anything else.

    But Zille is right to be concerned that government has done a cosy deal with Telkom.

    There’s no doubt that broadband penetration outside South Africa’s urban centres needs to be improved. Tens of billions of rand in investment is needed. But handing one company, driven by commercial interests, a taxpayer-funded monopoly over providing those services isn’t the best approach, even if there are checks and balances built in.

    Indeed, I’ve heard much smarter ideas from several industry leaders in the past week about what to do. One in particular, which involves using the allocation of scarce radio frequency spectrum, has the potential to solve South Africa’s connectivity challenges in a matter of years, while preserving competition and ensuring prices are reined in.

    South Africa’s telecoms operators are desperate for access to new spectrum, particularly in frequencies that are harmonised globally for 4G broadband services. These include the “digital dividend” that will be freed up when the country’s broadcasters finally complete their migration to digital technology — now only expected in 2017 thanks to staggering ineptitude by government.

    So, how’s this for an idea? South Africa makes this spectrum available to operators on the condition not only that they use it to provide coverage in underserviced areas but that they meet agreed-to deployment targets before they are allowed to use it to build infrastructure in well-to-do areas.

    That would certainly focus the operators into getting rural roll-out done more speedily.

    In return for targeting these lower income areas, government could reduce the cost of spectrum licences. The more the operators agree to do, the less they pay for access to the new spectrum.

    Helen Zille (picture: Western Cape provincial government)
    Helen Zille (picture: Western Cape provincial government)

    Yet the market is still kept competitive, preventing a return to the exorbitant prices consumers were charged when Telkom was the only game in town.

    Do remember that Telkom was given a state-sanctioned monopoly in the late 1990s to roll out services to new areas. It did that, but all those new lines were soon cut off, in large part because consumers couldn’t afford the company’s skyrocketing tariffs.

    One challenge of delivering affordable broadband to underserviced communities is ensuring there isn’t unnecessary duplication of infrastructure. In a model where operators are incentivised to roll out capacity in these areas as quickly as possible, and to keep that infrastructure running as cheaply as possible, they’re quickly likely to find commercial solutions to sharing networks.

    That’s not anticompetitive, provided they compete at a services level. Indeed, government probably should mandate that those networks be provided on an open-access basis, meaning any interested party could use that infrastructure to provide services.

    What’s now needed is a proper plan to do this. Telkom may have the best intentions in the world, but simply naming it as the lead agency for a taxpayer-funded broadband roll-out is going to lead to problems down the line. Smarter solutions are needed and are on offer.

    • Duncan McLeod is editor of TechCentral. Find him on Twitter
    • This column is also published in the Sunday Times
    Duncan McLeod Helen Zille Jacob Zuma Telkom
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleDA wants answers over New Age ads
    Next Article HTC One M9 makes its debut

    Related Posts

    South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

    4 July 2022

    State capture probe ends but South Africa remains ‘broken’ by corruption

    23 June 2022

    What it will take to bring the Guptas to justice

    22 June 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Hot Ink certifies and diversifies to maintain competitive printing edge

    5 July 2022

    Increased flexibility with Dell Precision Mobile Workstations

    5 July 2022

    The 5 secrets of customer experience in the cloud era

    5 July 2022
    Opinion

    South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

    4 July 2022

    Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

    21 June 2022

    Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

    13 June 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.