Communications regulator Icasa has set aside the first three days of October for public hearings into the state of competition in South Africa’s information and communications technology (ICT) sector.

The hearings are part of the regulator’s high-level inquiry into the subject, announced in March. At the time, it asked industry stakeholders to provide written input into a range of issues. The plan to investigate where the bottlenecks are to competition across the telecoms, broadcasting and postal services sectors.

It intends using its research in crafting future regulations and in deciding where to intervene in markets with pro-competitive measures.

It may consider regulations governing network neutrality as part of the process. Net neutrality regulations, if introduced, could prohibit South African operators and service providers from favouring and disfavouring different types of traffic flowing over their networks.

Icasa is also planning to look at the subscription television market, where efforts to introduce competition to MultiChoice, whose DStv platform dominates the market, have proved unsuccessful. Councillor William Currie said in March that Icasa wants to understand why its licensing of new players had failed.

Currie said in March that Icasa will seek input from South Africa’s competition authorities during the inquiry.

Another area where Icasa asked for industry input was around access to radio frequency spectrum. The authority is under pressure to make more spectrum available to both existing and new licensees to foster greater competition in broadband services.

In its invitation to the public hearings in October, Icasa says the ICT sector has been and will continue to go through rapid technological changes with far reaching implications for local and international industries. “One of the areas in which these changes are more pronounced is in the competitiveness of the electronic communications, broadcasting and postal sectors and the assumption that greater competition will lead to reduction in the cost to communicate,” it says.

After the hearings, Icasa will publish a draft position paper, which will be subject to further public comment before a final paper is produced.