The long-awaited hearings on local-loop unbundling, the process whereby competitors will be given access in some shape or form to Telkom’s “last mile” of copper-cable infrastructure, kick off on Tuesday at the Independent Communications Authority of SA’s offices in Sandton.

On one side will be Telkom, its regulatory specialists and lawyers arguing the case strongly against unbundling; on the other will be Internet service providers arguing in favour of the intervention. Mobile operators will also feature strongly at the hearings, and will no doubt argue against proposals that unbundling should not extend to the wireless local loop.

MTN is expected to kick off the hearings with a presentation at 9am. The other important presentations on Tuesday are from Cell C, Vodacom and Dimension Data’s Internet Solutions. MWeb, the Internet Service Providers’ Association, Neotel and Telkom make up the bulk of presentations on Wednesday.

The third day, Thursday, has been set aside for a “right-of-reply” session, where every participating party will be “afforded the opportunity to respond to issues raised during the first two days of hearings”.

Keep an eye on TechCentral for all the latest developments as they happen at the hearings. — Staff reporter, TechCentral