Throughout the world telecommunications operators fret about the rules and laws that govern the services they offer, how their infrastructure has to be built and often how much money they are allowed to make.
In SA, they also worry about the regulator itself.
Speaking at the Technology, Communications & Entertainment Summit in Johannesburg yesterday, executives from all four local operators agreed that the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) needed some work.
"We are not convinced now that the regulator is as independent as we would like it to be," said Vocacom deputy CEO Andrew Mthembu. The lines between ICASA and the government`s Department of Communications do not make for "demonstrable independence of regulation" he contends. One solution would be to allow ICASA to retain some of the licence fees it levies. Currently all fees are paid to the government which grants ICASA a yearly budget.
All the operators believe regulation and the policy behind it will determine how much government can earn from it`s intended listing of Telkom and how much interest there will be in investing in the second national telephone operator (SNO) that is to compete with it. And that worries them.
"The same pool of investors is expected to invest in the [Telkom] IPO and to invest in making the SNO a success," says Telkom CEO Sizwe Nxasana. He also points out that the telecoms market is not in great shape, making it all the more crucial for the country to be made attractive to foreign investors.
The cellular operators would like to see the SNO succeed because it gives them another source for the infrastructure they can now buy only from Telkom. But that will require a strong operator, says MTN SA MD Sifiso Dabengwa, that can "manage incumbent behaviour."
There are many things about local telecommunications policy that have the operators concerned. Dabengwa is worried about the uncertainty around the unbundling of the local loop and Cell C CEO Talaat Laham says there are competing agendas within government that create confusion. Yet it is the provisions for fixed-mobile services by Telkom and the SNO that still have the mobile operators spooked.
Fixed-mobile systems are to allow fixed-line operators to use cellular technology in providing their services, saving them the cost of laying down physical lines.
The danger, Dabengwa says, is that the fixed operators and the mobile operators will start cannibalising each other and he is not happy to go to war unarmed.
"If the fixed [operators] have certain capabilities in the mobile [arena] then the mobile needs some capabilities in the fixed," he says. Mthembu agrees, saying the cellular providers should be allowed to construct their own fixed links and international gateways.
Such debates add to Nxasana`s argument that there is no room for both the planned Telkom listing and the introduction of a capital-hungry SNO at the same time -- especially if seen with the telecommunications licences granted to signal distributor Sentech.
He suggests delaying the introduction of the SNO, given that he does not believe it will be up and running early next year in any event and that Telkom is ready to be listed.
Yet Laham, whose Cell C saw many delays in the awarding of its licence, warns against such a plan. The SNO will find room in the market even if it is delayed substantially, he says, but further delays "will affect the interest of foreign investors".
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