USAASA has lost it way

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 29 Aug 2006

While the Universal Service Access Agency of SA (USAASA) was created and mandated by law, there is lack of clarity regarding its mandate, meaning it has not been able to fulfil its purpose, says Dr Paul Cole, a telecommunications consultant with Turnkey Projects.

Turnkey was contracted by the USAASA to evaluate its impact on universal service and access from 1997 to 2005.

Speaking at the Convergence Broadcast and Telecommunications Summit in Johannesburg, Cole said while the mandate to promote universal service and access was stated in the law, the law fails to define what universal service and access is.

He quoted the South African IT Industry Strategy project, which notes political pressure to deliver, from both the public and from within the ministry of communications. This also resulted in the USAASA over-committing beyond what it can and should deliver.

ForgeAhead`s research into whether the objectives of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 were met, which included the affordable provision of services and bridging the digital divide, also shows that the lack of definition of universal access was an impediment.

Adrian Schofield, head of research at ForgeAhead, said it was difficult to determine whether an objective such as "providing universal" access was met, as targets have not been quantified. How the Universal Service Fund should be used, as well as addressing the issue of affordability of telecommunications also presented challenges to the researchers, he said.

Limited funding

Cole further noted the internal capacity of USAASA is insufficient to cope with its plans and commitments. For example, government has mandated USAASA to increase teledensity from 10% to 20% by 2006, he said. The cost to realise this goal is R80 billion, but the USF was capped at R50 million, greatly disadvantaging the USAASA from fulfilling this mandate, he said.

"If the USAASA was, as the minister [of communications] stated, an essential asset to the government of SA, it would not appear to be consistent to allocate a budget that requires this essential asset to take 1 500 years to complete its essential mission," Cole said.