Date set for Convergence Bill submissions

Johannesburg, 29 Mar 2005

Interested parties have until Friday, 8 April, to submit written submissions on the latest draft of the Convergence Bill, according to the Portfolio Committee on Communications.

The dates for the public hearings on the Bill are still to be confirmed in Parliament.

The Portfolio Committee has also requested that parties wishing to make an oral presentation at the public hearings inform it of their desire to do so in writing.

ICT lawyer Dominic Cull, an associate at Nicci Fergusson Attorneys, has described the second Draft Convergence Bill as being a serious effort to rectify the mistakes of the original, although he says it still has some flaws that need to be ironed out.

Cull believes the primary concern in the new draft is the new licence category of "application service providers", which he says is extremely broadly defined.

Should this category not be tightened up, it could mean a large number of people and entities, such as Web developers, those exercising editorial control over content and those operating Web servers and e-mail servers, may need to apply for licences.

However, he also says there are many positive issues on the new Convergence Bill draft, most notably that it will now replace the Telecommunications Act in its entirety, rather than only certain sections, which eliminates the "potential for massive confusion".

A copy of the Draft Convergence Bill may be obtained from the Parliamentary Web site or from the Government Printer as published in the Government Gazette No 27292 of 16 February 2005.