Communications minister Dina Pule's budget vote speech, in Parliament yesterday, as well as the media briefing that followed, confirmed that the Department of Communications (DOC) continues to be focused on working towards delivering policies. No bold or clear action was proposed to address the pressing issues that have persisted for several years.
Pule focused on three priority areas for this coming year: developing a national integrated ICT policy, rolling out a national broadband network, and the implementation of a digital TV migration policy.
All of these programmes have been works in progress for several years - and all are mired in various working groups, particularly the mooted national broadband network, first floated in 2010. Pule commented in the press briefing after the debate: “The rollout of a national broadband network - we don't have a plan or a strategy. We're working on it.”
The goal announced in her budget speech was 100% broadband penetration that would deliver one million jobs by 2020 - how this network would be funded, and whether this project, expected to cost tens of billions of rands, will be added to the national infrastructure investment programme, is still up in the air.
The irritation with the “business as usual” approach was summed up by DA shadow minister for communications Marian Shinn: “SA's communications industry... needs to break loose from the stranglehold of a fixed-line monopoly and mobile network duopoly and the lethargic regulatory process. But no one has the guts to do it.”
The blame for the lack of clear progress was laid at the door of staff shortages, both at the DOC and the regulator. “We focused on filling vacancies in the new organisational structure, prioritising skills in areas such as broadband, telecommunications policy, postal services economics, frequency spectrum and ICT research. As a result of this focus and resignations over the year, our vacancy rate is 29%. We are confident we can reverse this trend within the first half of this year, as most of the recruitment has been done.”
Focus on recruitment
Pule assured Parliament that recruitment of the right skills was progressing well, and that key positions would be filled soon, both in the department and at the regulator, as well as at state-owned enterprises the SABC, SA Post Office, the Universal Service and Access Agency and Sentech.
The department is also expecting to grow. “To demonstrate our seriousness about these companies, we have begun a process to capacitate the branches charged with the oversight responsibility to ensure that the department is better informed about the activities of the SOCs [state-owned companies]. Our goal is to ensure that, by 2014, all our entities receive a clean audit.”
I will not promise I'll ever auction spectrum. Auctioning is not an option.
Communications minister Dina Pule, commenting during her department's budget vote speech.
This swelling of the bureaucracy and the duplication of management functions was a red flag for the opposition party, with Shinn noting that, despite the department looking to bring on more people, its budget was R290 million less than last year.
The cost of communications in SA was raised several times, with Sikhumbuzo Kholwane, chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications, commenting: “Our cost to communicate remains stubbornly high.”
He referred to the recent change in mobile interconnect fees, but noted that this reduction was not passed on to consumers. “I am aware that the operators dispute this,” he quipped. To much applause, he also called for more clarity on cellphone bundles.
Another shot across the bow of the mobile industry was the committee calling for an end to the practice of determining coverage by population, which often leaves small and rural communities disadvantaged. The committee would prefer to measure penetration based on geographic coverage.
'Anger and cynicism'
The frustration with the way policy was being decided at arms' length to the non-incumbent private sector boiled over, with Shinn referring to the “anger and cynicism from the ICT industry towards the DOC and the regulator (which is seen as protecting) the incumbents. The (national ICT policy) colloquium was to tick the box of public participation, but there was no time given to prepare, and the panel was made up of incumbents.”
On the matter of migrating TV to digital broadcasting, Pule was again bullish about progress, saying the digital terrestrial television regulations would be finalised by ICASA for gazetting by June 2012.
There was scepticism about how real the progress is, with even the chairman of the Parliamentary portfolio committee commenting: “On digital migration, we've heard conflicting reports. We want a portfolio committee meeting to get an integrated response.”
Pule acknowledged the massive challenge the industry faced due to the lack of resources and skills in the regulator. “The ICASA budget is R333 million today; if we can double that over the next two to three years, that would be an achievement.”
She called on individuals who had the right expertise to come forward to serve for ICASA. “We are calling for nominations to fill the positions of three councillors whose terms end in June.” Pule also wants the regulator to deliver clearer results, and is implementing performance contracts “to make sure they do what they are meant to be doing”.
The prospects of finalising spectrum allocation got a shot in the arm, with Pule committing to completing the analysis of spectrum use by the end of May. She then made an unclear assertion that, “I will not promise I'll ever auction spectrum. Auctioning is not an option”. What this means to the operators desperate to get their hands on digital dividend spectrum and 2.6GHz bands for LTE rollout remains to be seen.
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