Yesterday, Nape Maepa, chairman of the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA), diverted slightly from his prepared speech for a Tel.Com Africa 2000 session on regulation, competition and growth to let off some steam.
"It is almost as if the PSTN [public switched telephone network or Telkom] and government sees SATRA as a mistake," he lashed out. "Not that I am saying this is the case."
His ire was raised by what he sees as the cancellation of over two years of work - the interconnect and facility leasing guidelines published by SATRA earlier this year. The Department of Communications may be responsible for the SATRA budget, but right now the department is not Maepa's favourite entity.
The interconnect and facility leasing guidelines were gazetted as a measure to bring greater clarity to the telecommunications regulatory environment. It laid down rules to force telecommunications operators to allow any of their networks to connect to any other network, and attempted to clarify the process to be followed for the leasing of facilities such as data lines.
"This document created an environment that will allow any one of our licensees to go where no man has gone before," Maepa said. "I dare you to find a better interconnect agreement."
But to Maepa's amazement, the guidelines, although already published in the Government Gazette, were entirely withdrawn by the Department of Communications in a single page communication to SATRA. The authority has yet to receive a response to its request for clarification of what it sees an as an "attempted withdrawal", as Maepa contends that only SATRA can amend regulations once published.
"Before the ink is dry on [our documents] someone finds a way to change what we have done," he said.
Mike van den Bergh, chairman of the South African Value-Added Networks Service Association (SAVA), chaired the conference session at which Maepa spoke, and added his support to the published guidelines. "That was a very good document," he told the audience. SAVA has often declared its unhappiness with SATRA regulations and is one of the organisations most affected by the guidelines.
Communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri later explained the withdrawal in response to a question. At the time of publication, she said, her department was under the impression the document had been compiled after consideration of input from industry players. Then it realised that there had been no agreement among interested parties. "We are disappointed ourselves," she told a press conference, and said attention was being given to the issue on a priority basis.
The document would have impacted the business of monopoly PSTN operator Telkom, the majority of which is owned by the government.
The guidelines form part of the telecommunications regulation that many international and local speakers at the Tel.Com conference see as vital to the development of the sector and the SA economy.
"Communications and information, telecommunications, are vital tools in today's economy. Some would say they are the backbone of today's economy," specialist IT lawyer Lisa Thornton told the conference. "Bad regulatory policies run the risk of discouraging investment. Good policies, at the very least, do not discourage investment, at the very best it encourages it."
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