Despite promising "fireworks" in the broadband arena earlier this year, deputy communications minister Roy Padayachie is yet to outline exactly how the government`s bold plans for a new broadband policy framework will be realised.
He told ITWeb yesterday that the Department of Communications has set a target of six months to finalise internal discussions over the new policy framework - and seems to have (prudently) decided not to make any guarantees about when this "six months" will end. The Broadband Advisory Council has several good projects in the proverbial pipeline, he assured us.
New legislative era ushered in
These issues were raised again this week on the back of the Electronic Communications (EC) Act finally becoming law, on early Wednesday morning. It was a quiet event, barely noticed in the end, which is understandable considering its proclamations will take ages to become reality.
SNO`s massive buy
Monday morning saw news that the SNO will buy a portion of Eskom`s full service network. The R750 million deal should be finalised before the end of the year, so the SNO will be able to begin offering services in the first quarter of next year, sources say.
Telkom price cuts
It was a quiet event, barely noticed in the end, which is understandable considering its proclamations will take ages to become reality.
Dave Glazier, journalist, ITWeb
Telkom did something very unusual this week - the fixed-line monopoly actually lowered its broadband prices. Whether this move was sparked by fears of the SNO coming in, or that ICASA would come down heavily in the pending ADSL pricing regulations, the cost of the DSL 512 service (for instance) comes down from about R480 to about R360 - which is commendable.
Skeletons come out
The latest in the controversy surrounding the 2002 Telkom tender awarded to Gijima Afrika Smart Card Technologies (now called Guma) is that John Sterenborg, in his capacity as former CEO of now-defunct Applied Card Technologies, asked Telkom to pay R27 million in settlement of the dispute regarding the R600 million tender.
BCX blocks R261m tender
Another ongoing saga, that of the hospital information system tender in the Limpopo province, took a turn with news this week that one of the unsuccessful bidders, Business Connexion, won an interim court interdict to halt the project - for a while at least. Like many of the other failed bids, Business Connexion`s would have cost the department less than half of the R261 million that is to be spent on the project.
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