The Department of Communications (DOC) is to host a colloquium on the pricing of telecommunications services next week.
A DOC statement issued late today says that telecoms stakeholders from both the public and private sector in the country have been invited to participate in the discussions.
The event will take place on Thursday and Friday (14 and 15 July) at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, just outside Johannesburg.
According to the DOC, issues to be discussed include: how the policy and regulatory framework can contribute towards reducing the cost of telecommunications; how ICT infrastructure issues such as optimal network model, broadband and unbundling of the local loop can contribute to reducing the cost of telecommunications; and affordable universal service.
Despite the short notice period, the announcement has been well received by telecommunications end-users and suppliers.
Tim Parsonson, CEO of telecommunications utility Storm, says a major benefit of the colloquium would be the possibility of the unbundling of the local loop.
"This would allow for the industry to see exactly how Telkom has lumped its profitable and non-profitable services together. This would be a very powerful method for motivating for increased competition in the sector," he says.
Parsonson says another benefit would be to receive an official DOC view on how South Africa`s telecommunications pricing compares with that of other countries.
"In all the discussions about pricing, the DOC has been very quiet," he says.
Luke Mills, executive director of contact centre representative body CallingTheCape, says the main benefit of the colloquium would be for government to issue a road map on how this country can keep bringing telecommunications costs down.
"With the legalisation of VANS (value added network services) carrying voice traffic and the use of voice-over-IP (VoIP), our telecoms costs have come down to a level that they are comparable to India`s. However, we still face major competition from Eastern Europe and Argentina, where costs are even lower," he says.
What Mills hopes to see come out of the colloquium is a policy that would open up the country`s undersea cables at cost to a range of companies that would have to compete with each other on price and quality of service.
The DOC statement goes on to say that as a developing country, South Africa needs investment for socio-economic development purposes, and as such "it is important to interrogate the challenge of reduction of cost of doing business", especially in the ICT sector.
"The Colloquium will assist in gaining vital information to determine the way forward in cost reduction and also in ways in which we can gain higher rate of investment in the economy," the DOC statement says.
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