Broadband tops govt's to do list

By: DINGILIZWE NTULI

Government’s telecommunications custodian, the department of communications (DOC), has listed the delivery of high-speed internet as one of its top priorities for the 2006/7 year.
 

Deputy communications minister Roy Padayachie and director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole will be briefing parliament’s portfolio committee on communications on Friday about how it plans to “respond to the changes in the information communication technology sector”, the DOC said in a statement.

It says the “development and implementation of a broadband strategy” will be a priority for the 2006/7 financial year, which kicks off on April 1.

Other priorities include developing a strategy for moving aging broadcasting systems from analogue to digital platforms, getting the ICT black economic empowerment charter off the ground and sorting out its universal service and access policy and strategy.

Some readers contacted Moneyweb wanting to know whether this would be the forum that the DOC would use to reveal the long-awaited determinations that will hopefully introduce more players into the sector, change the landscape from a monopolistic into a competitive one, and see a much-needed reduction in prices.

This is not the case, however. Albi Modise, acting head of communications at the DOC, said the determinations would be made by the minister “only once the electronic communications bill and the Icasa amendment bill (pertaining to the industry regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of SA) were signed into law by the president”.

He could not provide a date for when this would take place