Johannesburg, 07 Sep 2012
Telkom's recently stated commitment to enabling fair competition in the market, after it was rapped over the knuckles for abusing its monopoly, holds no water if the operator wants to limit its high-speed broadband trial to its own Internet service provider (ISP).
This is the stance of the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA). It has called on SA's fixed-line incumbent to allow ISPs other than TelkomInternet to participate in its very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL) trial, which commenced on Monday and is set to run for the next few months. The trial includes DSL services of 20Mbps and 40Mbps.
The fact that Telkom is a wholesale provider of DSL services in SA and yet has refused requests from other ISPs to participate in the high-speed broadband trial raises concerns, says ISPA. “[It is troubling] that the majority of ADSL users in SA will not benefit from the technical and other insights obtained into high-speed DSL services.”
Telkom has noted ISPA's call, but says it had not been engaged by the Internet industry body prior to its statement.
Limiting approach
ISPA regulatory advisor Dominic Cull says a question mark hangs over whether Telkom's trial will be capable of achieving its stated objective of testing cost assumptions and technical issues given the “narrow manner” in which Telkom is conducting it.
“There is a technical difference in the way in which Telkom makes wholesale DSL services available to TelkomInternet as opposed to other ISPs obtaining the same services. While TelkomInternet has a direct link into SAIX, other ISPs are required to use the IP Connect or IPC product to take up wholesale DSL.”
Telkom justifies the exclusion of other ISPs by saying it “wants to balance inclusion against our desired outcomes”. Bashier Sallie, MD for wholesale and networks at Telkom, says the company believes the industry will prefer a trial that is successfully conducted in the shortest possible time. ISPA says, however, “it must surely be a desired outcome for all DSL subscribers to be provided with upgraded services as quickly as possible”.
Cull notes that this outcome will not be achieved by testing only the direct link. He says Telkom's exclusive approach is surprising in light of the Competition Tribunal's judgement against it and that it will be to the detriment of consumers, competition and innovation.
“There can be little doubt that this approach will provide a competitive advantage to TelkomInternet, allowing it to obtain knowledge of the new services not available to its competitors, while gaining market share in what is a highly-competitive market.”
Defending decisions
Sallie says the new wholesale DSL offerings will be commercially available to all ISPs should the pilot prove successful. “TelkomInternet will be given notice of the availability and technical and commercial specifications of such a wholesale product at the same time as all the other licensed operators.”
He says, given the fact that the technology is new for Telkom, and that the size of the high-speed broadband footprint spans 16 000 ports across four regions (Johannesburg, Pretoria, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape), “this balance is crucial”.
“We also need to test the integration to our IT BSS/OSS systems and into our network management and configuration systems. The pilot will also serve to validate and test service fulfilment and assurance processes, assess field technical and operational readiness and evaluate the customer experience at a set service configuration.”
Sallie adds that Telkom has had discussions with individual ISPs on this matter and will also discuss it directly with ISPA. “We are open to listening to proposals that will be in the interest of all parties.”