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Broadband policy to head to Cabinet soon

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 25 Oct 2013
The current version of the broadband policy is an improvement on the previous, says communications minister Yunus Carrim.
The current version of the broadband policy is an improvement on the previous, says communications minister Yunus Carrim.

The draft national Broadband Policy will be taken to the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission, government's economic cluster, and more consultation will happen before it makes its way to Cabinet.

The Department of Communications says this consultation will be with the South African Local Government Association and representatives of South Africa's provinces. The department today held a workshop to report back on the current status of the policy, which was gazetted in April.

The purpose of the workshop was to provide feedback to stakeholders who commented on the gazetted draft. "Experts" were also invited to comment on the latest draft of the policy and plan, the department says in a statement.

Minister Yunus Carrim urged the participants to engage "robustly" with the draft, which he will take to various other parties before submitting it to Cabinet. The department says these consultations aim to get "greater support for, and coordination of, the national broadband policy".

Carrim says: "We are hoping to do all of this by the last Cabinet meeting in the first week of December. If the policy is not approved, we will consider releasing a version of it in the public domain for further consideration."

In mid-November, a panel of "international experts" will be attending a workshop to give their responses to both the policy and the plan, says Carrim.

"The current version of the broadband policy is an improvement on the April version, thanks to the contribution many of you made. We may not have a perfect policy by early December, but we hope, with your cooperation, to have a good one.

"Obviously, with constant changes in technology, the policy and progress on its implementation will have to be reviewed and monitored annually," Carrim said in the statement.

The minister explained the policy largely gives expression to the National Development Plan's ICT vision, which aims to use universal broadband to aid economic growth and job creation. It has identified four strategic areas which are digital readiness, digital development, digital opportunity and digital future.

"This policy will be pursued as a national project that will seek to galvanise the full capabilities, resources and energies of public and private actors towards realising a bold vision of a connected society to some extent in the spirit in which South Africa delivered on the 2010 FIFA World Cup," says Carrim. He adds the policy seeks to ensure that the benefits of broadband reach all South Africans.

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