While the communications industry believes convergence legislation is long overdue, it appears as though the draft Convergence Bill has not made everyone happy.
The Communications Users Association of SA (CUASA) is worried that the bill may be rushed through Parliament, resulting in yet more "vague and unclear" legislation.
According to CUASA spokesman Ray Webber, the organisation believes convergence, in various forms, is already present in numerous communications and telecommunications disciplines.
"Although we believe these changes are long overdue and we welcome the Department of Communications` apparent intentions to ensure the changes in technology are provided for in new legislation, there are still numerous omissions, inaccuracies or challenges within the legislation.
"The draft has obviously been rushed, as it is extremely short on issues such as what exactly convergence means, how the proposed services are defined, what the scope of the new envisaged licences are and how this Act relates to other pieces of legislation," says Webber.
Telecoms analyst, Andre Wills, of Africa Analysis, agrees. "There are a lot of issues that still need to be clarified. Clarity from the department is especially important, because if things aren`t clarified properly, we might see a Bill that is too broad and undefined, which in turn could lead to legal challenges from parties adversely affected by it."
CUASA suggested, in its response to the department`s call for comment on the Bill, that interested parties should be invited to participate in a process where the Bill is systematically worked through in detail, as was done during the convergence colloquium.
"While we appreciate that our statement may appear to differ from our oft-repeated comments that convergence legislation is overdue, we are concerned that the Bill could be full of contradictions and uncertainty, as is the case with the Telecommunications Act and other associated legislation," says Webber.
Ant Brooks, co-chair of the regulatory subcommittee of the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA), says the convergence legislation poses something of a double-barrelled problem.
"A critical issue is the fact that the licence categories have not been clearly defined, which in turn makes it tough to comment on other aspects of the Bill, as players are not too sure which category they will fall into," says Brooks.
"ISPA is nonetheless optimistic. We understand that the Bill was put together in something of a hurry, so there are bound to be aspects that are unclear.
"By the same token, there has been ample opportunity for people to comment on the Bill, and plenty of comment has been given by players and the public."
He says that since there has been so much interest in the draft legislation, ISPA hopes the authorities will digest these comments and there will be another draft that will provide more clarity.
"The proposed convergence legislation, if it is re-worked properly, is just what SA needs. If it is put together correctly, it could be very, very useful to the industry," says Brooks.
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