Sorting out the stalled second national operator (SNO) process will probably be the first priority of the Department of Communications, followed by the Convergence Bill, a senior manager in the department has said.
Envir Fraser, senior manager for e-business in the Department of Communications, made the comment at a meeting of the Western Cape branch of the Internet Society last night.
"Right now the main priority of the department is to ensure the SNO issue is sorted out so we will probably only see the draft of the Convergence Bill going before Parliament late this year," Fraser said.
His comments were in response to questions and criticism of the draft Convergence Bill released in December 2003 in that it makes no mention of voice over IP (VOIP) and that it does not do much to consolidate the country`s myriad telecoms-related laws.
During the meeting, M-Web director of regulatory issues Richard Heath levelled a series of criticisms at the department and in particular the Convergence Bill, which he said had failed to meet expectations.
"The Bill was disappointing in that it provided no roadmap for the liberalisation of the telecoms industry and has also allowed Telkom to so entrench itself in a monopolistic situation that foreign investors feel it would be unwise to take it on," he said.
Heath also said section 40 of the Telecoms Act artificially separated voice and data services and this was now an inhibitor to economic growth.
Many Internet Society members believe VOIP could help dramatically reduce input costs, particularly for small companies, which would then be more competitive in servicing overseas clients and so open up more markets and business opportunities.
African Internet activist Alan Levine said in his presentation that African countries were ignoring technologies such as VOIP "at their peril and that it was severe constraint on economic growth".
Fraser pointed out that the current government`s mandate following the recent general elections was to alleviate poverty, and companies and organisations wanting to participate in the drafting of new Acts should bear this in mind.
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