The Department of Communications has claimed the judicial review process surrounding the second national operator (SNO) is sub judice, and as such cannot be commented on.
However, minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri`s office did release a statement in which it condemned a report published yesterday in Business Day, saying it was "factually incorrect".
The newspaper claimed that - in order to prevent a court interdict - Matsepe-Casaburri had provided Nexus Connexion`s lawyers with a letter guaranteeing that she would not license the SNO in its current form without giving the empowerment shareholder two weeks` warning.
Although ITWeb spoke to Nexus Connexion`s lawyers, who confirmed they had received such a letter, the minister`s statement said the department "finds it quite disturbing that matters that are sub judice are canvassed through the media".
The judicial review has been sought by Nexus as it claims that the process whereby the minister awarded Two Consortium and CommuniTel 13% stakes in the SNO while warehousing the remaining 25% was flawed, as neither consortium was recommended by the regulator.
Under the spotlight
According to Mark Rotter, a telecoms analyst at Africa Analysis, there is a lot being said in the media about the SNO process, and not all of it is correct, which only exacerbates a troubled situation.
"While there is no doubt that there are problems with the SNO, I believe the various players are trying to reconcile from within - but it is really difficult to do that while the entire country is looking in on you," he says.
This belief in an attempted reconciliation appears to be backed up by a statement from Karl Socikwa, the SNO`s official spokesman, who says: "Naturally news of the judicial review proceedings came as both a shock and disappointment to the other shareholders of the SNO.
"However, since then we have been encouraged by the commitment of both Nexus and the Ministry to avoid any unnecessary delays and to push for a speedy resolution of the matter."
Rotter says the SNO situation is similar to that of viewing a duck swimming on a pond.
"What you see on the surface is not necessarily what is happening underneath. It is difficult to predict what will happen to the SNO, as there are so many different factors to take into consideration, but people need to understand that it is part of an ongoing process, however painful and traumatic it may be.
"It would be nice if the licence was issued by the end of the month, as the minister said it would be in her budget speech, but I don`t really think that is realistic, although there is always a possibility that if one thing falls into place, a domino effect could occur, and things could work out quite quickly."
Competition still vital
Rotter says that while there is always talk of a shrinking window of opportunity, the need for competition to Telkom will not go away.
"There will always be potential for an SNO, it just may not end up looking the way we`d expect it to when it finally begins operations," he says.
Socikwa agrees with this concept, saying that although the delays obviously do lead to some value erosion of the network Transtel and Eskom Telecommunications have put in place for the SNO, the two state-owned enterprises still expect to benefit.
"The infrastructure richness of both Transtel and Eskom Telecommunications will still be of benefit, both as sellers of the infrastructure to the SNO and as shareholders of the SNO," he says.
"These two entities will provide an infrastructure platform for the launch of the SNO into the market with an existing telecommunications network to mitigate against any time lost with the delay in the licensing process."
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