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Telecoms pricing round two

By Stuart Lowman, ITWeb junior journalist
Johannesburg, 15 Sept 2005

A second colloquium on telecommunications pricing will be held "sometime in October", says the Department of Communications.

Whereas the first colloquium highlighted the challenges the telecoms sector faces, the second colloquium will look for solutions, says Mthobeli Tengimfene, chief director for Internet access and software development at the Department of Communications.

Tengimfene was speaking at the Internet community`s fourth annual iWeek conference, which is taking place in Houghton, Johannesburg, until tomorrow.

The second colloquium will be solution-based, as the department needs to prioritise solutions for the problems highlighted in the first colloquium, says Tengimfene.

During the first colloquium held in July, which attracted 350 delegates, deputy communications minister Roy Padayachie highlighted the high cost of telecoms and an inability to provide fixed-line telecoms to the masses as challenges faced by the sector.

Taylor Reynolds of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development emphasised the need for competition, saying it is key to bringing prices down.

"Another colloquium will help bring the country affordable Internet," says Tengimfene.

Related story:
Govt admits SA telecoms prices 'prohibitive`

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