Presidential council to mull ICT

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 15 Aug 2007

President Thabo Mbeki will once again meet with some of the world's most influential ICT leaders so they can advise him on how ICT can be used to increase SA's economic growth and reduce poverty.

The sixth Presidential International Advisory Council on Information Society and Development (PIAC on ISAD) will take place from 24 to 26 August, in San Lameer, KwaZulu-Natal.

The council is made up of local and international representatives, including Mark Shuttleworth, Cisco, HP, IBM, SAP, Oracle and Intel.

According to the Department of Communications, confirmed participants for this weekend's event include Oracle Europe and Africa VP Sergio Giacoletto, EDventure Holdings chairman Esther Dyson, local Internet entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, IBM EMA SAS chairman Hans Ulrich Maerki, Microsoft Europe president Jean-Phillipe Courtois and Hewlett-Packard VP and Middle East MD Ken Willet. CEOs from some key local ICT companies are also expected to attend.

It is not yet clear what the focus of this year's meeting will be. However, the high price of communications in SA is one issue that has come up numerous times at the PIAC.

Last year, Mbeki said: "We have not made much of a significant dent on the pricing of telecoms and broadband as we still need to build infrastructure and establish competition through the SNO [Neotel]."

Since then, Neotel has launched some services and announced plans to introduce its core offerings some time next month.

World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says the area of enabling competition, especially against fixed-line operator Telkom, still needs critical attention.

He argues that while the Electronic Communications Act provides for open competition and the removal of all monopolies, regulations developed and the way telecoms providers are licensed could hinder the spirit of the Act.

He says one example of current inequitable play is that all players are allowed to provide voice over Internet Protocol, but there is little infrastructure as yet to make this provision a reality. The ability of value-added network service providers to provide voice services to the masses is hindered by this, leaving an open field for Telkom, he says. "There's a wonderful policy in place, but unless it's put into effect, it's meaningless."