Cabinet has approved the radio frequency spectrum (RFS) policy. However, it has held over its final approval of the draft of the national broadband policy for further discussion and to appoint an inter-ministerial committee to deal with it.
At a post-Cabinet press conference, held in Parliament today, Cabinet spokesman Themba Maseko said government's highest decision-making body had not rejected the draft national broadband policy, but “...it was felt that other departments had to also be involved”.
The inter-ministerial committee will be convened by communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda and it will consist of the ministries of science and technology, public enterprises, rural development and land affairs, economic development, and public service and administration.
Maseko said this committee would finalise the policy; however, no time frame was given as to when this would be achieved.
The policy seeks to address availability, accessibility and affordability of broadband and the building of an information society; and promote uptake and usage of broadband, the Cabinet statement said.
The approved RFS policy seeks to ensure the efficient use and management of the RFS, and facilitate the achievement of key socio-economic objectives, such as increasing access to information and communication technologies, and the creation of an information society via wireless technologies.
Maseko said: “Popular versions of the policy will be issued to make the policy more accessible. This means it will be a more simplified version as the current document is a very technical and very thick volume. This policy is very important and needs to be accessible to all.”
During the media briefing, trade and industry minister Rob Davies spoke about president Jacob Zuma's recent state visit to the UK. He commented that among the topics discussed with British businessmen, the interest in the South African business process outsourcing industry was particularly notable.
“Twenty-six out of 27 BPO call centres in SA are owned by British businesses. They have a continuing interest in this sector to expand it from pure call centre services into back-office services. There is also a lot of interest in SA supplying back-office services for the British legal sector,” Davis noted.
Maseko said no policies or discussions surrounding digital terrestrial TV (DTTV) migration were conducted during yesterday's Cabinet meeting.
The Department of Communications had previously indicated that some policies concerning set-top box manufacturing and standards would be presented to Cabinet this week.
Maseko said, however, that Cabinet was expecting a full report on the status of DTTV migration.
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