Comms budget muddies already murky issues

The Department of Communications` budget presented to Parliament last week read like a hurried assignment put together by an errant school pupil. However, the opposition doesn`t seem to know much better either.

When reading any of the current government`s budgets and policy documents, it is wise to remember that the overall guiding principles are of poverty alleviation and the economic development of the population groups that have been historically disadvantaged.

Minister of communications, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri could have used the opportunity to roll-out a definitive government road map for communications policy, but unfortunately, this was not to be. Rather, the minister presented a budget that contained little in the way of financial information about the various projects, to grandstand hurried projects on delivery, gloss over the second national operator licence fiasco and announce that a national resource in the form of the 1800MHz spectrum was to be given away.

In a press briefing before announcing her department`s budget before the House, Matsepe-Casaburri said that as far as she was concerned, there was no conflict between the ministry and the regulator. "The ministry`s role is to set policy and the regulator`s role is to regulate."

Just how much airtime will be given with the cards and just how much an economically disadvantaged person will have to pay still have to be clarified.

Paul Vecchiatto, journalist, ITWeb

However, with the department taking over the process of awarding the second licence, there is still some fuzziness about the exact relationship and just how the final selection will be made. The minister`s assertion that the new bidders are more confident about the process and that there is a better quality of bids hangs thin as the process is being conducted in a more opaque manner. Possibly the way to unravel the fiasco would have been to change the way the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) conducted the process rather than taking it away from it altogether.

The cellphone industry must be slavering over the deal struck with the department that will see four million SIM cards being distributed to economically disadvantaged people. Literally with a handshake and the stroke of a pen, the cellphone industry can bank on growing by around 30% over the next five years from its current subscriber base of 12 million, making this country one of the highest density cellphone users in the world.

Through its "generosity", the cellphone industry also gains access to the 1800MHz and 2.4GHz spectrums - both considered national resources, and essential to the communications needs of the military and certain other emergency function groups such as the police.

Access to those spectrums has been a bone of contention between government and industry for many years.

One aspect of this deal is, again, the relevant regulators seem to have been bypassed, as the agreement was struck between the department and the industry. There has been no mention of how many SIM cards each of the current industry players would contribute to the four million free cards.

Criteria to be used in distribution of these free cards is supposed to be the same for the failed line installation that Telkom was forced to undertake five years ago. Three-quarters of the installed lines have had to be cut off due to non-payment. In other words, the people who received the telephones were either unwilling to pay or unable to afford them.

Is there a danger of the same situation arising again? Just how much airtime will be given with the cards and just how much an economically disadvantaged person will have to pay still have to be clarified.

The 250 000 free SIM cards and handsets to be distributed to emergency services, while a good idea, does raise the question of just why government should be involved in such an issue? Surely, the cellphone operators have the ability and the wherewithal to make such arrangements with the relevant services without direct government intervention?

Finally, the 67 000 second-hand computers for schools should also be examined closely. The computers are surplus to First World corporations` needs and must be considered to be of dated technology. Our education system needs to train people to the latest standards so they are able to compete with their peers in First World countries, otherwise we will continue to be locked in a continuous one-step-behind situation.

Opposition parties` response to the department`s budget has been equally disappointing. Since its presentation, little has been heard from them. The Democratic Alliance`s reply in Parliament was fairly lightweight, as it decided to reserve judgment until it saw a response from ICASA.

Surely government and the opposition must acknowledge that the ICT sector is a critical way to stimulate economic development and the time has come to become creative, proactive and responsible in creating the groundwork in which it can thrive.