The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has given notice that the draft local loop unbundling (LLU) regulations were published for public comments today.
The draft regulations seek to, among others, facilitate the conclusion of electronic communications facilities leasing agreement with particular emphasis on facilities that are to be offered in an unbundled form; and to further provide for the requirements for the interconnection between and leasing of local loop facilities.
Interested parties have until 9 September 2013 to make their written submissions after which the authority will communicate details of the public hearings.
The regulations were initially set to be published about the middle of last month.
Last November, LLU, which was meant to kick off that month, was put on hold until a mechanism was put in place to solve the tricky issue of Telkom's access deficit.
November was meant to see Bitstream come into effect as part of ICASA's phased approach to unbundling the local loop.
However, Bitstream, which allows Internet service providers to connect into Telkom's digital primary switch unit, can only happen once a mechanism was put in place to resolve how to cover Telkom's effective subsidy of copper.
Telkom has argued the cost it charges end-users to access copper is less than the cost of the line. ICASA said in March 2012 that it, Telkom and other stakeholders would assess the scale of the deficit as a precursor to Bitstream.
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