Needy to get phone subsidies

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 15 Mar 2006

The poor could get subsidies for phones, in line with moves by the government and the Universal Service Fund (USF).

The Universal Service Agency, which manages the USF, confirmed a study seeking to define "needy persons" for the purposes of the Telecommunications Act has been finalised.

The purpose of the study was to determine the meaning of needy persons in order to define who should get assistance from the USF, according to Tebogo Thapatlaase, the agency`s senior manager of regulatory and corporate affairs.

The USF was founded 10 years ago to fund projects addressing the issue of universal access to ICT. Telecoms licensees pay prescribed annual contributions to the fund. Telkom, MTN, Vodacom and Cell C contribute 0.5% of their annual turnover to the fund. However, subsidies have not been disbursed due to lack of clarity regarding the definition of needy persons.

Thapatlaase says the study will be presented to the agency board next week, and the agency will make recommendations to communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.

Matsepe-Casaburri will in turn make determinations, published in the government gazette, on categories of needy persons to whom assistance may be given and the manner of giving out those subsidies, he says.

Defining needy

According to the Telecommunications Act, funds from the USF shall be utilised for the payment of subsidies to assist needy persons towards the cost of telecoms services; for telecoms licensees to assist with the fulfilment of obligations relating to the extension of their telecoms services to areas which are not adequately served; and to public schools and public further education and training institutions for the procurement of Internet services and equipment.

The fund also aims to assist small businesses and cooperatives to acquire and construct infrastructure to provide telecoms services to areas which are not served or not adequately served by telecommunication services.

Diane Ngoasheng, senior manager of consumer protection at the Independent Communications Authority of SA, says it is the view of the regulator that people with disabilities be included in the definition of needy persons.