Proposed guidelines for landing undersea cables will not impact Seacom's business case, say the undersea cable company and Department of Communications (DOC) officials.
On Friday, the DOC withdrew and then re-gazetted a document titled "Guidelines for the Rapid Deployment of Electronic Communications Facilities" that was originally published on 22 February in the Government Gazette.
Mashile Matlala, DOC senior manager for telecommunications policy, says this was because the original gazetted document was a draft copy and not the final document, but that there are no material changes to the guidelines.
The guidelines, which give the public 30 days to comment, are aimed at regulating the landing of undersea cables in the country. This was previously done by virtue of the fact that companies such as Telkom and Neotel could do this as they had public switched telephone service (PSTS) licences in terms of the old Telecommunications Act.
However, the DOC has since said that in most countries a separate licence is needed to land an undersea cable.
The guidelines give minister of communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri the ability to approve or deny a licence application if it does not meet various requirements. These include the stipulation that it be 51%-owned by African companies, that the applicants do not provide full disclosure of their company information, and that approval has to be gained from the Department of Environmental and Tourism Affairs and the Department of Local and Provincial Government.
New licence category
"These guidelines will not impact on anyone's current business case," Matlala says. "What they do is introduce a new licence category."
Second national operator Neotel plans to land two undersea cables on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast. One of these will be Seacom's cable that will stretch up the East African coast to eventually terminate in Europe. Neotel will land Seacom's cable under its own licence conditions.
A Seacom spokesman says the Electronic Communications Act, which has replaced the Telecommunications Act, stipulates the conversion of existing PSTS licences must be on a "no worse" basis.
"Seacom has partnered with Neotel, who under its existing PSTS licence is able to land this cable. The conversion process will ensure Neotel will have an electronic communications network service licence and all additional permissions to land submarine cables including Seacom. Seacom's current plans are therefore unaffected," he says.
Neither Telkom nor Neotel would comment on the guidelines, as they say their regulatory departments are still examining the document.
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