Hitting the ground running, newly-appointed communications minister Roy Padayachie has committed to a November 2011 deadline for the unbundling of the local loop.
regulatory interventions aimed at providing new market entrants access to the incumbent's local access network.
The rationale behind LLU is to foster competition and reduce telecommunications costs by eliminating large investments by competitors to build their own infrastructure for last mile connectivity.
Analysts have previously raised concerns that LLU has come too late. “By the time it's done, it's not going to matter anymore. All the other operators will have rolled out their own infrastructure,” independent telecommunications analyst Richard Hurst said earlier this year.
Nonetheless, Padayachie noted that LLU remains a critical and important intervention. “Building an efficient, competitive and responsive ICT infrastructure network is critical to propel SA into a knowledge-based economy.
“In this regard, we will work closely with ICASA to ensure the local loop is unbundled by November 2011,” he concluded.
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Unbundling comes too late
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