USAASA's design flawed

The Universal Service and Access Agency of SA (USAASA) will not succeed until its flawed mandate is reassessed and altered.

Daniel Espitia, a consultant contracted through Brentlana on behalf of USAASA, says the design of the institution is flawed to begin with. He was contracted to help create a new strategy for USAASA and has been working with the agency since the 90s.

“USAASA was a problem then and it's a problem now. It's still got no capacity. The problem goes back to the Act that originally created it, so it's not just about incompetence.”

Espitia says there always were a lot of insights in terms of what a community needs, but never an idea of a follow up. He says the agency has improved “a tiny bit”, but is not too different today.

“It's a smart plan, but we need good people to carry the flag forward. Skills are a big issue. You need a good road, but you also need a good car. USAASA needs a good legal, engineering and economic team.”

USAASA was established to promote the goals of universal access and service in the under-serviced areas of SA. It was set up as government's way of bridging the digital divide.

The agency previously faced heavy criticism when the need for its existence was questioned. It came under fire for wasting money and failing to achieve targets during the presentation of its annual report to Parliament last year.

The consultant says USAASA's mandate needs to be more holistic.

disaster,” says Espitia. “USAASA is a good idea, but has been badly implemented here.”

He suggested that the Industrial Development Corporation and Development Bank of Southern Africa help manage the USAF, because they know how to manage money and can take equity, which USAASA can't do.

“Also, the people given the money don't always know how to spend it practically. There's a need to create a fiscal responsibility so the money doesn't go to luxury cars, and banks can do this.”

Espitia says another suggestion made to the agency is that there must be a focus on universal access to broadband, instead of to landlines, because the latter is too old as a technology.

“Broadband is linked to the GDP by labour productivity. So, if broadband is too slow, labour productivity also slows down.

“We are telling USAASA to focus on broadband and forget about telecentrics, because it's such a waste of time, and they have started doing this.”

He adds that more initiatives like the South African National Research Network need to be ventured into. “It's efficient and cost-effective. If you have convergence and if you have broadband, then you have everything you need. If you have the ability to create digital literacy across the board, you will have great opportunities.”

In a presentation to the National Treasury, Espitia set out USAASA's 2011-2015 strategy.

“The USAASA strategy cannot be a larger vision for SA. The country needs a national broadband strategy,” says the consultant.

The ITU standard for broadband speed last year was 1.5Mbps - 2Mbps. South Korea's vision for broadband speed by 2012 is 1 000Mbps and SA's vision for 2019 is 0.256Mbps, according to Espitia.

“Countries need visionaries, but here targets are set low so mediocrity can be celebrated. SA is lagging all the way behind. There needs to be a broadband plan or vision. The policy is not a vision. It doesn't aim at anything.”

He says cables are impacting prices in countries like Nigeria and Ghana, but still not in SA. “So USAASA has a big challenge. They need a more holistic ecosystem so they are not just mandated to give away money. They need to champion around pricing in SA. If you do international comparisons you see how high the prices are here.”

One of the largest pieces missing from USAASA's strategy, according to Espitia, is education.

“SA should have gone the education route and it would have been far richer today. Like with BEE, instead of giving people ownership, they should be taught how to fish.”

With the agency's mandate to subsidise hardware, people will have money to buy cables, computers and antennas, but the question is where the engineers and network operators will come from to work with the hardware.

“Skills development is not part of USAASA's mandate, but if there are no skills it cannot fulfil its mandate. It needs to work with the Department of Education (DOE). It should give funds for ICT skills development and influence the curriculum at the DOE.”

In an interview with ITWeb last month, USAASA CEO Phineas Moleele said the agency needs to create a demand for ICTs in under-serviced areas before it can fulfil its mandate.

“The cellphone industry grew, because there was a demand in those areas. Now we need to innovate in the same way.”

Espitia says this demand will come from education, because with more knowledge citizens will know what they want and will recognise the value of ICTs.

“It's a fundamental problem and very difficult to address. Education is the key. When people have the knowledge they will stop thinking from a perspective of poverty and will start thinking from a perspective of opportunity.”