hitting the wire*

wither the windmills?

If ever there was a time for the South African telecoms industry to pop a bottle of bubbly, it is this weekend.  Yesterday was the deadline for the Minister of Communications to lodge an appeal against the ruling in the Altech case with the Supreme Court of Appeal.  She has not and the DoC has posted this bit of PR.

The entire release is so typical of a bunch of political bureaucrats living in denial and justifying their actions with sanctimonious puffery, I'm not sure whether to laugh or throw up.  Considering the historic moment, I'll opt for a guffaw.

"...The Minister has been made the villain over the past few months for opposing Altech’s court action to obtain a network license. ..."

"...If the Minister continues with a petition, the risk is that ICASA will not be able to convert licenses by 19 January 2009 as required under the ECA, irrespective of the outcome of the petition. This will then require an amendment of the ECA to extend the license conversion period, and may effectively delay license conversion to late 2010. This result is not in anyone’s interest and will not best serve the ICT sector, operators and consumers. ..."

1st you make regulatory changes which enable self-provision by VANS and then cause total confusion by saying (the day before it is effective) that it was not your intention, then when you're challenged in court and found wanting, you appeal, lose the appeal and then decide to drop the whole matter because you suddenly have an attack of conscience (albeit a sulky one) and recall you have stakeholders who are interested in more competition and lower prices?  Ah yes, but they have things called votes do they not, and you have cope with elections next year?

I still think the main problem (as I reiterated to Lloyd Gedye of the M&G just recently) is that the DoC have never been able to communicate in a clear and unambiguous manner what their vision for the future ICT market is (assuming they have one).

One thing I do know, is that an enterprise of any sort without a clear, commonly shared vision of the future is doomed to go nowhere at top speed.  Even King Solomon seemed to know that!

I wonder which windmills will be tilted at next?

PS.

yes, the lack of an "h" after the "w" in the first word of the title of the post was originally a typo, but then I decided I quite liked the pun, so I left it! ;)

eish, but pushing back telecoms into the 20th century is hard work!

This just in from one of the ISPA regulatory guys:

"Judgement has just been handed down in the High Court on the DoC’s application for an interdict against ICASA issuing individual ECNS licenses.  The judge ruled against the DoC and awarded costs against them as well.  ICASA has yet again been ordered by the Court to issue licenses.

The DoC does still have the option to petition the Chief Justice but there has not yet been ny indication that it intends doing so."

C'mon Ivy.  Either come up with a real plan for driving down telecoms costs in this country or stand back and let competition take its course!

Big shoes to fill.

Duncan McLeod's article in Financial Mail reminded me of something was aware of but had forgotten (easy to do when you're not quite so active in regulatory issues any more!): two of ICASA's councillors end  their tenure at the end of June.  And not just any two, but in my humble opinion two who have overshadowed the rest in engaging with the sector and making strides to move the industry forwarded.  Albeit more slowly than mst of us would have liked, but forward nevertheless.  Tracy Cohen and Zolisa Masiza.  Hamba Kahle.

Is your mobile phone bugging you?

Bretton picked up this story in c|net news.com.

The FBI seem not only to be able to turn on your mobile phone's microphone remotely and use it to monitor any conversations within range, but they are allowed to do so and use the evidence in court!

The technique is called a "roving bug".

"Kaplan's opinion said that the eavesdropping technique "functioned whether the phone was powered on or off." Some handsets can't be fully powered down without removing the battery; for instance, some Nokia models will wake up when turned off if an alarm is set.

...

Because modern handsets are miniature computers, downloaded software could modify the usual interface that always displays when a call is in progress. The spyware could then place a call to the FBI and activate the microphone--all without the owner knowing it happened. (The FBI declined to comment on Friday.)

...

Security-conscious corporate executives routinely remove the batteries from their cell phones.

...

Malicious hackers have followed suit. A report last year said Spanish authorities had detained a man who write a Trojan horse that secretly activated a computer's video camera and forwarded him the recordings.

"

Can you imagine confidential business meetings from now on where everyone is expected to haul out their phones and pull out the battery, leaving both lying on the table?!

Technically, very neat, but from a right to privacy point of view, seriously frightening.

When will they ever learn?

The DoC have recently invited comment on the Draft Electronic Communications Amendment Bill.  Their invite is reproduced verbatim below.  I'd like to draw your attention to one paragraph:

"The Bill will also provide a forward looking legislative framework, which facilitates government's intervention in the ICT sector in line with a developmental state."

I think I prefer William Stucke's interpratation of that innocuous statement:

"The Bill seeks to provide an opportunity for Government to increase its meddling in the telecommunications market in RSA, and to further undermine ICASA ..."

Here's your invite:

Communications Ministry invites written comments to the Draft Electronic Communications Amendment Bill

19 September 2007

The Minister of Communications, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, invites members of the public to submit written comments to the draft Electronic Communications Amendment Bill due to be introduced in Parliament before the end of 2007.

The minister issued the general notice (No: 1200 of 2007) published in the government gazette on 17 September 2007. Members of the public have 30 working days to submit their written comments. The objective is to amend the Electronic Communications Act, of 2005, so as to empower the minister to issue a policy direction; and to provide an opportunity for government to make strategic interventions on infrastructure investments whenever it deems necessary.

In amending the Act, government will be able to address pertinent issues in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector such as reducing the cost to communicate by providing infrastructure at wholesale rate to other operators, link New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) Broadband with Africa/Latin America and Europe and provide the much needed bandwidth for strategic projects and consumers in general.

The Bill will also provide a forward looking legislative framework, which facilitates government's intervention in the ICT sector in line with a developmental state.

To access the draft bill, visit http://www.doc.gov.za, under news.

Telkom missing... but is that a bad thing?

The DoC was castigated recently (yes, there are people other than me who do chuck brickbats their way from time to time) for throwing a lavish party "to mark the occasion of the delivery of my vote in the National Assembly." according to Madame Matsepe-Casaburri.

ITWeb today reports that she has revealed that although the event cost R395 315.06, only R96,000.00 came from the DoC... the rest from corporate sponsors.

Who are they?  Acc. to ITWeb:

The companies which sponsored the department's event are: Dimension Data, Vodacom, Cell C, MTN, GijimaAST, ForgeAhead, Microsoft, Business Connexion, Neotel, Multichoice and Nokia Siemens Networks.

Telkom conspicuous by their absence.  Was it because they found it distasteful to fund a party for the telecoms policymakers of the land or did they decide they have no reason to suck up to government, or were they not approached?

I know lobbying government is part of life, but quite frankly, I'm not sorry that Storm's name is not on that list.  There are more constructive ways of spending money right now and when we see some real progress in making SA Telecoms more competitive I'll be ready to celebrate. 

Right now, I'm wondering what the fuss is about.

There is something you can do about Telkom.

Michael Alachouzos, a New York attorney and an SA advocate, was a surprise speaker at today's iWeek 2007 Conference (presentations available here).  He has asked me to make his contact details available for anyone who is interested (see below).

Why would you be interested?  Seems Michael has extensive experience of bringing  monopolies to book through shareholder rights.  If he can get a group of more than 100 like-minded Telkom shareholders together (you only need one share), there are certain obligations that Telkom have w.r.t. being more transparent and accountable.

He is offering shares in Telkom that Mark Shuttleworth will apparently pay for!

If you want to get hold of him:

Michael Alachouzos
011-886-0191
076-818-2653
smda (at) mkohlhaas.org
64 Waterfall Avenue, Craighall, 2196, JHB

I'm intrigued!

Errata

Seems I got the bull by the udder on a few points - please see Michael's comments on this post for clarification.  The concept of getting involved as shareholders in any public entity in order to influence accountability and transparency and general good governance is a good one if time and money allow.

Telkom were "above the law"

Bretton Vine recently posted an article from Business Report by Ann Crotty on IOZ.legal. 

Willie Currie, a former counsellor of the Independent Communications Authority of SA; and Robert Horwitz, a member of the department of communication at the University of California in San Diego have authored an article entitled "Another instance where privatisation trumped liberalisation: the politics of telecommunications reform in South Africa - a ten year perspective".

In it, they claim that the shareholders' agreement signed by the government when it sold a 30 percent stake in Telkom to the Thintana Communications consortium placed both companies above South Africa's laws.  It also outlines how Southern Bell Company (SBC) played a significant role in slowing down the process of deregulation in order to extend Telkom's monopoly and their opportunity to milk the SA consumer to the profit of SBC.

I was working for the dark side at the time and recall finding the SBC guys who were brought in at exec level to be a generally arrogant and aggressive bunch.

We were ripped off.  By our own people too.  Makes my blood boil.

Update:

The academic paper "Another instance where privatisation trumped liberalisation: the politics of telecommunications reform in South Africa - a ten year perspective" can be found here.

The regulator finds its head!

Business day reports that Karabo Motlana will start as CEO on 3 September 2007.

He's worked for CellC, Telkom and SAB, so even if he can't get his head around the telecoms Gordian Knot, he should be able to organize a good p*ss-up?

;)

I'm a little behind on regulatory issues of late, and notice ICASA have issued proposed regs for both facilities leasing and interconnect.  Both very important to the future competitiveness of the local market.

good spam info site.

ISOC have a great wiki site for the Spam Bounty Hunter project - thanks to Calvin Browne for pointing me to it (hint noted for adding to the "how to" section ;).  Worth a visit.

<- Love the logo that Joe had made!

I'll give updates on activities Rob Stokes & I plus a growing bunch of IOZ members intend to take on spam and spammers.  It will not be a short, clean or easy fight. I foresee much frustration ahead, but if we can strengthen the legislation and mechanisms to throttle the scourge here in SA... we will.

aluta continua