If
you were president of
(Firstly,
my humble apologies for vanishing off the face of the blog for an extended
period
– a trip to Joburg with wall-to-wall meetings with colleagues and business
partners was part of the problem; a momentous personal dilemma which is
leec
OK, here goes.
My
dear Minister,
Your
progress over the past few years has been promising and encouraging, yet you
are running well behind schedule. You
are going to need make a concerted effort to speed up your delivery in 2007. The country cannot afford you not to. Our economy depends on you.
1) Bring down the cost of telecoms
Enough talk about
lowering the cost of telecommunications. In the next year, I’d like to see at least two tangible initiatives to
move toward affordable, accessible, quality communications for both poor people
and businesses (especially the small business sector).
2) Encourage competition
During 2007, you need to take definite steps toward ensuring the growth of
competition in the telecommunications sector. This means there needs to be less Government ownership of telecommunications
firms, not more. Players with
Significant Market Power need to find themselves obligated to interconnect to
smaller entities on favourable terms, and to provide wholesale offerings to
competitor retail divisions before their own retail divisions. I’d like to see the local loop unbundled, not
only for the second network operator, but for broadband service providers too.
3) Let the smaller business play too
Licence some
smaller players – even if on a regionalized basis – let the more agile players
used to a competitive environment show the way.
4) Use resources wisely
Make sure resources
such as radio spectrum are well used – not bought by those with deep pockets
whose only intention is to thwart competitors, present and potential. Let us see some innovative “boere met hul
planne”.
5) Attract investment
Let us see at
least one initiative to attract private equity from local and foreign investors. Speak to Trevor about such things as tax
holidays for those investing in such a way that does not siphon profits
offshore the minute the companies “turn the corner”?
6) Create some good policies
Let’s see some
clear, progressive policies on such topics as Broadband, Interconnect, the structure
of the Wholesale/Retail interface, the use of spectrum. Give some direction and reassurance to
private investors.
7) Fund and free ICASA
Increase ICASA’s
funding – I’m tired of hearing people like that Gale fellow moaning about ICASA
having less budget that Telkom’s regulatory division. Give them the ability to raise their own
funds through license fees, etc. Give
them the ability to attract top-notch people. Put clear guidelines down that enhance their independence, not erode it.
8) Go back to the schools
Sort out the
fatal flaws in the eRate for schools and find ways of encouraging ISPs to roll
out Internet connectivity to schools. Support some initiatives in schools to promote careers in ICT.
9) Don’t
interfere in the wrong places
Show some
tangible adherence to the statement {2(y)} in the Electronic Communications Act that goes thus:
refrain from undue interference in the commercial activities of licensees while taking into account the communication needs of the public.
10) Get a
decent PR company
And find out how that Gale fellow from Storm gets so much coverage – you need
to work on the DoC’s image. Start a blog
– I hear they are they are a good idea. Either
that or get JZ to come up with a song for you like that machine-gun one he
winds his followers up with all the time.
I realize that some of these are fuzzier than Emmi, Storm’s Learning Manager and KPM-guru, would accept as measurable, but hey this is a first cut and if you have suggestions for more definite actions - there’s a space for comments down below… ;-)
Until next time, that’s me!
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