Electronic Communications Amendment Bill: briefing by Department of Communications
NCOP Public Enterprises and Communication
13 November 2007
Meeting Summary
A summary of this committee meeting is not yet available.
Meeting report
LABOUR
AND PUBLIC ENTERPRISES SELECT COMMITTEE
13 November 2007
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS AMENDMENT BILL: BRIEFING BY DEPARTMENT OF
COMMUNICATIONS
Acting Chairperson: Ms
D Ntwanambi (ANC, Western Cape)
Documents handed out:
Electronic
Communications Amendment Bill [B 38-2007]
Electronic Communications
Amendment Bill [B 38A-2007]
Electronic
Communications Amendment Bill [B 38-2007]
Electronic
Communications Amendment Bill presentation
Audio recording of
meeting
SUMMARY
The Department of Communications briefed the Committee on the Electronic
Communications Amendment Bill. Members were curious over the involvement of
stakeholders on the Bill but were assured that consultation had taken place. It
was agreed to adopt the Bill at a later meeting as a quorum of members was not
present.
MINUTES
Ms Ntwanambi (ANC, Western Cape) was elected as Acting Chairperson in the
absence of the Chairperson who was overseas.
The Department of Communications delegation comprised of Mr Norman Munzhelele
Acting Deputy Director General: ICT Policy Development and Ms Lerato Monareng
Assistant Director ICT Policy Development. Mr Mhloti Baloyi represented the
Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA). The State Law Advisors were
represented by Ms Pumelela Ngema and Ms Suraya Williams. A representative from
the parliamentary legal services was also present.
Mr Munzhelele conducted the briefing. He noted that the purpose of the Bill was
the facilitation of the licencing of public entities and to provide a licencing
framework. The Act as it stood was restrictive in that it did not provide for
strategic interventions by government. The Bill sought to address the issue.
The strategic interventions would reduce the cost to communicate by providing
infrastructure at a wholesale rate. There would also be an improvement in
government service delivery and support. It would furthermore provide the
much-needed bandwidth for strategic projects and for consumers in general. The
amendment to Section 3 of the Act provided for the Minister to issue a policy
direction after having obtained Cabinet approval. The policy direction would
define the role and mandate of entities to be licenced.
Discussion
Ms Ntwanambi asked if the Department of Communications wished to add
any further amendments to the Bill.
Mr Munzhelele stated that further amendments to the Bill were not anticipated.
Mr D Mkono (ANC, Eastern Cape) referred to the list of stakeholders that had
been consulted on the Bill and asked why Sentech was not on the list. He asked
whether Sentech had played any role in the process. Mr Mkono said that the
proposed amendments extend beyond SA’s borders and asked how economies of scale
would be upset. He further asked how the amendments would impact upon
employment and on current employees in the sector.
Mr Munzhelele replied that Cabinet had made a decision for Sentech to remain a
national strategic asset. He noted that Sentech was central to all issues
pertaining to capacity and infrastructure. He referred to the question about
the amendments extending beyond SA’s borders and said that the issue was about
international connectivity lacking. The idea was thus to build capacity.
Mr Baloyi said that new players like Infraco would be much cheaper than
existing players such as
Telkom. Cheaper prices meant that more jobs would be created.
Ms Ntwanambi asked whether MTN and Cell-C had been consulted and whether they
had been part of the public hearings process.
Mr Munzhelele said that the list of stakeholders as set out in the Bill was not
exhaustive. Sentech, MTN and Cell-C had made submissions.
Ms Ntwanambi asked whether objections to the Bill had been taken onto
consideration.
Mr Munzhelele stated that the Department had exhausted all issues raised by
stakeholders and had looked at concerns raised by operators. He noted that
there was a common understanding of where government wished to go with the
Bill. Mr Munzhelele pointed out that there were major benefits to all
operators.
The representative from parliament’s legal services said that concerns had been
raised over the apparent discretion of the Minister to make a policy direction.
However concerns had been put to rest because the policy direction by the
Minister would have to go through Cabinet first.
Mr Mkono was not convinced that lower prices meant increases in employment.
Mr Baloyi explained that SA’s focus was on Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).
If the bandwidth cost was too high, SA would not be able to compete
internationally with countries such as India for international companies to set
up call centres in SA. Keeping bandwidth costs down meant the opening of call
centres which meant more jobs. He also said that a thriving sector of SMMEs
would be created.
Ms Mtwanambi asked what economic growth benefits were there for the SADC
region.
Mr Munzhelele replied that there were a number of initiatives in the pipeline
such as the Nepad-ICD Broadband Network. It meant that no matter if a country
was land-locked or if a country was bordered by the sea, the bandwidth cost to
either country would be the same.
Mr Baloyi said that ICASA had an organization that dealt specifically with
regional issues. He noted that co-operation in the regulatory sector was not
only limited to the SADC region but included the African Continent as a whole.
Ms Ntwanambi said that the Committee lacked a quorum for the adoption of the
Bill and that it would have to be done at a later meeting. She asked how tight
the Bill was as far as interception and security was concerned.
Mr Munzhelele responded that security was high on the agenda. He noted that
Cabinet had taken a decision to increase investments in submarine capability
which played a major role in interception and security. The Bill was believed
to be very tight. Mr Munzhelele felt that national security was tied in with
infrastructure. If infrastructure was good, then security would be good.
Mr Douglas (ACDP) pointed out that bandwidth in the US and Europe was cheap and
even free. He asked if the Bill went far enough to avoid monopolies and price
hikes.
Mr Munzhelele replied that the amendments dealt with bandwidth at wholesale
rates. He noted that access to bandwidth at reasonable prices would be made
available to the public. It was currently not the situation. He explained that
once infrastructure was in place, then prices would be lowered. It did not
however necessarily mean that bandwidth would be free as it was in some
countries.
Mr Baloyi said that ICASA was engaged in a process of converting existing
licences of MTN, Cell-C etc. These providers would be competing on an equal par
with Telkom. He pointed out that there would be more operators for bandwidth.
Mr Baloyi said that the Act in any event made it illegal to have monopolies.
ICASA’s aim was to level the playing fields.
A female ANC member noted that the absence of electricity in rural areas made
the charging of cellphones an impossibility. She asked
if the use of solar panels was not a possibility to solve the problem.
Mr Munzhelele replied that government had an infrastructure plan in place. He
noted that the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) was considering the
possibility of solar energy as an alternative energy source and would be able
to elaborate further on the issue.
Ms Ntwanambi agreed that DME would be better informed on the matter.
The meeting was adjourned.
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