Question NW2962 to the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services
25 August 2015 - NW2962
Shinn, Ms MR to ask the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services
Whether any engagements have been held with stakeholders in the review of the draft Rapid Deployment Policy; if so, which stakeholders (a) contributed to and (b) reviewed the specified policy?
Reply:
Extensive discussions have been held with stakeholders in both the government and private sectors.
These include:
National Departments of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs; Rural Development and Land Reform; Environmental Affairs; Economic Development; Public Enterprises; Transport; Water Affairs; Performance Monitoring and Evaluation; Office of the Chief State Law Adviser; the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA); South African Local Government Association (SALGA); Broadband Infraco; Cell C; Dark Fibre Africa; Fibreco; Internet Solutions; Dimension Data; Link Africa; Liquid Telecoms; MTN; Neotel; Sentech; Telkom; Vodacom; Vumatel; Fibre to the Home (FTTH) Council; Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) Association; Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA); South African Communications Forum (SACF); Wireless Access Providers’ Association (WAPA); Eskom; Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA); South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL); State Information Technology Agency (SITA); Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR); Transnet; Cape Town Municipality; Ekurhuleni Municipality; Tshwane Municipality and ATC South Africa.
Following these engagements, the Department of Transport, ICASA, Office of the Chief State Law Adviser and Telkom provided further information in writing. Based on these engagements a discussion paper highlighting the policy issues has been developed and circulated to stakeholders.
The Discussion Paper is also available on the Department’s website. This Discussion Paper has been workshopped with stakeholders on 21 August 2015, the draft Rapid Deployment Policy will be developed based on the input derived therefrom.