The Department of Communications and Committee sat through 43 exhausting oral presentations and a number of written submissions to formulate a new draft of the bill, from a licensing and legislative point of view.
Ant Brooks, chairman of the regulatory committee of the Internet Service Providers Association, says while it helps for industry players to be critical of the processes that have been used to formulate the draft, the ISPA took a "different approach" this time.
FINE-TOOTH COMB
"ISPA decided to fine-comb the bill and found a number of areas to the text that could have major implications in the way the legislation applies to, and is interpreted by ISPs," says Brooks.
One such issue is the universal service fund (USF). Brooks says in the current draft, the base maximum contribution to the USF is linked to the licensee`s annual turnover when it seems more appropriate to link this maximum to the licensee`s annual licence-related turnover.
"The draft of the Convergence Bill said licensees would have to pay up to 1% of their turnover to the USF. That is actually not the intention. This would imply that an enterprise operating primarily in an area of business unrelated to telecoms (e.g. banking), which extends its business by providing some communications services, will suddenly be liable for contributing a share of its entire turnover - rather than the portion of revenues derived from licensed telecoms services," says Brooks.
Brooks believes the DOC was very open to discussions and changes suggested by ISPA, which he says hinged on the fact that ISPA was better prepared and more focused.
He says the deliberations should wrap up this week with the Committee currently discussing and redrafting the sections.
VANS - THE QUIET STORM
Another issue Brooks believe was very promising news last month was the issuing of the remaining outstanding Value-added network service (VANS) licenses.
The new licences have been issued following the upheaval caused by the Minister of Communications, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, who issued a press release saying it was not her intention that VANS be allowed to self-provision, a word that Brooks believes has no current legal meaning.
"We have been on the Independent Communications Authority of SA`s (Icasa`s) case quite heavily for the last few months, on how blocked the VANS process has been, and now the blockage seems to have shifted."
Icasa`s latest terms and conditions seem to leave the door to self-regulation open, although the VANS themselves have mixed views.
He says the statement by the Minister however reduces the odds that any international investor will invest in `last mile` wireless Internet, because the appearance is that the regulatory environment doesn`t support that.
WHO CAN STOP THEM?
"The final statement on VANS remain very neutral on self-provisioning. This leaves it open to the possibility that one of the VANS can decide to go ahead and roll out connectivity to customers, believing that they can legally do so, and wait for a challenge," says Brooks.
This brings the industry to another current awkward situation - wireless ISPs - in particular the Knysna WiFi municipal solution that was installed by UniNet, a wireless Internet service provider (WISP).
UniNet is in the process of installing 40 base stations for the Knysna municipality - the first of its kind in the Western Cape.
"Our understanding is that you cannot provide a wireless service without a frequency licence. ISPA members would like to be legal to provide wireless Internet access, but given [their reluctance to break the law], they are losing customers to the presumably illegal wireless ISPs," says Brooks.
He says all eyes are now on Icasa to see what their reaction is going to be. Will Icasa let them continue to operate illegally? One thing is clear, Icasa has to make the decision to either enforce their endorsed policies, or not, and some consistency wouldn`t be amiss.
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