Telkom cries foul over municipal telecoms services

Telkom is furious at municipalities that have started rolling out their own telecommunications services in an effort to save costs. According to Business Report:

At parliament’s communications portfolio committee last week, Telkom said municipalities such as Knysna were breaching the Telecommunications Act by providing telecoms to communities.

About seven municipalities out of 284, including Knysna, eThekwini and the City of Johannesburg, hold private telephone network licences.

The act states that a “private telephone network shall not be provided by means of telecommunication facilities other than facilities made available by Telkom or any other person providing a public switched telecommunication network service”.

But last year the minister of communications, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, said municipalities could lease spare infrastructure capacity to licensed operators.

Telkom’s fixed-line monopoly has been protected by the Telecommunications Act, but this is coming to an end through the pending Electronics Communications Act, which was signed into law two months ago. Telkom contended that since the Electronics Communications Act was in transition, the Telecommunications Act still applied and should be “strictly enforced”.

This story leads me to wonder if Telkom’s monopoly will ever really end?

(via Buys Incorporated)

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