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ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK: Ready, set, but not yet go, for a faster future
Telkom’s delaying spectrum allocation is nothing new, but then the allocation of spectrum isn’t entirely fair, all of which means South Africans lose out yet again
This week, Telkom once again tried to put the brakes on the future. It lodged an application in the high court seeking to interdict communications regulator Icasa from going ahead with its invitation to apply (ITA) for high-speed spectrum. Most significantly, Telkom “seeks an order interdicting the completion of the spectrum assignment process”.
The application raises the spectre of Telkom’s attempt back in 1997 to claim a monopoly over internet services in SA. The regulator at the time, Satra, threw out this idiotic claim, which would have set back the internet industry by a decade or two. A decade later, then-minister of communications, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, had to be taken to court when she tried to protect Telkom’s monopoly over internet voice services...
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