| |
 |
|
20
March 2002 |
The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) had issued three new draft regulations to help pave the way for the initial public offering (IPO) of fixed-line monopoly Telkom and the licensing of the second national operator (SNO), it said yesterday.
Yasmin Carrim, an Icasa councillor, said the SNO was likely to be licensed in the fourth quarter of this year.
Icasa could license the SNO in October if the government issued the invitation to investors to apply for a 51 percent stake in the SNO l... |
| |
|
|
19
March 2002 |
BY PHILLIP DE WET, ITWEB NEWS EDITOR
[Johannesburg, 19 March 2002] - The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has released three sets of draft regulations aimed at creating regulatory certainty for the public listing of Telkom and the entry of a second national operator (SNO).
Apparently stung by government comments that a lack of regulation is holding back the Telkom initial public offering (IPO), which is large enough to significantly affect the value of the rand, ICASA says it is kee... |
| |
|
|
19
March 2002 |
Telkom had given a further 367 employees two weeks to take early retirement or voluntary severance packages before facing forced retrenchment, the state-controlled telecommunications utility said yesterday.
These looming retrenchments are part of Telkom's staff optimisation programme, which essentially aims at cutting jobs the company considers to be redundant.
George Nkadimeng, Telkom's employee relations executive, said: "Staff optimisation is an essential part of Telkom's preparations for the intro... |
| |
|
|
18
March 2002 |
The value of Telkom's R2.6 billion counterclaim against US telecommunications technologies firm Telcordia had almost doubled with the rand's devaluation, Tom Barry, Telkom's chief operating officer, said at the weekend.
Telcordia demanded a R1 billion payout after Telkom last year nullified a R2 billion software supply deal which the two companies had signed in July 1999.
Telkom responded by lodging a counterclaim of R2.6 billion for lost expenditure and business opportunity.
That amount has increa... |
| |
|
|
15
March 2002 |
Telkom says it does not understand the direction government is taking with its telecommunications legislation and 30% shareholder Thintana is even more confused about the current situation.
“We don't understand this legislation. We don't understand the regulation. We don't know where this industry is going,” Telkom COO Tom Barry said at a media briefing today. Barry also represents Thintana, the joint venture between Telekom Malaysia and American operator SBC Communications.
He said the regulatory env... |
| |
|
|
14
March 2002 |
Users of the free personal computer (PC) to cellphone service, which MTN temporarily shut down last week after a costing dispute with Telkom, are up in arms, saying the telecommunications utility's move was "a monopolistic and predatory practice".
But analysts said a free SMS service was not sustainable in the long term.
Cape-based Telephone Action Group condemned Telkom for trying to cash in on SMS messaging. It said: "This is nothing but a ploy by Telkom to make users of data telephony pay for servi... |
| |
|
|
14
March 2002 |
Tom Barry, the American chief operating officer of Telkom and head of the Thintana Consortium, which owns 30 percent of the state-controlled telecommunications utility, said yesterday he would not be leaving South Africa just yet.
This assertion comes ahead of the expiry of Telkom's exclusivity licence on May 7.
By this date the Thintana Consortium was expected to have implemented plans for the operational management control of Telkom to be transferred to South Africans.
Asked yesterday if he would... |
| |
|
|
6
March 2002 |
A COURT application by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) against the legality of Telkom's revised tariffs is to be heard in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday.
The matter was postponed on January 29 at the request of both parties.
Telkom intended bringing its own application on Tuesday to have Icasa's tariff regulations set aside.
On December 31, Judge Chris Botha rejected Icasa's application for an urgent interdict forbidding Telkom from putting its tariff adjustm... |
| |
|
|
6
March 2002 |
More than 1 million users of the free short messaging service (SMS) for two-way computer-to-mobile devices, including cellphones, lost the service after MTN said yesterday it had stopped its mtnsms.com service because of pressure over costs from Telkom, which is demanding a fee for each international message sent.
MTN said the cost increase of running the service, now including a new 9c charge by telecoms utility Telkom for the SS7 signalling link on each message sent internationally, was not sustainable... |
| |
|
|
5
March 2002 |
BY STAFF WRITER, ITWEB
[Johannesburg, 5 March 2002] - The legal challenge against the rate structure imposed by Telkom as of January has hit another snag and has apparently been postponed for another two months.
In a statement released this afternoon, Telkom says the case has been postponed to 28 May at the request of ICASA, the Independent Communications Authority of SA. Telkom says ICASA failed to submit new founding papers by the end of February, and has been given 10 more days to do so.
Telko... |
| |
|
|
5
March 2002 |
The second network operator (SNO), which is yet to be licensed to compete with incumbent telecommunications operator Telkom, might make a minimal impact on the residential telephone market.
The SNO would target the largely corporate telecoms users market, and this would not help increase the country's telephone density, Werner Muller, the divisional manager for telecoms at research firm BMI-T, said yesterday.
But Telkom was aware of this and has already moved aggressively to corner the high end of the... |
| |
|
|
4
March 2002 |
MTN says it has moved into a “massive preview” phase of general packet radio service (GPRS) and that the long-awaited technology will be publicly available before June.
The generation 2.5 always-on GPRS is the final stepping-stone before third-generation (3G) mobile technology, and has major cost and speed advantages over the circuit-switched technologies currently in use.
MTN says it now has GPRS coverage throughout most of the country and it is previewing it to customers and partners. But it does no... |
| |
|
|
4
March 2002 |
A court application by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) against the legality of Telkom's revised tariffs is to be heard in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday.
The matter was postponed on January 29 at the request of both parties.
The court granted the postponement since Icasa had acquired new legal counsel and needed time to submit revised founding papers, to which Telkom had to respond.
Telkom earlier said it intended bringing its own application on Tuesday to have ... |
| |
|
|
1
March 2002 |
On November 30 the Telecommunications Amendment Act was promulgated. Chris Yelland explores some of the issues with Icasa's Wojtek Skowronski and Siyabonga Madyibi.
What's the Act provision on number portability and carrier pre-selection? What will change and when?
Number portability refers to the ability of consumers to retain their numbers if they switch from one provider to another. As such, customers of Telkom will be more willing to switch to the second network operator on the basis of service an... |
| |
|
|
1
March 2002 |
When the UK government started selling off its shares in BT they were over-subscribed three to one. This contradicts some of the theories in South Africa that competition will harm Telkom's IPO
Liberalisation of the United Kingdom's telecommunications industry has been used as a benchmark or referred to as "Best International Practice" by many countries wishing to remodel their own monopolistic market.
There are clearly many benefits to liberalising a monopolistic industry, especially and most importan... |
|
