Duncan McLeod: Shine the spotlight on SA Telecoms [and keep it there]

Duncan McLeod: Former Vodacom Group CEO Alan Knott-Craig says one of the former foreign investors in Telkom, SBC (now AT&T), “effectively drafted the 1996 Telecommunications Act after transferring its entire San Antonio corporate legislative team to SA ”. The then-new ANC administration, still wet behind the ears, sold the country’s telecoms industry up the proverbial river.

Knott-Craig blames this deal, done in secret, for the relatively high broadband prices we continue to pay.

SHOOT: It's critical that the issue of these high prices be prioritised, publicised and put to rest as soon as possible. It's in the public interest, if not the national interest.

clipped from www.techcentral.co.za MTN SA CEO Karel Pienaar noticed my presence almost immediately and raised an objection with Icasa chairman Paris Mashile, who, in turn, asked me to leave the room. I asked what the legal basis was for asking me to leave and was told that the meeting was closed and by invitation only and that this was sufficient reason. It’s not surprising that Pienaar — and some other operators represented in the room — didn’t want me there. For MTN and Vodacom, there are billions of rand at stake. Already, one brokerage, Barnard Jacobs Mellet Securities, has downgraded its price target on Vodacom from R84/share to R60/share because of fears over the impact of reduced interconnection fees. My ejection from the Icasa meeting is problematic. Interconnection rates are a hugely contentious issue in SA. They affect every person who owns a cellphone — and that’s most of the population. Though the media weren’t expressly invited, the meeting was certainly in the public interest.