Government will help the launch of 96 ISPs in South Africa
- Frederik Herholdt
- Mar 15, 2018
- 1 min read
The Department of Telecommunications announced that they will “facilitate the establishment” of 96 new ISPs in South Africa.
This is according to a statement made by Deputy Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams while addressing a Parliamentary portfolio committee on the cost to communicate in the country.
The department aims to prioritise "youth and women" it this initiative, they also aim to “increase awareness and participation of SMMEs in ecommerce”.
“The department further plans to facilitate and monitor the implementation of the minimum set-asides of 30% for procurement of services from SMMEs along the entire ICT value chain from the financial year, starting in April 2018,” she said.
Siyabonga Cwele, Telecommunications Minister, was also present at the presentation and mentioned high prices in the telecommunications industry. “One of the main reasons we still have high costs is because the industry remains highly concentrated. We are unlikely to see aggressive competition if we don’t open up the sector to more and new entrants,” said Cwele.
Cwele also said that the work done by ICASA on “effective competition in the broadband market” was making progress. “ICASA is scheduled to release its findings by June 2018, which will indicate a list of markets that should be regulated and priority markets to be subjected to market reviews.”
Vodacom and MTN have stated the implication need of high-demand radio frequency spectrum that will help them to provide better coverage and faster speeds at cheaper prices, Cwele made no mention on this subject however.
Posted 15 March 2018 | Frederik Herholdt
Comments