It’s not over yet..
Today was the last day for ICASA or the Department of Communication (DoC) to appeal the judgement that VANS may self provide infrastructure.
The DoC appealed. WTF!
At least now we have clarity on where the obstacle to an open and deregulated South African telecoms market is. I guess one positive thing is that the market started thinking about how they would use the new licences if they were to get them.
“The digital divide was created and is maintained by African Governments.” — William Stucke, over lunch at iWeek
You have to wonder in who’s interest the DoC are acting.. Infraco? Telkom? Neotel?
We’ll have to wait and see what happens with the 27 VANS marked to received IECNS licenses in the Government Gazette. Will that be revoked? Seems the process is frozen again.
The WAPA case is still pending. Altech have deep pockets. The plot thickens.
I am Joe’s total sense of humour failure..
We *were* all expecting this, and I think rather surprised when they seemed to give in so easily before.
All I can say is good luck
Hey Stefano
Yup. It’s kinda sad to be surprised when people do the right thing.. I always figured government have to act in the best interest of the public?
I can’t see this news stopping all the WISPs out there.
[...] iWeek, bad news for VANS, but.. maybe it’s good for Amobia.. another 6 months of “uncertainty”. [...]
[...] for SA telecoms: on Friday 31 Oct the High Court denied the Minister of Communications leave to appeal a recent judgement that gave all VANS license holders (ISPs) the right to build network [...]