As South African fixed-line operator Telkom received a R449 million fine from the country’s Competition Tribunal, Democratic Alliance Shadow Minister of Communications Marian Shinn said that the government can learn a lot from the outcome.
“Government must learn from Telkom’s punishment by the Competition Tribunal and must, in its future strategy for the telecommunications company, resist the temptation to return to monopolistic practices to dominate the market and shut out competitors,” she said in a statement.
While Telkom received a significantly lower fine than originally proposed by the Competition Commission, Shinn said that Telkom shouldn’t appeal the fine and will have to look at the future.
“I urge it not to appeal the fine and focus on becoming a market-friendly collaborator within the communications market. Communications Minister Dina Pule must soon report her ideas on Telkom’s future to Cabinet and there is much talk of delisting the company and merging it with Broadband Infraco and Sentech to form a single state-owned communications infrastructure entity,” she added.
But creating a single state-owned communications might be detrimental to South Africa. Shinn said that the temptation to use a single, government-owned communications infrastructure provider to control the sector will have negative consequences for the competitive ICT sector that South Africa desperately needs.
“All three entities have dire reputations for service delivery and for being instrumental in holding back the economic potential of South Africa’s ICT sector. The process of combining competing ANC cadre-led entities into one will further inhibit South Africa’s global ICT-based competitiveness and must be resisted,” Shinn concluded.
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor
