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To be held near Joburg at the Thaba Ya Batswana Eco Hotel from 9-12 September. The Internet Service Providers’ Association of South Africa (ISPA) and ZA Domain Name Authority (ZADNA), ZA Central Registry (ZACR), Wireless Access Providers’ Association (WAPA) and ISOC-ZA are hosting the 12th iWeek conference.

This year’s event will be focusing on bringing some of the globe’s most important thinkers to South Africa to act as a catalyst for lively discussion and new ideas.

Register now on the website http://www.iweek.org.za/

Following from the success of last years AfriNIC training we’re hosting “how to plan and implement IPv6 networks as well as manage Internet resources” delivered by AfriNIC on May 3 – May 6 at 125 Buitengracht St., Cape Town.

Register directly with AfriNIC here

In Cape Town from 10-14 September at the Crystal Towers Hotel, the Internet Service Providers’ Association of South Africa (ISPA) and ZA Domain Name Authority (ZADNA), ZA Central Registry (ZACR), Wireless Access Providers’ Association (WAPA) and ISOC-ZA are hosting the 11th iWeek conference.

The programme includes aspects of global and local developments in the domain name space; workshops on “Internet Freedom in South Africa” and “Next Generation Internet”; as well as sessions on cyber security. In SpamJam VII, Advocate Annamart Nieman defend ISPA’s Hall of Shame. Other highlights include presentations on VOIP peering, wireless communities and licence-exempt bands and best practices in wireless installation. The as well as the annual general meetings of WAPA and ISPA. The conference will wrap up with “Cape Pouring Point”, a social event in the winelands. Speakers include Bill Manning, Max Kaizen, Alan Levin, Andrew Mack, Ant Brooks, Dumisa Melane, Duncan Martin and dozens of others.

Register now on the website http://www.iweek.org.za/

The Internet Soiety presents AfPIF 2012 from 22 – 24 August 2012, register here.
The African Peering and Interconnection Forum addresses the key interconnection, peering, and traffic exchange opportunities and challenges on the continent and provides participants with global and regional insights for maximising opportunities that will help grow Internet infrastructure and services in Africa.

. . . and more!

Read here…

Finally we’re hosting the IPv6 AfriNIC training in Cape Town on 18 – 21 June 2012. Limited space sold out 30 spots in 2 days.

IPv6 Training by AfriNIC hosted in Cape Town by ISOC-ZA

We expect that at the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Create an IPv6 address plan and request such from AfriNIC Ltd
• Configure and verify intra-domain and inter-domain routing for IPv6
• Plan and deploy IPv6 in access networks anticipating the common issues

which should enable Cape Town to ramp onto the next generation of IP.

Kind thanks to AfriNIC for providing the trainers and materials and for a great deal of effort in the planning.

Recent infographic by Mybroadband shows some improvement, we believe that now is the time that we will start to see major changes in the South African telecoms environment.

credit: MyBroadband

There is no doubt that the South African ICT industry has won several very important battles to bring meaningful Internet connectivity to our citizens. However they were often made despite the Minister of Communications and ICASA rather than because of them. A shining example of this is the Altech court case, which ruled against the late Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and which resulted in all value- added network services (VANS) licenses being converted to individual electronic communications network service (I-ECNS) licenses, effectively enabling hundreds of these companies to build and provide infrastructure rather than be forced to use Telkom or Neotel.

But it seems as though this was not a lesson that the Department of Communications or ICASA took to heart. Today we are appalled to see the new Minister and ICASA making the same mistake, once again, with the wireless spectrum licenses. The Invitations to apply (ITAs) for a portion of the licensed part of the wireless spectrum was published in the government gazette on 28 May 2010 – and the deadline to apply was subsequently extended to next Friday – but today the invitation was cancelled today. Undoubtedly this was due to pressure from the incumbents and – what we consider to be spurious – “technical reasons”. Whilst we recognise there are some challenges with the ITAs – especially the National ITA (for 2.6GHz) – we believe there were measures that could have be taken to mitigate the issues. With respect to the Regional ITA (for 3.5GHz) its’ cancellation (or delay) appears to be unjustified. We know that there are dozens of wireless ISPs struggling to compete with the previously advantaged licensees due to the lack of available licensed spectrum, and their chances of doing so have just been squashed.

While it seems that all parties are willing to pay lip service to the concept of “affordable Internet access for all” true political will has been tragically lacking. If only bringing affordable access to all, was taken as seriously by those in power as the 2010 World Cup. As a result, for the vast majority of South Africans, the Internet remains only a concept – still unaffordable and mysterious.

How can we ensure that government officials are not overwhelmed by vested commercial interests and make decisions in the interest of all citizens?

This decision by ICASA as supported, or perhaps even directed, by Minister Nyanda is a second example of policy changing at the last moment to the collective detriment of current and potential end-users of telecommunications services. In this case we think it unlikely that the smaller telecommunications players will be able to step up and shoulder the considerable legal costs in fighting this decision.

We are appalled but unfortunately not surprised at this action. It is consistent the government’s historic actions as well as the actions of the current Portfolio Committee. At our recent INET conference designed to educate policymakers on global best practice – convened at the request of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications – not a single committee member attended and only a single apology was tendered. Bearing in mind that ISOC-ZA stands for the present and future consumers, it is no wonder that ISOC-ZA Policy head, Paul Esselaar wryly remarked: “It is apparent that the Committee seems to think that the partisan comment and “education” delivered by the major commercial entities is sufficient to understand the complexities of spectrum. Unfortunately, as usual, it is consumers who are the losers in this.”

Please assist and send the pdf or .doc to your favourite journalist.

Video recordings of the sessions – http://bambuser.com/channel/isoc-za/broadcast
IRC – for chat and questions – server: atlantis.zanet.org.za (port 6667) – channel: #isoc
Twitter – http://twitter.com/isocza tweet #inetct

Agenda – http://wiki.isoc.org.za/INET All welcome!

Presentations:
Jon McNerney – ISOC welcome
Chris Smith – ISOC access development
Alan Levin – What next?
Stefan Doeblin – Lessons learned
Steve Song – African undersea cables
J Scott Marcus – Regulatory models for Internet growth

The Internet Society is pleased to announce INET Cape Town 2010, where experts and laymen will examine just what it will take to enable Internet access at much lower costs and at much higher speeds.

Since 1994, the Internet Society has organized INET conferences around the world. Originally staged as annual global conferences, over time it has refined their focus, targeting the specific needs of each region with a focus topics most relevant to the communities involved.

“ISOC-ZA recognises the need to address the state of wholesale Internet, subsequent to the introduction of competition in the sector. We believe that with competition, the sector has become more complex, but there is not yet a significantly marked reduction in pricing, nor is there a marked improvement in the quality nor quantity of people with Internet access,” explains Alan Levin, ISOC-ZA Chairman. “This is a clear case of ‘good enough’ is not good enough.” ISOC will examine the important role of open access to Internet infrastructure in order to bring affordable access to all South Africans.
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