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.

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

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.

The keynote address will be delivered by J. Scott Marcus Director of WIK. Scott has worked as senior adviser to the FCC (USA regulator) and advised the European Commission on how to regulate for Internet growth. Prior to serving on the ARIN board of trustees he was CTO of one of the largest global Internet networks (GTE – Genuity). Scott will present models of regulation that have failed and worked as well as business models that ‘work’ for users versus those that work for operators.

The one-day event will also feature panel discussions between the providers of gigabit internet connections in South Africa. Those in the industry as well as regulators will get a good idea of what developments they can expect and how they can plan ahead. The full agenda can be found here

“At this crucial juncture, the last thing we can afford to do is rest on our laurels. We may have won some key battles, but the war is far from over. The biggest risk for the South African economy at this point is complacency. ISOC intends to equip our selves with the ideas and knowledge to take the next step in creating a truly accessible Internet,” Levin concludes.

The event will be held on the May 24 at Le-Vendome in Sea Point Cape Town. Entrance is free thanks to the kind sponsors, ISOC, more information and registration can be found here: http://isoc.org.za/.

The conference is sponsored by the Internet Society (global), Dark Fibre Africa and the CO.ZA Registry, a division of UniForum SA

About ISOC
The Internet Society (ISOC) provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the organisational home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).

The Internet Society of South Africa or ISOC-ZA is one of the 80 global chapters. It was formed in 1997, to serve the interests of the South African segment of the global Internet community

About Dark Fibre Africa
Dark Fibre Africa owns, operates and maintains a state-of-the-art, secure ducting infrastructure, which enables users of communications capacity to enjoy logical separation and ownership of communications capability, whilst sharing the same physical right of way access routes with their customers. DFA is responsible for financing and constructing ducting infrastructure and making discrete fibre strands available to individual operators of telecommunications services. These operators are then responsible for “lighting” the fibre and onward selling the capacity to their customers. www.dfafrica.co.za

About Uniforum SA
UniForum SA is not for profit organisation that has administered the .CO.ZA Internet domain name space since September 1995. Under UniForum’s stewardship, the .CO.ZA name space has grown to its current level of over 550,000 domain name registrations. Excess proceeds from domain registrations are used to fund Internet industry initiatives, including social upliftment projects relating to education and enterprise development. UniForum SA is a level II BBBEE contributor.

Date: Monday 24 May – see ISOC-ZA calendar
Venue: Le-Vendome – see Map here
20 London Road, Sea Point Cape Town
twitter: tag #inetct

Thank you to all of those ISOC-ZA policy list members who assisted with the drafting of the ISOC-ZA comments.

1. Registry_Regulations_18_November_2009-final_draft_for_public_comment (MS Word – 165kb);
2. Registrar_Regulations_18_November_2009-final_draft_for_public_comment (MS Word – 141kb);
3. ISOC-ZADNAregssubmission (PDF – 152kb);

INET 2010

ISOC-ZA has proposed to once again host an INET this year.  Since 1994, the Internet Society has organized INET conferences around the world. Originally staged as annual global conferences, over time we have refined their focus, targeting the specific needs of previously underserved regions.

Today, the Internet Society holds multiple INETS each year, each with a unique regional focus and a selection of topics most relevant to the communities involved. INET meetings are more than just a narrow policy seminar or educational workshop, and the committee intends to ensure our Agenda covers all topics most relevant to the Internet user in South Africa. Please keep a look out for more news on this exciting event.

Policy

There was a host of action on the policy front last year, and ISOC-ZA intends to remain an active commentator on proposed policy, regulation and legislative changes. If you wish to participate please join the list by sending an email to policy-request@isoc.org.za with ’subscribe’ as the subject or alternatively visit the web interface here

Youth

One of the biggest challenges facing the Internet Society in general and South Africa in particular is a lack of active involvement. This may have a lot to do with the very busy lives we lead, the sluggish economy and the time constraints we all feel. However, ISOC-ZA wants to encourage more young folk to get involved with the organisation. It is, after all, their Internet we’re protecting.

With this in mind, ISOC-ZA will start a ISOC Youth portfolio which will look at recruiting scholars and students, educating them on the issues facing the Internet and its users, and with them, developing Internet ambassadors. These ISOC champions are best placed to spread the word and educate their peers.

Over the next few months we will be sending out more information on this programme, so please keep it in mind. You can also mail Bronwen with any suggestions on this front.

We urge you to take some time to consider where you could add some value to the organisation.  ISOC-ZA will be highlighting the spirit of volunteerism during the course of our events this year.  We hope that you will see how becoming involved in a civil society such as ours can benefit not only yourself, but your community and even your business.

• Communications and Youth: Bronwen Kausch
• Treasurer: Saul Stein
• Policy: Paul Esselaar
• Gauteng: Mohammed Ebrahim
• Immediate past chair: Naresh Dajee
• Chair: Alan Levin

The committee hopes to revitalise ISOC-ZA and has several exciting projects in the pipeline which we will publicise later in the year. Please feel free to contact us should you wish to assist (we are a voluntary organisation) or would like to find out more about what we do and why we do it.

Download the list of Nominees here

From Lessig

Prof. Lawrence Lessig addressed all members at the SABC auditorium on the freeculture.co.za topic.

It was a super opportunity to be part of the world and hear Prof. Lessig first hand. He delivered a superb life changing presentation.

From Lessig

Hear the audio (part 1 – 18.3MB mp3 – streaming, part 2 – 18.3 MB – mp3 streaming and part 3 – 6.4MB mp3 streaming) and see the (28.9MB pdf) presentation that goes with it.