On Tuesday 14th October 1997, the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA) is to decide on the burning question of whether the provision of Internet Access is to be classified as part of the Public Switch Telecommunications Service (PST) or part of a Value-Added Network Service (VAN).

Simplifying the jargon exposes the issue and the reasons why it has become a contested terrain:
the Telecommunications Act of 1996 grants Telkom a five year exclusivity period to be the sole provider of PST services. The VAN services are an express area of permitted competition in terms of the Act. If Internet access is deemed part of the PSTS this will have a number of implications for private Internet access providers and make Telkom the sole provider of such access.

The debate was sparked last year when the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) challenged Telkom’s role as an ISP before the Competition Board. ISPA questioned the extent to which Telkom should be allowed to be an Internet service provider, as well as the sole provider of PST services. The private ISP’s claim that Telkom is abusing its position as the sole provider of the telecommunications infrastructure, to undercut prices of private ISP’s who have to bear the expense of leasing Telkom’s lines for the clients, whereas Telkom does not have to carry that additional expense in offering ISP services. Telkom is claiming that it is reliant on the opportunity to cross-subsidise its services to effect the roll-out of basic telecommunications services to currently under serviced areas.

There is merit in both arguments: Telkom maintains that as the state telecommunications operator with a self-proclaimed obligation to provide Internet access to the "masses", it is in all probability the only service provider that may have the resources, capacity and instruction to roll-out sufficient infrastructure to provide on-line services in rural areas. The revenues generated in the monopoly over the provision of Internet access will facilitate this. The private ISP’s however, built the dynamic and constantly developing Internet industry in South Africa and have established excellent service and delivery. They maintain that the provision of Internet access cannot be separated from other services that by definition makes such access a VAN service and thus open to competition. The Act provides for the licencing of VAN service providers and the industry is asserting that licencing obligations similar to those granted for the cellular phone industry will do more to effect roll-out of universal Internet access. SATRA is saddled with having to make a final decision and its task is made increasingly difficult by the fact that technically it seems impossible to reach a conclusion over whether Internet access is a VAN or PST service.

Less formally, one needs to consider whether Telkom’s service provider, the South African Internet Exchange (SAIX), will be able to provide the excellent standard of service that has been built up by the private ISP’s. In addition, the instrumentality of these ISP’s in building a vast Internet industry in South Africa cannot be overlooked. It is not sufficient to merely enable connectivity. Without sufficient service, capacity and bandwidth, the possibilities for development, for promoting freedom of expression and access to information are rendered nugatory. Telkom maintains that the exclusivity period with the sole right to provide Internet access will allow them to build and develop the infrastructure to achieve the same result.
The industry is awaiting the decision on Tuesday 14th October but regardless of the outcome, one can be assured that it will not be the final word on the matter, given the commercial investment and the opportunity that this truly mass medium has for democratisation and education.

By Tracy Cohen, Acting Head: Media Project, Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), University of the Witwatersrand.