Showing Tag: "access" (Show all posts)

Communications Minister on Readiness for 4IT

Posted by LA Thornton on Monday, January 6, 2020,
The Minister of Communications announced several new initiatives and provided updates on others, in support of its readiness to lead the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) in South Africa.

1.  The appointment (and later withdrawal) of an administrator (of a repurposed universal service agency) to implement digital migration, and repurposing the universal service fund to a 4IR fund

2.  The appointment of an administrator (of a new technology company) to oversee government IT spend

3.  The pending...

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Electronic Communications Amendment Act, 2014

Posted by LA Thornton on Friday, July 11, 2014,
On 7 April 2014, the President assented to the Electronic Communications Amendment Act, 2014 (EC Amendment Act).  It came into operation 21 May 2014.  A number of the amendments eliminate anomalies that existing in the previous version of the legislation. Those are not detailed here.  The more substantive changes include the following.
Individual service licences

Licensing

The following language is deleted from the individual service licensing provisions:  “In consideration of the implementati...
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Electronic Communications Amendment Bill, 2012

Posted by LA Thornton on Wednesday, August 8, 2012,
The Minister of Communications has published the Electronic Communications Amendment Bill, 2012 for comment due 29 August 2012.

Two classes of individual ECNS licences?

In the Memorandum on the objects of the Bill, one is led to believe that the amendment to section 20 of the Act would limit the rights of certain individual ECNS licensees in respect of gaining rights of way.  However, upon examination of the proposed amendment, it appears that this would not be the result.  The proposed amendme...
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Local Loop Unbundling

Posted by LA Thornton on Friday, December 2, 2011,
ICASA announced its findings in its inquiry re the ICASA Framework for Introducing Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) on 30 Nov 2011.

1.  ICASA will consult, starting Feb 2012, on the process to establish an Access Line Deficit Recovery Scheme.
2.  ICASA will engage the industry to ensure the price of IP Connect is reduced, from March 2012.
3.  ICASA will engage the industry, starting Feb 2012, to ensure a Bitstream product is introduced by Nov 2012.
4.  ICASA will conduct a Regulatory Impact Assessmen...
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Digital Migration Policy - Proposed Amendments

Posted by LA Thornton on Thursday, August 25, 2011,
The Minister of Communications published an intention to amend the digital migration policy issued in 2008.  The amendments set the switch on date for dual illumination as April 2012 and the cutoff date for analogue TV for December 2013.  In addition, the DVB-TS standard is proposed for digital terrestrial TV, DVB-S for digital satellite TV, and MPEG-4 as the compression standard, while existing services allowed to migrate when it is commercially viable.  Set top boxes will be subsidised thro...
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Annual Contributions to the Universal Service and Access Fund

Posted by LA Thornton on Wednesday, February 16, 2011,
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa amended the regulations regarding annual contributions to the Universal Service Fund on 10 Feb 2011.  There are two noteworthy changes from the previously applicable regulations.  The first is that the annual contributions will be due six (rather than three) months after a licensee's financial year end.  This makes the due date simultaneous with the due date for annual licence fees applicable to service licences.  The second is that the...
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Access for people with disabilities

Posted by LA Thornton on Wednesday, December 29, 2010,
Did you know that all licensees must ensure that their services are accessible and available to people with disabilities.  For more information, contact info@thornton.co.za.

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