Our Current Mission Statement
The following mission statement is still under construction and your opinion on any possible changes or additions may be voiced in the forums.
Mission statement
The main goal of antitrust.co.za is the complete liberalisation of the telecommunications industry in South Africa to bring it on a par with international standards and business practices and to improve the pricing and delivery of services and technologies to South African businesses and consumers.
Antitrust.co.za believes that the current telecommunications situation in SA is unacceptable. The excessive prices of services and technologies are a major constraint on South Africa’s economy, due to the excessive, and often prohibitive costs of telecommunications. South Africa fairs poorly against peer countries in terms of access to basic services and internet connectivity. The ‘digital divide’ in South Africa is being accentuated and thus the poor in SA are being further marginalized by not being able to afford even the most basic telecommunications services.
Antitrust.co.za believes that South Africa’s telecommunications policy as expressed though the 1996 White Paper and subsequent 1996 Telecommunications Act (Act 103 of 1996) have failed in achieving the majority of goals set out in these documents. Antitrust.co.za believes that there are numerous reasons for this failure, the most significant of which are:
1) Failure to establish an independent regulator with the requisite authority.
2) Failure to adequately separate control of the industry from those with substantial investment in the industry.
It is unacceptable to antitrust.co.za that the Minister of Communications continues to have so much power over the telecommunications industry when the government owns 38% of Telkom.
Consumers have waited patiently and with no other recourse for years for the industry to be opened to competition and create a truly competitive marketplace. While antitrust.co.za welcomes the liberalisation measures effective as of 1 February 2005, we believe that these measures do not go nearly far enough and will ultimately fail to achieve what antitrust.co.za considers the absolute minimum necessary deliverables to the South Africa consumer.
The mission to speed up liberalisation of the sector is underpinned by the belief that rapid advancements in technology over the past two decades means that the idea that telecommunications is a “natural monopoly” sector no longer holds true. Antitrust.co.za believes that the consumers of South Africa would best be served by a liberalized telecommunications industry – i.e. a telecommunications market characterized by competition.
Antitrust.co.za believes that the most significant benefits of telecommunications liberalisation are[1]:
1. More efficient – Companies are forced to become efficient and economical, because if they are not, then they will not survive. A telecom company operated by the government in a non-competitive market can always rely on government to ‘bail them out’ if the company is financially mismanaged. This is not the case in an open market. Competing telecoms companies cannot afford to waste money by being inefficient and unproductive.
2. More affordable services – A truly liberalised environment is a competitive one. Companies lower their prices in order to compete with one another and make themselves more attractive to the consumer. More competition translates into lower prices (though there is a threshold).
3. More pricing options – Companies in a competitive environment attempt to capture specific markets, and so tailor their prices to suit such consumers. This means that there are more pricing options available, and customers can choose which one suits their usage best.
4. More services – Service providers expand their list of services offered in order to attract more consumers. Liberalisation also stimulates product innovation, meaning that more products are offered to the consumer.
5. Better and more reliable technology – An open telecommunications environment allows for foreign firms to participate in providing services. Such foreign firms bring with them new technologies. The customer gains further because the research and development costs have already been paid for.
6. Better customer service – A telecoms service provider competing in an open market has incentives to provide good customer service, because if they do not, then the customer can easily switch to another service provider.
Policy
Antitrust.co.za supports all non-violent, legal means which further our aim of speeding up liberalisation of the telecommunications sector.
A major factor which antitrust.co.za believes will help in this mission is to draw attention to Telkom’s and Cellular Phone companies practices and the general regulations in the sector which allow and contribute to Telkom’s behaviour. In this regard, it is the general policy of antitrust.co.za to make as much information about Telkom available to all stakeholders. “Stakeholders” include: any South African citizen or resident, Telkom customers, all industry players, business, political parties, and all and any media outlets.
Antitrust.co.za believes that, while Telkom is not fully responsible for the state of the telecommunications industry in South Africa, Telkom is the major beneficiary of the crisis that is ensuing. Telkom is profiting hugely and at an ever-increasing rate at the expense of every citizen in the country, regardless of whether or not they are a Telkom customer.
[1] Love, D (2005) “An Overview of the SA Telecommunications Industry: From pre-1994 Policy-making to Gloomy 2005 Realities”. Unpublished Honour’s degree research paper.
Credit to Debbie for initital research and writing it up, and to Talbot for proofing it.
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