Column | Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector, by IvoVegter
Khumbudzo Ntshavheni remains convinced that a state-owned network infrastructure company can trump the private sector. She is mistaken.
Undeterred, however, Ntshavheni has now pinned her hopes for state participation in the market on a long-awaited State Digital Infrastructure Company , which is to be formed by combining the assets of the perennially loss-making Broadband Infraco and signal distributor Sentech. Meanwhile, the private sector companies offering mobile phones had been beavering away, as profit-driven private companies do, and managed to get cellphones into the hands of almost all South Africans. To cope with the problem of non-payment, they pioneered an innovative prepaid system, which enabled even the poor to enjoy mobile telephony.
Establishing wholesale and retail markets was fairly successful in stimulating competition among ISPs in the wired Internet market. It could be effective again, even if only as a counter to the original regulatory sin of limiting mobile operator licences to two, then three, and then only a few more companies.
Even the process to combine Sentech with BBI demonstrates why the government shouldn’t be running a combined SDIC.
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