1994-2014 – Telecommunications Governance in South Africa

Twenty years of telecommunications market governance under the African National Congress (ANC) has seen a dramatic rise in access to telephony in South Africa, attributable to two mobile network operators licensed by the National Party (NP): MTN and Vodacom. Otherwise, the regulatory state regime for telecommunications has performed poorly, with disappointing policy formulation, regulation, and collection of statistics. The balance of private and state investment has been uncertain, discouraging the former, especially through unexpected interventions concerning the three state-owned enterprises (SOEs): Infraco, Telkom, and Sentech. The incumbent operator, Telkom, admitted long-term abuse of dominance, lobbied against government policies and disappointed in its delivery of fixed services, while failing in wireless. The regulatory authorities, ICASA and SATRA, were untrusted and lacked the strength and legal tools to perform their complex duties. Neither government nor parliament analysed the failures and thus were unable to learn from the mistakes. Despite this, the limited competition of MTN and Vodacom, plus a few fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) providers, suggests a not unreasonable future for Internet service delivery