Document(s) 5 de 12

This chapter reviews the role that shared access centres have played in universal access within South Africa, with a specific focus on the policy intent driving universal access.¹ After reviewing the overall ICT policy intent and some of the mechanisms for achieving universal access, it focuses on the experiences of two communities. One is a small rural settlement in Kwa Zulu Natal, north-east of Durban; the other a large township in the Western Cape, south-east of Cape Town, on the same peninsula (see Figure 2.1).

South Africa's experience is interesting. It took a leadership position in Africa, with top-level political commitment to universal access to ICTs. This engagement was driven by the need to redress the legacy of apartheid, and by a strong belief that communication and broad access to information were keys to democracy and development. Moreover, South Africa's government had relatively more money and human capacity than its neighbours to address the task. However, nine years after it began, the results have been largely disappointing. In communities examined here, telephone access has improved greatly, mainly due to cellular phone networks, but rates remain high, and the Internet is barely present and rarely used. Much of this has to do with the market and regulatory environment at the time of research. The incumbent landline telephone operator had a strong monopoly and had kept rates high and connectivity options outside of central business hubs limited (Emdon, 2003). Any process of policy reform is also an opportunity for various actors to pursue their own interests. The number of actors influencing policy within South Africa is large and the process itself has been complex. The situation in South Africa is a reminder that feedback from the experience of implementing universal access initiatives may be a lesser influence on policy revision than political interests.

Figure 2.1 Map of South Africa (Source: CIA)

National optimism and the emergence of universal access policy

Historical context

Universal access policy was developed in the historical context of the end of apartheid and the dawning of a new democratic era in South Africa. This was a time of great optimism and activity. Key leaders, including Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected president of South Africa, and Thabo Mbeki, his deputy president, and later president, believed that ICTs were important to the development of South Africa. Indeed, they made public statements in high-profile international gatherings to that effect. Their interest converged with increasing global interest in the issue of the information society and the digital divide amongst governments, multilateral agencies and civil society groups.

South African civil society also believed firmly in the importance of information and communication and the tools that could facilitate these. This interest could be considered a legacy of apartheid, since the previous government, through censorship and attempts to control and limit information sharing and communication, had reminded its opposition that these could be effective tools for empowerment.

Finally, the opening of South African markets during the time of transition in the early and mid-1990s represented an interesting and potentially lucrative opportunity for both international and domestic companies. This resulted in great activity and high expectations for ICT-related developments in the country.

South Africa, as a signatory to the WTO GATS in 1998, was committed to telecom sector privatization and liberalization. Global pressure to undertake these reforms was present before this and created some tension within South

Africa. The African National Congress (ANC) had strong ties to the Communist Party and to labour unions, which had also been instrumental in resistance to apartheid. These were opposed to both privatization and liberalization measures since they would reduce sovereignty by selling off state assets to foreign-owned companies and would likely result in heavy job losses within the newly privatized entities.

Development policy framework

The Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP) base document, released in 1994, was the key framework for the new government's activities and provided the overarching context for the development of the original universal access policy. It referred to ICTs as powerful tools for multi-sector development and emphasized the need to strengthen a diversity of media, including community media, and to encourage the exchange of information between citizens and governments. Within this framework are the Urban Renewal Strategy and the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Strategy. Both emphasize mobilizing people to become active participants in their own development and tend to focus on infrastructure development, which was lacking in Black-populated areas under the apartheid regime. The Rural Development Strategy aims to create sustainable rural communities capable of attracting and maintaining skilled, knowledgeable people through capacity-building, provision of universally accessible social services, and creation of vibrant local economies (CMS Task Team, 2003).

Universal access policy

The key policies guiding universal access to ICTs are the Telecommunications White Paper of 1996, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the Telecommunications Act Amendment of 2001. The 1996 Act set up the regulatory body for telecommunications, which in 2000 merged with the broadcasting regulator to form the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). It also set up the Universal Service Agency as a statutory body without any power to regulate or enforce.

The Universal Service Agency was a uniquely South African invention – no other country had created a separate body devoted to universal service and access. This was evidence of strong national commitment to the issue (Benjamin, 2001a, b). The Agency was mandated to:

• explore and promote innovative ways to promote universal service;

• increase public awareness around the benefits of telecommunications;

• encourage and guide other universal access schemes;

• survey and evaluate the extent of universal service;

• develop and revise definitions and targets for universal access and universal service;

• administer the Universal Service Fund by paying subsidies to assist 'needy persons' in accessing services. This also required developing a definition of what a 'needy person' was.

One problem with the Act is that it did not clearly establish the roles and responsibilities of the Agency and the regulator, and there appeared to be some overlap (Benjamin, 2001a, b). Also lacking in the Act were clear definitions and benchmarks, which the Agency was supposed to establish. However, at the time of this research, seven years after the original act, these definitions were still missing, which seriously undermined any ordered and logical attempt at implementing and monitoring access strategies.

The Telecommunications White Paper of 1996 had defined universal access as 'every person within a 30 minute walk of a public telephone'. The Universal Service Agency, however, also considered itself committed to achieving universal access to advanced telecommunications, including the Internet. No clear strategy for doing this was ever developed. A few discussion papers and public discussions were begun but not concluded in 1998. The process was due to restart in 2003. Sam Galube, who became chief executive officer of the Universal Service Agency in early 2003, defined universal access to ICTs as follows: 'Each and every household having access to telecommunications technology . . . . This access must be affordable and convenient . . . within a 10 to 15 minute walk, a person should have a point where he or she can access a telephone or the Internet'.

The 2001 Telecommunications Amendment established multimedia licenses and laid the groundwork for the granting of licenses to telecom operators in ten (out of 27 identified) underserved rural areas. These licenses were being put out to tender at the time of research and therefore were not yet in effect. The Universal Service Agency's mandate was expanded to include the administration of subsidies of about R10 million to these licensees (Lewis, 2003). A Convergence Act was passed in December 2003, after field research.

Besides these core documents, numerous task teams and advisory bodies have produced reports for the Presidency, Cabinet and various sectoral departments. The Department of Education, the Department of Trade and Investment, and the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology have been actively involved in issues surrounding ICT access provision and related capacity building, and each has its own projects and related policy. The large number of activities within various sectors of government poses a challenge for co-ordination. Fruitful engagement with non-governmental actors has been a further challenge. Recent policy formulations attempt to address this by acknowledging existing bodies and their efforts and emphasizing the need for partnership with them.

Table 2.1, which draws on the over-arching documents and public statements from leading government officials, summarizes the key policy intentions regarding universal access in South Africa.

Implementing universal access

South Africa has a large, somewhat confusing array of government programmes and non-governmental programmes and projects aimed at providing access to ICTs, media and related services. In addition, its telecom sector has gone through a number of tumultuous regulatory changes. The market situation was likely to change as a new convergence bill came into effect and a second national telecom operator finally became licensed (2003–2004). The market was one of the most visible influences across the whole telecommunications sector in South Africa, also limiting governmental and not-for-profit efforts, which by law depended upon licensed operators for basic services. For example, wireless technology that expanded beyond private property for private use was illegal if implemented by any other than the incumbent telecom operator.

The main mechanisms by which ICT access was provided in South Africa are:

• the market: cellular telephone, computer, fax, Internet;

• licensed telecom operators, who were given both rights and obligations to fulfil under their licenses, regulated by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA);

• licensed radio and community radio stations, the latter also receiving support from the Department of Communications and the non-governmental National Community Radio Forum;

• the Universal Service Agency's telecentre programme;

• multipurpose Community Centres of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS);

• a variety of largely independent, uncoordinated, not-for-profit initiatives, often affiliated with libraries, community centres and local NGOs;

• school computer labs.

The most prominent of these (based on the findings in the community case studies) are described below.

Licensing obligations, regulation and the market structure

'Telkom is very expensive. Sometimes we get phone bills that are too high; but you can't argue with Telkom because while they have you cut off from services your business is dwindling. Soon they will introduce ADSL here, which has a flat rate. That will make a big difference'.

Business owner, Randburg

Telkom, the former South African parastatal, was given a five-year monopoly for fixed-line service plus a one-year extension that officially ended in early 2002. Because no second national operator had been identified, the monopoly was still in effect during the time of research in 2003. Telkom, whose monopoly extended to most voice- and data-transmission services, was required by its license to provide 2.7 million new lines, including 1.7 million in under-serviced areas and 120,000 pay phones, plus contribute about R40 million to the Universal Service Fund (USF).²

Sentech, the major broadcasting signal distributor in the country, was given a multimedia license, including the right to license others, in May 2002. This created partial competition in data transmission and broadcasting, but the effects were limited. For example, various options for accessing the Internet such as wireless broadband and very small aperture terminal (VSAT) remained expensive and their deployment was limited.

The cellular market included three operators: Vodacom (with 65 per cent market share), Mobile Telephony Networks (MTN) and Cell C. MTN and

Vodacom were granted licenses in 1993 and Cell C was licensed in 2001. By October 2003, South Africa had 15 million cellular users and the fourth fastest growing market in the world (Burger, 2004). Low-income groups, constituting the vast majority of people, use pre-paid card services as these do not require up-front payments or a contract stipulating income conditions.

Community service obligations for the cellular operators were set at 22,000 for Vodacom, 7,500 for MTN and 52,000 for Cell C. These obligations required each operator to set up the requisite number of public phones in 'under-serviced areas'. Because densely populated townships were considered underserved, but were relatively easier and more profitable to cover than rural areas, operators focused most of their efforts in these areas (Benjamin, 2001a, b). Community service obligations were also, retrospectively, set very low given how lucrative the market turned out to be. Despite this limitation, Vodacom's approach to community service was generally seen as very successful and was later emulated by the other operators.

All licensed operators have been required to pay into a Universal Service Fund (USF) since the Telecommunications Act was passed in 1996. Until 2001, contributions to the fund were capped at a total of R20 million a year, which was very low compared with the revenue generated (much less than 0.1 per cent of turnover) and the requirements of other countries. In 2003, ICASA set the actual required contribution at 0.2 per cent for each licensee, still low but a substantial increase (Msimang, 2003).

Access centres and cybercafés, whether for-profit or NGO, were not specially licensed. However, they were profoundly affected by the market and licensing conditions of the large infrastructure providers as they were all required to buy their services from the licensed telecom operators.

The Universal Service Agency's telecentre programme

'When [the Universal Service Agency] started off, it was about putting boxes in communities. Now we see it's about what those boxes deliver – services such as school subjects, computer literacy and e-health. We will partner with companies to deliver these'.

Dennis Mamela, Universal Service Agency

The Universal Service Agency was established by the 1996 Telecommunications Act to explore and promote creative methods of universal service and access. The original Act established it for five years. During this initial period, the Agency devoted most of its energies to supporting the creation of telecentres across the country, paid through the Universal Service Fund (USF). It invited applications from NGOs and community organizations. Those selected were given equipment and basic training; from that point, they were supposed to run the telecentres as self-sustaining entities.

While its original target was hundreds of such telecentres, the Agency developed only 65, which experienced a variety of problems almost immediately. By 2001, one-third were not functioning, half did not have phones, and only a few had access to the Internet (Benjamin, 2001a, b). By 2003, the situation had deteriorated.

The Universal Service Agency itself was hampered by a poor reputation, internal management difficulties and poor relationships with other key organizations (Benjamin, 2001a, b). It was unable to get crucial information from operators that would allow it to map telecom provision and thus effectively monitor progress. It never developed definitions, indicators or benchmarks for any key terms that would allow it to strategize effectively. In addition, the Agency, partly in response to political pressure, moved quickly towards an attempt at massive rollout of telecentres without proper piloting of the concept.

In 2001, the Universal Service Agency's mandate was renewed and expanded. And in 2003 it underwent internal restructuring and renewal, including an audit of the remains of the existing telecentres. The Agency is now working more closely with the Department of Communications and the GCIS (see below), and is pursuing partnerships with other actors including Sentech.

The GCIS Multipurpose Community Centre (MPCC) Programme

'MPCCs need to be more than just government service centres'.

Holly Luton-Nel, Director of Aleksan Kopano Resource Centre, Alexandra

The Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) began operations in 1998 with the goal of increasing the accessibility of government information and services and improving communication between the government and the people. The focus has been on establishing Multipurpose Community Centres (MPCCs), with an initial goal of 65 MPCCs: one in each district municipality. The basic concept is that of a shared facility housing at least six government departmental offices plus a telecentre (established by the Universal Service Agency). The centre may also house community groups and facilities, including community radio stations. The departmental offices provide relevant information and services to the local community, including training and outreach activities. The telecentre provides telecommunication services to other MPCC tenants, allowing it to provide public services at reasonable cost and at the same time contributing to the telecentre's sustainability. At the time of research, about 30 MPCCs had been established across the country and others were to be established in the following year.

Non-governmental initiatives

Various external, national and local non-governmental organizations have launched their own initiatives. These tend to focus on each organization's own implementation activities, although there is some partnering and information sharing. Links between these initiatives and government initiatives have generally been weak. Thus, government policy and efforts have not acted as a co-ordinating or unifying force across these independent initiatives, and shared learning has also been limited.

Access achieved? Review of the case in two communities

Bhamshela

'In 1998, people didn't understand what a computer was or what it could do. The person who stole our school computer buried it'.

High school principal, Bhamshela

'In the past, we'd identify a CBO [community-based organization], donate computers, train them and then the organization would be responsible for the running costs, including paying the staff. But the centres were serving poor communities so business isn't attractive. They were unable to pay salaries and the staff would end up taking money from the telecentre'.

Universal Service Agency co-ordinator, Kwa Zulu Natal

Bhamshela is a densely populated rural community and trading centre, less than two hours' drive from Durban. Until 1998, when a telecentre was established, there were few telephones. The telecentre predated all other public ICT services and was very popular. While it offered a full range of services, including computer and Internet rental, only telephone and, to a lesser degree, photocopying services were used. This was partially due to the lack of expertise of the staff in using these, and partially to lack of awareness and demand on the part of potential clients.

The telecentre ceased phone, fax and Internet services in 2000 after experiencing problems with the telephone company, resulting in a large bill it could not pay, exacerbated by problems with its phone metering system. Local demand for phone services persisted, though, and a Vodacom shop and Telkom container were opened the following year, the latter by a former staff member of the telecentre. Meanwhile, the telecentre further developed its staff's expertise in computers and began to offer basic training courses. There was demand for such courses due to the high priority many people placed on finding employment and the perceived importance of computer skills in formal-sector jobs. Many students defaulted on their tuition payments because they could not afford them. A few found jobs.

A GCIS-implemented MPCC officially opened in 2002 and began operations in 2003. It had depended on being able to receive ICT services from the telecentre, but because the telecentre could not deliver, the Village Bank began to offer fax services and later intended to launch public Internet services.

The full impact of the telecentre is difficult to assess with certainty since phone penetration, especially in the cellular market, increased quickly across the country over the same period. For many local people, the telecentre was the first place they made a phone call. Many people knew it had computers (although many didn't), and the students taking the courses had often done so on the recommendation of others. It is also clear that the telecentre motivated other valued community development processes, including the application for the MPCC and establishment of a free bi-weekly health clinic.

Lessons

It is not clear that the telecentre, with its bundle of services – some appreciated, some not – was the best model for this community. Arguably, it should have been either explicitly wider in scope to formally include facilitation of community development in its mandate (which would require funding other than from user fees), or else more focused on locally relevant ICT services. A needs assessment could easily have identified both the demand for voice telephony and for job-related computer skills (in fact, any job skills). These could have been delivered more efficiently and effectively via two separate means. For example, the Vodacom container could offer lower prices than the telecentre while generating a better profit margin for its owner. Part of the reason is that uneconomical services offered by the telecentre must be subsidized by services in demand such as phone, which affects pricing. Since phone is the service most in demand, and cost is a limiting factor in accessibility, such a strategy does not appear to serve the public interest.

The computer classes were not part of the telecentre's original service mix because the staff did not then have the capacity to deliver them. Resorting to this training service was as much a survival strategy as a service to the community. In this sense, they relied too heavily on phone services while they were able to do so and demand was high. Again, this does not appear to serve the community in the best manner. A clear needs assessment and targeting of resources where necessary – for example, on staff training and a set of appropriate textbooks – would be a better use of money than setting up a clearly unsustainable, unaffordable Internet connection.

This leads to a third major lesson that can be drawn from Bhamshela: offering Internet services where they are too expensive to be sustained and where local demand is absent only creates a further strain on the overall viability of the telecentre. At very best, it is a symbolic gesture and a service to a handful of people. There are two basic options: introduce a different pricing structure so that local demand can be accommodated and increased over time (implying subsidization over the medium term), or focus the organization's efforts in areas likely to yield better results.

Finally, the MPCC appears to offer great potential for developing the area, and ICTs can clearly enhance its services. The situation in Bhamshela has created an inadvertent but interesting example of a strategy whereby the government has indirectly supported access to ICTs by providing an anchor market that stimulated a private entity (the Village Bank) to provide the actual services.

Khayelitsha

'Lack of knowledge of computer skills is one reason for the high unemployment in Khayelitsha, and may also be one reason why the Public Information Terminal is underutilized'.

Director, KERIC, Khayelitsha

'In Guguletu, computers and the Internet are more in demand [compared with Khayelitsha] because of multiracial schools. The public libraries there are full and an Internet café just opened three or four months ago. In Khayelitsha, nothing has really changed in the last three years except competition is getting higher [for phone services]'.

Local phone shop owner, Khayelitsha

Photo 2.1 Khayelitsha's shopping centre

Khayelitsha is a fast growing, densely populated, predominantly Xhosa township with a population of about one million people. It is located on the Cape Flats about 30 kilometres from Cape Town. Despite its large population, it sustains only limited economic activity, with most residents shopping and working elsewhere. It contains a combination of informal and formal settlements with varying levels of infrastructure. Both public phones and private cell phones are widely available and phones are used by over 90 per cent of the population. This situation is markedly different from 1996, when only about half had made at least one phone call. However, the use of other ICTs remains quite limited, mainly due to cost and lack of capacity.

The market in Khayelitsha sustains many phone shops initiated in part due to the license obligations of the major operators, plus some independent phone shops. It also has at least one large computer training centre and a couple of other businesses that offer non-phone ICT services in addition to their core business (a phone shop and a driving school respectively). These include value-added services such as typing CVs, letters and funeral programmes. Most of these are centred in and around one of Khayelitsha's few shopping areas, the Sanlam Centre shown in Photo 2.1.

The non-profit sector in Khayelitsha offers a similar range of ICTs. In addition, one library offers Internet access. Although some entities have tried to do so, public Internet provision cannot be sustained via the market due to the large gap between the cost of providing it and people's ability (and willingness) to pay. There need to be cheaper ways to offer Internet access. The high prices can be attributed largely to Telkom's monopoly in effect at the time of research. Given the experiences at the library, market prices would have to be substantially lower before people would use Internet services. This implies that even in a fair and competitive market, many people would not consider the Internet an affordable and justifiable expense if they must pay by the minute or hour.

Lessons

In Khayelitsha, providing phone service can be done within the market, while providing Internet service cannot. Other ICT-related services such as CV typing and faxing are barely sustainable within the market, and generally have to be combined with other services, whether ICT-related or not.

Finding work is the first priority of most people within Khayelitsha, and a gap between skill levels and the requirements of formal-sector jobs is generally understood as a large contributing factor to unemployment. Yet there are relatively few services in place to address this. Megabro is a private-sector training organization while Learn to Earn, a Christian NGO, provides computer training with a focus on creating self-employment opportunities.

The failure of the market to address the local need for ICT training and to harness ICTs for local entrepreneurial opportunities is attributable only in part to the high costs of telecom services. It is also reflects historical economic neglect within Khayelitsha and the tendency of residents to conduct business outside the township. This in turn implies that strategies to provide access to ICTs should be integrated with, or complementary to, other initiatives to stimulate local economic development. Targeted training and capital loans for current and potential entrepreneurs are two ways to stimulate such activity. However, non-phone ICTs are high-risk ventures and appear to be most successful when introduced into existing enterprises. They should be encouraged only where careful market research shows they are viable.

Comparing the South African cases with access-related development objectives

Table 2.2 summarizes the study findings as they pertain to relevant national objectives, which were compiled from policy documents and public statements. In some instances, 'progress' is a rather subjective term. For example, there are no indicators or benchmarks to give precision to what a South African information society would look like, especially in townships and rural areas.

Learning from South Africa's experience

South Africa's situation is in many ways unique, linked to its history and the fact that it remains, after Brazil, the most inequitable country in the world in terms of wealth distribution. Despite the great optimism unleashed by the coming of democracy, the legacy of its past and the great economic division that still characterizes the population influence the behaviour of both the large dominant telecom agencies, especially Telkom, and poor, historically disadvantaged communities.

Because there is such great wealth in the large cities – the Province of Gauteng, home to Johannesburg and Pretoria, for example, generates 9 per cent of the GDP of all Africa – and the infrastructure is much better there, large telecom companies may be tempted to focus on urban markets, avoiding poor townships and rural areas. Pricing is not geared towards these latter areas and certain services, such as ADSL (asymmetric data subscriber line), may not be available much beyond the major urban centres.

South Africa reportedly has one of the lowest levels of entrepreneurship in the world. Within both townships and rural communities, there is relatively little entrepreneurial interest or risk taking beyond very simple and proven business models. Telephone services have become widely recognized and coveted as small business ventures, especially where franchises are available. Relatively few entrepreneurs have explored other forms of ICT service provision; and those who have often have not done well. Because of high overhead costs and low profit margins, most small businesses offering ICT services do so in addition to another pre-existing business activity (eg, a hair salon, traditional healer, or driving school). Such hybrid businesses were quite limited in number in the two case communities studied. They were more visible, however, in large, high-traffic urban areas such as Johannesburg, Rand-burg, Soweto and even in the business districts of mid-sized towns.

Although Bhamshela is rural and Khayelitsha is urban, the two areas were observed to have similar access and use rates, especially for computers and the Internet. This was mainly due to the lack of Internet access in both cases and, further, because the Bhamshela telecentre had exposed some of the population to computers and, briefly, the Internet. People throughout the country who had experience dealing with Internet access issues commonly identified the high cost, and to a lesser degree the low quality, of Internet connectivity as factors that had severely limited or blocked their efforts to offer and use it in communities and schools. This in turn was generally attributed to the failure to liberalize the telecom market and effectively regulate price increases, which were unjustifiable in face of the profits being made (Emdon, 2003).

The South African government took a direct role in implementing access centres, through the activities of several departments and the Universal Service Agency. This experience was generally not very successful. Neither of the Agency's telecentres in the case studies was well used and both had severe financial problems. Based on anecdotal and documented experiences of other telecentres, their experiences were typical. A major reason for this failure was simply that the larger issue of high cost was not addressed. Many of these centres reported receiving poor service and having to pay high costs with little profit in return. On the implementation side, roles and strategies were not well defined, and there were never clear benchmarks to aim for. The Agency, reporting to the Department of Communications, was sometimes under political pressure to act before it was ready to, at the same time suffering from various problems of internal capacity that rendered it relatively ineffective and gave it a poor reputation (Benjamin, 2001a, b).

The Agency might have been a more effective champion of universal access in South Africa had it been more closely aligned with, and perhaps even a part of, the regulator. As such, it would have had greater power vis-à-vis the telecom operators. It also required greater independence and internal capacity so that it might play an advocacy role on behalf of telecommunications consumers and small service-providing entrepreneurs. Given the general market condition, this role was more urgent than that of implementer. Luckily, a number of NGOs have taken on this role to some degree. These include Sangonet, the LINK Centre at the University of the Witswatersrand, and bridges.org. By engaging in independent and public research and monitoring, these organizations provided an important counterbalance to the vested interests of the large telecom companies that otherwise dominate the field. The South African media, especially the business media, have also given a fair amount of coverage to telecom issues and have voiced criticism of the disadvantages of monopolies and the government's slow movement towards liberalization.

South Africa has made significant progress towards universal telephone access, although not in the way foreseen in policy. In particular, cellular technology and the huge uptake of cellular phones, both through personal ownership and phone shops, were not anticipated in the policy. Since many people had their phone service disconnected (an estimated two million lines), the issue of landline service has not been one of installation and availability, but of affordability. Ironically, this has been the case with phone shops and telecentres as well – entrepreneurs cannot afford the narrow profit margins and poor service from Telkom; they much prefer Vodacom or one of the other cellular operators. Telkom had recently adopted pay-as-you-go landline services in an attempt to imitate the success of this payment system for cellular phones. The effects of this were not yet clear by the time of study, but some people were reconnecting their landline phones with this service. Even the Khayelitsha telecentre was considering using it.

The Vodacom phone shop model seemed particularly popular with both entrepreneurs and customers. The service was reliable and, for the shop owners, the great advantage of Vodacom's preferential rates, compared with arrangements with other phone shops, was that they saw gross profit margins of about one-third. In return, they helped to meet Vodacom's universal service obligations and advertised the Vodacom brand amongst potential new cell phone users. The preferential in-network rates also meant that customers tended to maintain loyalty to the Vodacom network. After about four years, the Vodacom phone shop model, although undertaken to meet its licensing obligations, was not costing the company anything.

In South Africa, the first government priority would appear to be the true liberalization of the telecommunications market. The second is to ensure that smaller South African companies, entrepreneurs and potential employees from disadvantaged groups share in the wealth generated by the rapid growth of the telecom sector. Thus, for poor communities the benefits of sectoral growth should outweigh the costs. Two important movements in that direction were the ISETT SETA, which supported training within the ICT sector amongst historically disadvantaged populations, and the ICT Black Empowerment Charter, which was still in draft form in 2003 (but due to come into effect in March 2005). The intention of the latter is to give preference to black-owned businesses under certain circumstances. Another area of priority is putting computers in schools and ensuring that teachers and students can use them. For most South Africans, the acquisition of practical job skills is an absolute priority. The provision of computer training in public schools is one of the best ways to achieve this.

Finally, given the great inequalities within South African society, an organization devoted to universal service could serve an important role in safeguarding public interest and in strengthening the capacity of people to create access within their own communities. Here, small business and not-for-profit organizations have an important role to play. At the time of this research and before, the Universal Service Agency appeared to be a weak and ineffective institution. However, if it were able to step back from implementation and focus on monitoring, research, advocacy and capacity building, including provision of small grants and loans to entrepreneurs from historically disadvantaged areas, then it might be able to further the cause for which it was created.

Document(s) 5 de 12