Provision of universal service in the South African telecommunications market.
Date
2011-03-10
Authors
von Aulock, Carl Andre
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
While telecommunications costs are a common topic of public comment in South
Africa, the provision of services to those areas and communities which have been
historically neglected also is a focus for commentators in the industry. This research
aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the universal service policy and
programmes which are in place in South Africa by evaluating the different
perspectives of both the regulatory and private sectors. The research furthermore
was undertaken with a desire to determine what could be done to advance Universal
Service in the country.
The approach taken was firstly to analyse the relevant documentation, such as
licences, annual reports and legislation, to determine the formalised status and then
to interview different respondents from the industry as a whole and obtain their
perspectives on the different focal aspects. The responses and the secondary
research were analysed as a whole to enable the researcher to establish the
underlying themes which are evident in the industry at the moment as related to the
topic.
Overall, the findings and interpretation identified the primary themes of Direction and
Delivery. These themes essentially outlined the general intentions that exist for
providing service and that service provisioning is successful in some aspects. There
is an overall shortage, however, of strategic direction with regard to what the policy
should achieve, a need for greater co-operation and alignment within the industry
and lack of sufficient and relevant skills and resources to actually drive the
implementation of policy effectively.
Description
M.B.A. - WBS
Keywords
Telecommunications market