The Phone Warehouse
Lg Phones South Africa
The South African ICT sector expected 2007 to be a profitable year, and indications are that the year is living up to some of its promises.
The major players in the ICT sector said they expected a greater regulatory clarity, stronger growth for suppliers, more products and services to consumers and competition fierce and falling prices, they said.
There will be full of opportunities from the perspective of the client and service provider, said Internet Solutions CEO Angus McRoberts. Â "For the first time, customers will have many options.Â"
These developments will take place despite strong challenges, which include slow deregulation and an acute skills shortage, speakers said.
Fierce competition
Competition will be fierce competition on the business side of business, with lots of products and services launched, said Neotel MD Ajay Pandey. However, the increase the use of services will offset any price erosion occurring as a result of competition with the providers enjoying strong growth, he said.
 "As we move forward, the battle over the competition will be on speed, not infrastructure, Â" he adds.
MTN Network Solutions Mike Brierley also expects good growth in the Internet Service Provider (ISP) market. Mobile data will be significant player, with MTN seeing growth of 10-15% per month, Brierley said.
Price cuts will be designed, however, have limited on revenues, as corporates are expected for the trade of their cost savings they receive as a result of price cuts for more bandwidth, he added.
Bed odd-fellows
Speakers predicted a series of mergers and acquisitions, with companies consolidating their holdings in order to become more competitive and new players enter the market.
 "Competitors will collaborate to meet the needs of customers a day, and then compete head-to-first business for the day one, "said Microsoft CEO SA Mfungwa Serima.
Serima cited the partnership between Microsoft and the novel as an example of some of the partnerships strategies that can be formed. There will be a lot of sharing of infrastructure and facilities, said Pandey.
Regulatory clarity
DataPro CEO Tony Marken however said that the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has yet to finalize the interconnection service and rental policies. He said his company has signed an interconnection agreement with Telkom, but could not put the agreement into action to ICASA from that clarity on the subject.
Pandey said regulatory clarity will come out next year. Rules will be defined, great strides will be taken, leading price controls, among other things, he said.
Brieley Marken and we disagree, saying that the control measures that will liberalize the market ICT SAA needs to be accelerated. Even if the process is occurring, ICASA was not daring enough, Brierley said.
Marken says SA needs a similar scheme to the U.S. when the Federal Communications Commission, which set the agenda of deregulation, set firm deadlines and executed them.
 "Every month of delay is of millions of rands lost one, "he said.
Damaria Senne is a journalist and author based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She writes about the telecommunications industry in South Africa and Africa, including cellular, mobile and wireless technologies and messaging news and trends.
Read her business related articles at http://www.itweb.co.za She blogs about parenting/writing at http://damariasenne.blogspot.com
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