Sharing Nicely

Andrew writes about legal wranglings over telecommunication services in South Africa. For those who don’t know, some time ago this developing country decided that exorbitant pricing of bandwidth is a good strategy to support social and economic development. And our Minister of Communication is sticking to that strategy, by appealing the ruling that Value Added Service Providers (VANS) — these are basically smaller companies that want to provide telecommunications services that might compete with those of the bigger guys — are entitled to network licenses.

What really puzzles me is the audacity of fighting against efforts to bring down the cost of telecommunications. And that the Government is willing to not only waste tax-payers money in courts, but even consider redrafting the law in order to retroactively override the court’s decision. How could anyone — let alone the Minister — argue that having more service providers and more competition would not be a good thing for South Africa and her citizens. As so often these days, the courts remain a place of reason. Maybe soon, I’ll be posting here via an Internet connection that does not cost a multiple of what users in Europe or the US pay.