Telkom CEO calls for digital economy summit

Telkom SA has called for a multi-sectoral digital economy summit to be convened and attended by operators, the industry regulator, vertical market representatives, tertiary education institutions and other telecommunications industry stakeholders. Addressing delegates at the 2018 Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (SATNAC), Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko said this would provide a forum to address the question of how to generate economic growth. An ITWeb Africa report notes that Maseko identified several drivers of the economy including investment in infrastructure to deliver ubiquitous connectivity, skills and subject matter experts across the spectrum, fair competition and regulation. In addition to the role of data within an ever-changing market and the influence of the digitised consumer, Maseko also touched on regulatory issues. ‘Regulation and policy can be a big enabler for data growth... but regulation must keep up with the market and tech advances. Regulators sometimes almost exclude themselves from the debate. The question is how do we get the economy to recover?’ said Maseko. As previously reported in eLaw & Management, Telkom SA remains is embroiled in a dispute with Icasa over plans to reduce call termination rates – the price mobile and fixed network operators charge each other for terminating calls between networks. The company says that unless the regulator's draft call termination rates are not amended, it may have to change its business model, stop operations in rural areas and possibly have to cut jobs.

Full ITWeb Africa report