Telkom’s pro-competitive and long-awaited separation of its Openserve wholesale infrastructure division from the remainder of the Telkom Group has been welcomed by South Africa’s Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA).
The Competition Commission, in response to an ISPA complaint in 2002, ordered the initial “functional” separation of Openserve from the remainder of the Telkom Group in 2012.
“Ten to 20 years to achieve significant change is not a long time in the South African scheme of things and we congratulate Telkom Group on this milestone,” says André van der Walt, ISPA’s Ccairperson.
Last year, in June, ISPA had the pleasure of welcoming Openserve as a member of the non-profit industry body that had spent much of its early years focused on preventing Telkom from using its monopoly position to unfairly compete against the country’s fledgling Internet access providers.
ISPA’s steadfast efforts to shape and influence ICT policy in SA for the better eventually resulted in Competition Commission rulings that have now resulted in the split of Telkom’s wholesale and retail activities. This finally levels the telecoms playing field to the advantage of consumers, ISPA members and the economy.
“As the initiator of this process, ISPA would like to be the first to applaud: the consumer is finally the winner as Telkom achieves structural separation in 2022,” concludes van der Walt.