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Johannesburg - Dark Fibre Africa, a provider of broadband capacity infrastructure to telecommunications operators, has added its voice to the chorus of supporters of Justice Davis' High Court ruling on Friday in favour of Altech Autopage.
The landmark ruling essentially said that other operators may provide their own networks, instead of having to rely on the incumbents. It injected a degree of certainty into the minds of new and potentially new operators that had not existed previously.
This comes after the lack of clarity following Communication Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri's 2004 ministerial directive, which the market thought paved the way for self-provision. But the minister rejected this interpretation. The directive had not, until now, been challenged in court.
It is still not clear, however, whether regulator Icasa or the minister would appeal the judgment. Icasa issued a statement on Friday saying it would study the contents of the judgment and "chart the way forward". The minister's spokesperson Joe Makafola said on Sunday via text message that she was also "studying" the contents of the judgment.
Dark Fibre, which is owned by Community Investment Ventures (CIV) (70%) and Venfin (30%), has visibly been rolling out fibre optic cabling with its Muvoni Weltex fibre laying machines in metropolitan areas in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Cape Town.
The only remaining mark when it is done is a thin, tar-like snake along the edge of the road. The company said since beginning in October last year, it had already laid 200kms of fibre.
It stands to be a big beneficiary of the ruling because its customer base suddenly got a whole lot bigger.
Dark Fibre reiterated over the weekend that it would invest R2bn on broadband infrastructure that operators could lease capacity on instead of duplicating expensive infrastructure by laying their own. Dark Fibre is not itself, an operator.
Over the moon
Operators including Vox Telecom and ECN on Friday also praised the ruling and said they would talk to Dark Fibre.
Altech was, naturally, over the moon.
The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA), a representative body for value added service provider (Vans) licensees, also welcomed the ruling, saying it would study this and advise its members.
The court papers filed in the matter constituted volumes, and the ruling itself - given just four weeks after the hearings - is 67 pages long.
ISPA congratulated Altech for its courage in taking up the matter and said while the delays caused were regrettable, "ISPA notes that litigation is the ultimate test of the Regulator's independence and efficacy".
It urged the department and Icasa to accept the judgment and work with the industry to complete the license conversion process as soon as possible.
Vans licensees that previously stood to see their licences converted into Electronic Communications Service (ECS) licenses under the new legislation, should now automatically also qualify for Electronic Communication Network Service (ECNS) licences, enabling them to roll out infrastructure.
- Fin24.com