A South African telecommunications provider will replace in the n...
A South African telecommunications provider will replace in the next few days Wi-Fi equipment that was seized by the national regulator this month, an executive said Tuesday. Dabba, of Johannesburg, offers voice and data services to underserved areas, its…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Web site says. Last week, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, acting on a complaint by incumbent Telkom South Africa that Dabba’s network was interfering with its own in the Orange Farm township area, seized the equipment. The regulator reportedly said Dabba was the source of interference in the 2.4 GHz bands and that its equipment didn’t have the approvals needed for its use. Neither the authority nor Telkom responded right away to requests for comment. Dabba Managing Director Rael Lissoos said he still hasn’t received formal correspondence from the regulator. The situation is ironic, he said, since the regulator seems to be liberalizing its telecommunications policy. He said he'll get links up again as soon as possible “and increase the service in the area.” Lissoos said he doesn’t have the time or resources to “battle with petit bureaucracy” because “the time would be better served putting up more radios.” The authority’s action brought strong criticism from Steve Song, a fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation, which describes itself as driving social and policy innovation in education and technology. In a blog posting, Song said removing Dabba’s wireless access points resulted in the shutdown of a skills development center and an AIDS orphanage. Song denounced the authority’s statement that Dabba’s gear wasn’t type-approved, saying WiFi equipment is all “pretty bog-standard.”