SCHOOLCHILDREN who have long been promised half-price internet access are still not getting online, as regulations calling for discounted access are bogged down in official protocol.
Now the industry regulator has proposed that all government schools should get internet access for free, in a move that companies would support as soon as the government finalises its requirements.
Half-price access was first promised several years ago, as part of a social responsibility obligation for companies to take technologies into rural areas.
Yet in 2005 the internet service providers (ISPs) were already raising alarms that the internet was not reaching rural communities and not enough schools were being brought online. They blamed for not offering them discounted access to the telephone lines essential to carry the service.
Last week Paris Mashile, chairman of the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), said schools should be charged a “zero rate” for the internet.
“For 60% of schools it wouldn’t make any difference if they paid 50%,” he said, because they still would not be able to afford it.
“They have to concentrate on other things related to education rather than taking their few resources to get access to the internet. Schools should be zero rated. This is key to the information society. If schools can’t reach that information we are not going to have the society we hope for.”
Mashile said there was now a higher level of education in Tanzania than in SA.
“We have to make sure that e- services reach our schools and that schools in remote areas are provided with these services.”
A committee of representatives from the communications and education departments, Icasa and the Universal Service and Access Agency of SA (Usaasa) is still debating how to implement cut- price fees.
ISPs fully supported cheap access for schools and would even be happy to supply their services for free, said Mike Silber, spokesman for the Internet Service Providers’ Association. “We’d be happy to provide services at no cost. Our members have been happy to offer internet service for 50%, but Telkom hasn’t been willing to offer line rental at that rate. It’s been a major issue.” Telkom would supply dial-up lines at a discount, but not the high-speed ADSL lines that decent access needed, Silber said.
The only concern for ISPs was that their contributions were recognised as part of their social responsibility obligations. There was a risk that they would end up serving thousands of schools for free as well as having to pay 0,2% of their revenue to a Usaasa fund designed to take voice and data services to poor communities.
Usaasa is assessing whether operators should keep paying that levy, or whether it should be scrapped and companies allowed to design and implement their own.
stonesl@bdfm.co.za