South Africa’s Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) has recommended the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) avoid regulatory intervention on net neutrality, saying it is not an issue in the country as yet.
The recommendation is contained in ISPA’s submission to ICASA’s enquiry into the state of competition in the country’s ICT sector, which is also focusing on net neutrality.
“This is a particular problem in the United States because cable providers there tend to dominate the internet access market as a whole and there is an effective monopoly (or at best a duopoly),” said Dominic Cull, ISPA’s regulatory advisor.
“It’s not a particularly helpful debate for us in South Africa as our market is at a different stage of development. We face a different set of issues in order to ensure fair competition here.”
ISPA said it believes shaping bandwidth should be recognised as a normal part of network operations, and that consumers need to be made aware of this and understand the nature of the service purchased.
Cull said ISPA supports fair competition in internet access and content services, prioritising the customer’s ability to make an informed choice.
“At this stage, rules should be primarily directed at prohibiting network operators from unfairly prioritising their own network traffic over the traffic from other operators,” he said.
“But if an ISP’s customer wants to buy a service that is prioritised in some way, then he or she should be able to do so. The same is true for content providers.
“The principle we need to follow should be that when a consumer buys a premium service, it should not affect the service offered to other consumers.”
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