The Universal Service (and Access) Agency (of SA) (1994 – 2014)

This paper reproduces a chapter from the author’s 2018 PhD thesis ‘The Digital Donga: Universal Access and Service in South Africa (1994 - 2014)’. The author’s subsequent book Regulating Telecommunications in SA: Universal Access & Service was published by Palgrave Press in 2020, and can be obtained via the following link: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030435264. This chapter deals with the awarding of telecommunications licences in under-serviced area, a pioneering but unsuccessful intervention aimed at providing universal access and service. The granting of a series of telecommunications licences to new operators to provide telephony to under-serviced areas was arguably a major innovation on the part of South Africa in the context of universal access and service international good practice. The origins of the model are debatable, but likely drew from several sources, including the US-based National Telephone Cooperative Association. From conceptualisation to implementation the model was beset by delays, licensing problems and failures. All of the first round of licensees, bar one, perished in the face of regulatory delays, policy failures and a changing market. The causes of the fiasco were multiple, including; withdrawal of asymmetric termination; the demise of the shared platform company; problems with the subsidy scheme; the failure to award spectrum; the upsurge of mobile in the market; and institutional collapse