South African Minister of Communication Siphiwe Nyanda on Monday said that the department was finalising South Africa's broadband policy, and would release the document, which would outline government's national broadband strategy, "shortly".

Addressing delegates gathered at the Southern African telecommunications networks and application conference (Satnac) in Swaziland, Nyanda added that the department was also in the process of finalising the national radio frequency spectrum policy.

He noted that there was increasing pressure from individuals demanding integrated, affordable and mobile communications solutions, which, in turn, spurred the need for migration to Internet Protocol (IP) based platforms.

Government sought to employ information and communications technology (ICT) to stimulate socio-economic growth, and thus sought to encourage more sub-marine fibre-optics cables connecting the country to international networks, as well as extending terrestrial fibre-optic networks.

The theme of this year's Satnac conference is ‘Convergence - a 21st century lifestyle enabler', and Nyanda added that convergence would create opportunities for innovation and development in South Africa.

He also noted that South Africa's lack of infrastructure, while often seen as a barrier, was also an opportunity as it meant that there was no need to adapt from aged legacy systems, and could move straight to IP, which also provided opportunities for digital inclusion.

Nyanda said that convergence could "reverse the skills gap", as Voice over IP could be introduced into rural areas for use in education, healthcare and service delivery.

Telkom CEO Reuben September said the company was putting massive investment into making convergence possible. "This takes time," he added.

He said that the convergence of information technology and telecommunications meant that consumers were blurring the lines between fixed and mobile solutions in voice and data. However, he said that the actual uptake of converged services in South Africa has been slow, and the growth, on the fixed-mobile convergence side has been in single digits.

Nyanda said that convergence did, however, pose challenges for regulation, as the Internet was a largely unregulated medium, and whether or not regulations governing telecoms could be applied was questioned. Nyanda said South Africa had merged telecoms and broadcasting regulations, while some countries had included ICT under the same regulation.

Another challenge for convergence was the issue of security of networks, but Nyanda added that the country was determined to "climb the convergence mountain" and overcome the technical barriers associated therewith.

Neotel chief technical officer Angus Hay also noted that convergence onto one single platform, the Internet, had "swept aside much of the good engineering and standardisation of the telecommunications world". However, it was the Internet that was driving services, and needed to be understood, and operators needed to interact with how the Internet works, and benefit from that.

"I don't think policy is going to change that, although we welcome [the policy]. But the need to deliver services to customers is driving technology and convergence," Hay added.

He further stated that regulation of the industry did not actually drive changes, as it tries to control the industry. "Technology is moving faster than regulation is able to move."

Africa Business News COO Gary Alfonso suggested that there was a "massive paralysis" in terms of regulatory deliberation, adding that there was a disconnect in the way that regulators were dealing with the issue of convergence.

"Regulators need to be much more progressive," he stated, and said that regulatory framework decisions should aim at getting all stakeholders, including: governments; regulators; multinational companies; small and medium-sized enterprises; and consumer groups, around the same table.