Zenzeleni Networks has been exempted by ICASA
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Carlos Rey-Moreno
Nov 26, 2014, 9:47:50 AM11/26/14
to village-telco-dev
Good morning,
I just wanted to share with you that our small network in rural South Africa has gone a long way from our first problems with the external antennas. Recently, Zenzeleni Networks, helped by Ellipsis Regulatory Services, got a licence exemption from ICASA for both the deployment of infrastructure (ECNS) and the provision of services (ECS)
The one for ECS has been obtained following David Carman's advice of constituting Zenzeleni Networks as a non-for-profit telecommunications cooperative. This means that all the profit (if any) after the costs of operating an maintaining the network (salaries included, if any) does not go to the shareholders, but invested it back to achieve the cooperative's goals.
The one for ECNS has been obtained via presenting it as a Private Network, i.e. “used primarily for providing electronic communications for the owner’s own use”. For this to work, users of the network need to become cooperative members, so users are owners, as in most community networks.
Obtaining the exemptions has many positive sides. Apart from being legal, so you forget about prosecutions of any sort, an exemption holder does not need to pay a the licence fee or contribute a percentage of their revenues to the USAF. Additionally, it does not have to produce any further documentation to keep the exemptions as long as the conditions that allowed its granting remain unchanged. Furthermore, it allows you for instance to co-locate equipment in Telkom's towers (paying a fee), something they don't allow without being licensed, and peer there with much faster and cheaper Internet than the one available in rural areas. You would be surprised of the capillarity of Telkom's towers (and the fibre arriving to them). There are three towers which could be used in our small network, in a pretty remote place in the Eastern Cape.
I just wanted to share with you that our small network in rural South Africa has gone a long way from our first problems with the external antennas. Recently, Zenzeleni Networks, helped by Ellipsis Regulatory Services, got a licence exemption from ICASA for both the deployment of infrastructure (ECNS) and the provision of services (ECS)
The one for ECS has been obtained following David Carman's advice of constituting Zenzeleni Networks as a non-for-profit telecommunications cooperative. This means that all the profit (if any) after the costs of operating an maintaining the network (salaries included, if any) does not go to the shareholders, but invested it back to achieve the cooperative's goals.
The one for ECNS has been obtained via presenting it as a Private Network, i.e. “used primarily for providing electronic communications for the owner’s own use”. For this to work, users of the network need to become cooperative members, so users are owners, as in most community networks.
Obtaining the exemptions has many positive sides. Apart from being legal, so you forget about prosecutions of any sort, an exemption holder does not need to pay a the licence fee or contribute a percentage of their revenues to the USAF. Additionally, it does not have to produce any further documentation to keep the exemptions as long as the conditions that allowed its granting remain unchanged. Furthermore, it allows you for instance to co-locate equipment in Telkom's towers (paying a fee), something they don't allow without being licensed, and peer there with much faster and cheaper Internet than the one available in rural areas. You would be surprised of the capillarity of Telkom's towers (and the fibre arriving to them). There are three towers which could be used in our small network, in a pretty remote place in the Eastern Cape.
We are planning to create a website with all the documentation that we produced so other communities willing to could do it easier and faster arrive to the same point where we are now.
Best,
carlos
Carlos Rey-Moreno
Research Assistant
Office 1.28
Department of Computer Science
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17 - Bellville, 7535
Cape Town - South Africa
Tel: +27 (0) 21 959 2562 Cel: +27 (0) 76 986 3633
Skype: carlos.reymoreno Twitter: Creym
Research Assistant
Office 1.28
Department of Computer Science
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17 - Bellville, 7535
Cape Town - South Africa
Tel: +27 (0) 21 959 2562 Cel: +27 (0) 76 986 3633
Skype: carlos.reymoreno Twitter: Creym
Abdul Hakeem
Nov 26, 2014, 11:35:06 AM11/26/14
to village-...@googlegroups.com
Congratulations Carlos.
Lets hope this can be put to good use.
Cheers,
Abdul Hakeem
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T Gillett
Nov 26, 2014, 5:36:37 PM11/26/14
to village-telco-dev
Hi Carlos
A great outcome from all your efforts!Terry
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