The policy aimed at revamping the legislative landscape of South Africa’s information and communications technology (ICT) industry could be completed this year, as the Department of Communications (DoC) plans to publish a White Paper by August.

The department, which published the Green Paper for the long-awaited National Integrated ICT Policy earlier this year, is currently undertaking nationwide public consultations on the document, kicking off with a national consultative conference in Boksburg last week.

Speaking at the event, Communications Minister Yunus Carrim said the national conference, which aimed to spur inclusive discussions to close any gaps in the Green Paper and lead to the final development of the White Paper, would continue with discussions across the nation’s provinces that would continue until the end of March.

The DoC embarked on the policy overhaul in 2012 to realign its policies with government’s developmental goals and provide a platform for South African companies to further develop the sector to compete globally.

The policy would provide an “up-to-date” and somewhat “future-proof” framework for the adoption of new ICT legislation more suitable to the ever-changing industry, Carrim said.

He explained that there was a need to strengthen South Africa’s ICT sector and adjust the country to a digital age in a way that was aligned to the economic ambitions of the National Development Plan.

Despite the many challenges in changing and developing the industry to best serve the needs of the nation’s citizens by boosting economic and social development, South Africa had made many gains in connecting the nation.

From a zero base in 1993, South Africa had achieved a mobile penetration rate of 136%, with the ICT sector’s contribution to gross domestic product rising to 6% by 2012 and the telecommunications sector market alone growing to more than R179-billion in 2011.

The telecommunication sector’s revenue expanded from R8.2-billion in 1993 to R157-billion in 2012. This is expected to grow to R187-billion by 2016.

Just fewer than 90% of South Africa’s 14.5-million households had access to mobile phones; however, only 35% of households have access to the Internet and only 15% to a landline.

But, South Africa had not yet taken full advantage of the possibilities and opportunities created by the convergence and digitisation of communications technologies, Carrim previously explained.

The rapid expansion and fast-paced developments in technology and the dramatically changing ICT landscape had seen an unprecedented rise in the number of people connected to voice, video and Internet services globally.

“The fragmented approach adopted at the advent of democracy does not [increase] efficiencies and, in future, will increasingly hamper the capacity of the sector to fulfil socioeconomic development. The silo approach to the sector needs to be reviewed so that we do not inadvertently create a digital divide, where access to quality communications services, technologies, infrastructure and content is a privilege of the elite, rather than a right for all,” the document highlighted.

The paper pointed to the need to fully include South Africa’s growing population, which increased from 37.8-million to 52-million between 1993 and 2011.