| Summary: | Technology and regulatory changes have profoundly altered and will continue to alter the
way business opportunities are conceived. Entrepreneurs evaluate these opportunities and
initiate the start-up of businesses.
This study assesses whether the two major factors essential to the entry of smaller
telecommunications start-ups, liberalisation and technology changes, result in
entrepreneurship opportunities.
The South African telecommunications industry is entering its eleventh year of liberalisation
and coupled with technological development and convergence in the telecommunications
and information and technology sector, the market is set for growth. Technology trends
such as wireless, broadband, and the convergence of voice, video and data are bringing
dramatic change to the industry and a myriad of business opportunities.
The growing number of competitors found amongst Value Added Network Service
Providers (VANS), lnternet Service Providers (ISP's), Voice over Internet Protocol
operators, Least Cost Routing operators and Wireless operators are clear signs that the
telecommunications industry's competitive space is changing.
Information regarding entrepreneurship, technology and regulations served as input to
compile four sets of questionnaires to conduct the empirical research. The population
sample consisted of South African telecommunications industry stakeholders with a focus
on new start-ups in the form of VANS, ISP's, USAL's and Wireless Access Service
Providers.
Data were analysed in respect of the following sections:
-Profile information such as licensing category and size of turnover.
-Entrepreneurship.
-The impact of regulations on entrepreneurship.
-The impact of technology on entrepreneurship.
The collected data verified the existence and presence of smaller telecommunications
players in South Africa. The existence of entrepreneurship opportunities in the South
African telecommunications industry is created by entrepreneurial drive, innovation and
technology changes.
The respondents believe that there are entrepreneur opportunities in the
telecommunications industry but the current liberalisation measures are not sufficient to
promote entrepreneurship in the telecommunications industry.
The respondents confirmed that technology is a much stronger opportunity creator than
regulations and that IP communications, wireless and broadband technologies will create
most entrepreneurial opportunities. Liberalisation of service-based competition and the
unbundling of access networks will also create significant business opportunities.
Regulations are not in line with technological progress and prevent South Africa from
becoming a true information-centric society. Although sufficient consumer demand exists
for services, regulations act as a barrier to enter the market. The draft Convergence Act is
not addressing concerns about free and fair competition.
A model of telecommunications regulation focusing on competition as a fundamental tool
for achieving both economic and social objectives is recommended for implementation.
New smaller competitors should be subjected to competition laws as opposed to regulator specific
rules. The aforementioned will result in entrepreneurship together with the
achievement of free market goals such as fair competition, reduced cost of communication
and a thriving e-economy.
The licensing framework should allow broad-based competitive entry in "fringe" or value
added services. The regulator must become independent of other interests in the
telecommunications sector and independent of political interest. The changing landscape
of local interconnection with multiple operators providing different combinations of the
same integrated services must be revisited.
Regulations should be brought in line with technological progress. The importance of
advanced technology in the new e-economy is unmistakable, and technology should be
applied in an entrepreneurial context. The South African government should seize
technological opportunities in the changing telecommunications industry.
This however, requires entrepreneurship, good management, and frontier technical
knowledge, a detailed understanding of consumer demand, wise public policy direction and
effective regulation. === Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.
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