There are signs that the company, whose past behaviour landed it in hot water with South Africa's competition authorities, now wants to be more accommodative with the industry of which it forms a significant part. If this is not just a public relations exercise, it would represent a significant break from the past.
For years, people in the industry have joked that Telkom is a law firm masquerading as a telecommunications operator.
It is also said that the annual budget set aside for Telkom's legal and regulatory affairs office is greater than the entire budget set aside by the Treasury for the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).
Whether that is true or not, as someone put it this week, the operator's regulatory division has for years been the tail that wagged the dog. Indications are that the dog is reasserting control over its rear end. Evidence of this is growing, with talk of the company making approaches to Icasa and the rest of the industry, especially smaller companies, seeking more constructive engagement.
The industry has every right to be sceptical. This is a company that, for the past 15 years, has abused its dominance, extracting monopoly rents for as long as it could. For years, it charged criminally high fees for access to national and international backhaul links, keeping bandwidth prices in South Africa far higher than they should have been and, in the process, undermining South Africa's economic growth.
In the access network - the "last mile" fixed-line network into homes and businesses - its prices are still far higher than in markets against which SA should be benchmarked. Not surprisingly, that is one of the few areas in which Telkom still enjoys a near monopoly.
Telkom tied up the Competition Commission in the courts for years, questioning its jurisdiction. But this month's settlement agreement with the commission - endorsed by the Competition Tribunal - for anti-competitive abuses between 2005 and 2007 appears to represent a ground-breaking change.
Last week, tribunal chairman Norman Manoim gushed about the settlement, describing it as the "most impressive consent agreement that I have seen in my years at the tribunal". He said the agreement was "a credit to the new leadership at Telkom for creating an environment where such an agreement could be reached".
Crucial aspects of the consent agreement, including the degree of wholesale and retail price cuts Telkom has agreed to, are confidential, but the fact that it has agreed to a range of measures designed to police its behaviour is significant.
It has agreed to operational separation of its wholesale and retail businesses - it is not yet clear precisely how this will work - and to stringent regulatory oversight and audits. "Old" Telkom would sooner have taken the competition authorities to court than have agreed to such sweeping change.
But this change makes sense. The fact is that it has lost its monopoly in all but for the last mile.
Maseko and his team must figure out how to stem the decline in fixed lines, grow broadband and build a mobile business as a late entrant in a mature market. Working with the industry and with regulators to do that will achieve far more than fighting them.
Source: Business Times via I-Net Bridge
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