The South African Post Office Amendment Act separated the now defunct South African Department of Posts and Telecommunications (SAPT) into a separate post company and telecommunications company. The act split the SAPT into Telkom SA ltd., a wholly state owned communications company, The South African Post Office, and a much smaller Department of Posts and Telecommunications, the task of which is to administer the Radio and Post Office Acts. [1]
South African Post Office (SAPO) is the national postal service of South Africa and as a state owned enterprise, its only shareholder is the South African government. In terms of South African law, the Post Office is the only entity legally allowed to accept reserved mail and as such operates a monopoly. It employs over 23,800 people and operates more than 2,486 postal outlets throughout the country and therefore has a presence in almost every single town and city in South Africa.Its main subsidiary is Postbank, a financial services provider, headed by Shaheen Adam.
Telecommunications had an early beginning in Mauritius, with the first telephone line installed in 1883, seven years after the invention of the telephone. Over the years, the network and telephony improved. By the late 20th century, the rapid development and convergence of information and telecommunications technologies gave rise to an ICT industry on the island along with many incentives provided by the government. The government thus aims to make the ICT sector the 5th pillar of the Mauritian economy and Mauritius a Cyber Island. Historically, the country is known for tourism, rather than its call centers and business process outsourcing.
Telecommunications infrastructure in South Africa provides modern and efficient service to urban areas, including cellular and internet services. In 1997, Telkom, the South African telecommunications parastatal, was partly privatised and entered into a strategic equity partnership with a consortium of two companies, including SBC, a U.S. telecommunications company. In exchange for exclusivity to provide certain services for 5 years, Telkom assumed an obligation to facilitate network modernisation and expansion into the unserved areas.
Mercury Communications was a national telephone company in the United Kingdom, formed in 1981 as a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless, to challenge the then-monopoly of British Telecom (BT). Mercury was the first competitor to BT, and although it proved only moderately successful at challenging their dominance, it was to set the path for new communication companies to attempt the same.
The Communications Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act, which came into force on 25 July 2003, superseded the Telecommunications Act 1984. The new act was the responsibility of Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell. It consolidated the telecommunication and broadcasting regulators in the UK, introducing the Office of Communications (Ofcom) as the new industry regulator. On 28 December 2003 Ofcom gained its full regulatory powers, inheriting the duties of the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel). Among other measures, the act introduced legal recognition of community radio and paved the way for full-time community radio services in the UK, as well as controversially lifting many restrictions on cross-media ownership. It also made it illegal to use other people's Wi-Fi broadband connections without their permission. In addition, the legislation also allowed for the first time non-European entities to wholly own a British television company.
Postal Services of Portugal, plc is the national postal service of Portugal.
BT Archives is an archive preserving the documentary heritage of BT and its public sector predecessors. It is designated an official place of deposit for Public Records, for those records created prior to BT's privatisation in 1984.
The Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services is one of the departments of the South African government. It is responsible for overseeing the South African communications, telecommunications and broadcasting industries. The political head of the department is the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services. It was renamed in 2014 when President Jacob Zuma created a new Ministry of Communications with different responsibilities, including propaganda. President Ramaphosa changed the department in November 2018 to : Communications, Telecommunications and Postal Services.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is an independent regulatory body of the South African government, established in 2000 by the ICASA Act to regulate both the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors in the public interest. Traditionally, telecommunications and broadcasting services operated separately and so has the regulation of the sectors. Broadcasting in South Africa was regulated by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), whereas telecommunications was regulated by the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA). Rapid technological developments have led to the convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications services. This also had an influence on the convergence of regulation resulting in the merging of the IBA and SATRA. ICASA functions under the Department of Communications (DoC). It was initially composed of seven Council members. The ICASA amendment Act of 2006 included the Postal services, previously regulated by the Postal Authority into ICASA’s mandate. It increased the Council members from seven to nine to accommodate the new members from the Postal Authority.
Post Office Telecommunications was set up as a separate department of the UK Post Office, in October 1969. The Post Office Act of that year was passed to provide for greater efficiency in post and telephone services; rather than run a range of services, each organisation would be able to focus on their respective service, with dedicated management. By law, the Post Office had the exclusive right to operate the UK national telecom network, and limited ability to license other providers' services and equipment.
Over the past 20 years, many African countries have split their state-owned post and telecom companies into two separate units. In Eswatini, Eswatini Posts and Telecommunications provides the two services under one corporate umbrella. The company, known as SPTC, is divided into two units: Swazi Post and Swazi Telecom.
Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation (TTCL) is the oldest and largest fixed line telecommunications company in Tanzania. The company comes forth from the former Tanzania Posts and Telecommunications Corporation in 1993. TTCL was wholly owned by the Government of Tanzania until the partial privatisation of the company on 23 February 2001.
Ombudsmen in Australia are independent agencies which assist when a dispute arises between individuals and industry bodies or government agencies. Government ombudsman services are free to the public, like many other ombudsman and dispute resolution services, and are a means of resolving disputes outside of the court systems. Australia has an ombudsman assigned for each state; as well as an ombudsman for the Commonwealth of Australia. As laws differ between states just one process, or policy, cannot be used across the Commonwealth. All government bodies are within the jurisdiction of the ombudsman.
The General Post Office (GPO) was officially established in England in 1660 by Charles II and it eventually grew to combine the functions of state postal system and telecommunications carrier. Similar General Post Offices were established across the British Empire. In 1969 the GPO was abolished and the assets transferred to The Post Office, changing it from a Department of State to a statutory corporation. In 1980, the telecommunications and postal sides were split prior to British Telecommunications' conversion into a totally separate publicly owned corporation the following year as a result of the British Telecommunications Act 1981. For the more recent history of the postal system in the United Kingdom, see the articles Royal Mail and Post Office Ltd.
BotswanaPost is the company responsible for postal service in Botswana. It is a parastatal company, 100% owned by the Government of Botswana, under the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology.
Tanzania Posts Corporation is the company responsible for postal service in Tanzania and was established in 1994.
Posta Uganda, originally named Uganda Post Limited, is the company solely responsible for postal service in Uganda.
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) is the regulatory body for the communications sector in Kenya. Established in 1999 by the Kenya Information and Communications Act, 1998, the Authority is responsible for facilitating the development of the Information and Communications sectors including; broadcasting, multimedia, telecommunications, electronic commerce, postal and courier services.
To call in Eswatini, the following format is used:
The State Security Agency is the department of the South African government with overall responsibility for civilian intelligence operations. It was created in October 2009 to incorporate the formerly separate National Intelligence Agency, South African Secret Service, South African National Academy of Intelligence, National Communications Centre and COMSEC.