In 2007, then minister, the late Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, announced that local loop unbundling (LLU) would be achieved by 2011. While many interpreted this as an effective four-year extension of Telkom’s monopoly over South Africa’s infrastructure, other were more upbeat, not least the minister herself who, when questioned on the issue, said that the process had taken as many as 15 years in other countries, making the South African government’s plans “ambitious”.

Forward to 2009, and the advent of carrier pre-select (CPS), proposed by Icasa and widely seen as a precursor to LLU.