The international gateway licence would originally have been the licence to print money that was needed to make Sentech attractive to potential buyers when its turn comes to be privatised. The broadcast signal distributor was to deliver not only SABC television programming to homes but add international telephone calls, presumably using the same broadcast signal.

The licence, after all, was “informed by technological changes, particularly the convergence of technologies”, as the Department of Communications announced in July.

Telkom expressed its worry publicly. International calls are still a guaranteed money-maker, especially where voice-over-IP calls are prohibited, and it saw the spectre of both Sentech and what was at the time still two full-blown competitors eating into this lucrative market.