Internetix 09, the annual technology conference hosted by Internet Solutions, kicked off this morning at The Forum in Bryanston’s The Campus technology park. 

The conference was themed “What If” and featured keynote addresses by Ravi Naidoo, MD Interactive Africa and founder of the Design Indaba, and Mark Gevisser, Journalist. While Naidoo covered the wealth of creative capital in the country, looking at the spate of international design awards South Africans have received in the last decade, Gevisser discussed the political climate and the need for South Africans to come to terms with being an ordinary state with ordinary leaders.

The highlight of the conference was a panel discussion themed, “The State of Liberalisation in the Telco Space,” chaired by the Financial Mail’s Duncan McCloud.

Participants in the panel included Paris Mashile Chairman of ICASA, Angus MacRobert CEO of IS, Pinky Maholi MD Telkom SA, Alan Knott-Craig former CEO of Vodacom and Dr. Angus Hay CTO, Neotel.

While there was little consensus on the panel as to issues of interconnect pricing, spectrum and even when broadband would become cheaper for consumers there was general consensus on the fact that government held too much influence over the telecoms industry.

Knott-Craig commented that, “The government must get out of communications. Sure, they can drop interconnect rates, they must allocate the remaining spectrum, but then they must let the industry be,” reported ITWeb.