The Committee also raised concerns about Infraco's inability to be granted the Electronic Communication Services (ECS) licence by the Department of Communications. The Committee inquired whether the absence of the ECS licence was not compromising Infraco's legislative mandate of making broadband services accessible and affordable to under-serviced and/or underdeveloped areas. In the meantime, Infraco had entered into an agreement with Neotel until Infraco was granted an ECS licence. The Minister's response was that a study conducted by McKenzie had already indicated that the financial sustainability of Infraco would be affected if the ECS licence was not granted. There was, however, talk of synergising Infraco's activities with another SOE that was in crisis, namely Sentech. The Minister appealed to members of the Committee to await the outcome of these developments and not prejudge the issue.