The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has vowed to crack down on wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) that operate without a licence or allocated spectrum.
Speaking at the WiFi World 2007 conference this week, ICASA councillor Marcia Socikwa said the regulator would take proactive action against WISPs that operate outside the legal and regulatory framework.
Socikwa noted that the Electronic Communications Act grants ICASA the power to confiscate the equipment of WISPs that fail to comply with regulations. ICASA will exercise that power, she said. "We're going to clean up that space."
Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Sentech and iBurst are the only wireless Internet providers that have been licensed and awarded spectrum.
Market watchers, including MyADSL founder Rudolph Muller, argue this situation forces WISPs to operate in a legal grey area, as they provide much-needed services in remote areas.
However, the law mandates ICASA to enforce the legal and regulatory framework that has been put in place, Socikwa said. Spectrum is also a scarce resource that needs to be managed effectively, she added.
A way out
David Jarvis, chairman of the Wireless Access Providers Association (WAPA), said the industry body would assist ICASA by providing self-regulation in that sub-sector.
WAPA will also report to ICASA those delinquent operators who abuse spectrum, he added.
A Sentech spokesman argued that the state-owned entity, which has been allocated a large chunk of WiMax spectrum, has been mandated to provide communication services in underserviced areas, which other providers do not find commercially viable.
Sentech would, therefore, like to wholesale its spectrum to Internet service providers, which can, in turn, further allocate spectrum to smaller WISPs, he said.
Jarvis noted WISPs collectively have more than 5 000 subscribers. These subscribers are said to be off-radar, as they are never included when looking at SA's Internet penetration.
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