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Cellphone industry players should talk to avoid RICA implementation nightmares

By Yanesh Ramiah
Johannesburg, 12 Jan 2009

The long-delayed implementation of the RICA Act is finally set to kick in early this year, after years of wrangling. But even now, the cellular industry and its satellites may not be ready for the task that lies ahead.

The Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communications-related Information Act number 70 of 2002, to use its rather daunting full name, establishes the ground rules for who may intercept communications and under what circumstances. Much of it is relatively uncontroversial; most people accept that law enforcement agencies should be able to listen in on the conversations of criminals, provided they have the proper authorisation from a judge.

Where RICA has been controversial is in the measures it requires communications operators to take so that government agencies have access to the information they need. In particular, within the next 18 months or so, cellphone operators will have to record the name, ID number and address of the owner of every cellphone SIM card in the country. In a country where around 75% of the estimated 42 million SIM cards in circulation are prepaid, with no information gathered at the point of sale, this is no easy task.

Cellphone network operators may be the ones who need to keep the information, but the problem of collecting it affects a far broader swathe of the country's business community. SIM cards are for sale everywhere, from your local corner shop to large supermarkets and specialist cellphone shops, which makes them the logical place to try and collect the required names, surnames, certified copies of ID documents and proof of residence. This means an additional burden on retailers, even though they are not the ones targeted by the legislation.

The situation gets worse for retailers - not only will they bear the brunt of consumer ire at new regulations, they also need to find ways to communicate the information they gather to network providers in a useful form while also keeping all sensitive personal information secure from unauthorised access.

The larger retailers have already begun putting systems in place to meet the technical and management challenges involved in gathering the required information without inconveniencing customers too much or disrupting their normal operations. But, without clearer guidelines from either the government or the cellular industry, they face an uphill task. Are their database structures compatible? What security measures are needed to keep information confidential when it is going to be handled by everyone from staff at till points to back-office technicians?

Part of this can be blamed on the endless delays in the process without any certainty about when RICA would become reality; nobody wants to be the first to act. But now that movement is starting to happen, it is vital that communications operators, retailers and everyone else involved get together to establish how they are going to work together. The current pattern of isolated initiatives can only end in disaster. The systems will come right in the end, but do we really want another repeat of the disruption and upheaval that surrounded the banks' implementation of FICA? And this time, with more roleplayers, the potential for confusion is much higher.

What the industry needs is a forum where mobile industry players can come together with retailers, wholesalers, government departments and technology partners to work out a framework and standards for the systems that RICA will require. Swist Tech would gladly help to create and facilitate such a forum. Anybody who is interested should e-mail RICA@Swisttech.com.

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