ICASA positive on Convergence Bill

By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent

Cape Town, 06 Sept 2005

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) believes that with careful implementation, the Convergence Bill will add certainty and increase confidence in the sector, says Peter Hlapolosa, GM of telecommunications services at ICASA.

Speaking at the Telecomms World Africa 2005 conference in Cape Town this morning, Hlapolosa said the Convergence Bill`s aim is to consolidate all the legislation so that broadcasters and telecommunications service providers know where they stand with respect to frequencies and spectrum.

He said the Bill will also promote convergence of network services and technologies in the sector.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications is deliberating the Convergence Bill after three months of public hearings. However, the ICASA Amendment Bill still has to be made public by the Department of Communications.

According to Hlapolosa, the Convergence Bill empowers ICASA to make regulations with regard to any matter that may be prescribed. This includes any technical matter for the regulation of licensed services, any matter of procedure necessary for the Bill or related legislation, the payment of a variety of fees to the authority, and the control of radio frequency spectrum, radio activities and the use of radio apparatus.

He said different regulations may be formulated for different classes or categories of licences in terms of the Bill.

Hlapolosa touched on the issue of essential services, which are a communications facility or combination of communications facilities that are exclusively or predominantly provided by a single or limited number of communications network licences and cannot feasibly be replaced in order to provide a communications service.

"We may decide to make such services as supplied by an essential service available to another operator at a fair price."

Hlapolosa said ICASA will license a total of 27 underserviced area licensees with seven already being granted, another 14 being examined, and the remainder to be approved in the final phase. A total of 33 applications have been received, he noted.