Industry does not trust the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) with information needed to bring certainty to the market, says ICASA councillor Marcia Socikwa.
"They [the companies] don`t seem to feel comfortable with providing information, yet they want informed decisions, showing an understanding of the market, and they want them quickly."
Socikwa spoke to ITWeb yesterday at the Africom/3GSM conference, in Cape Town, where she presented ICASA`s point of view on a number of issues, including the licence conversion process.
"Often companies want confidentiality clauses on almost every bit of information supplied to us and they demand just where in the law it is stipulated they must supply this information."
Socikwa says it should be taken for granted that any information given to ICASA is confidential, as the regulator has put in safeguards such as subscribing to government`s minimum information standards.
"If we benchmark ourselves [ICASA] against other regulators, we find they have all the information they need to make an informed decision and their industry unhesitatingly gives them the information they need."
She adds that the sooner information is provided, the quicker it can be analysed and the quicker the regulator can respond to market needs.
Heavy workload
ICASA is targeting the licence conversion process to be completed by July. This means processing more than 600 applications from value-added network services (VANS), the telecommunications operators and broadcasters, while - at the same time - considering new market entrants.
The current process constitutes a pre-conversion phase that determines what services licensees under the old Telecommunications Act had and how they would convert into the Electronic Communications Act framework.
There are more than 500 VANS that will be converted to electronic communications service licensees, 101 community broadcasting services licences, five subscription broadcasting services licences, and about 10 individual electronic communications network services licensees.
Consolidated views
Socikwa also points out that a converged environment does not mean less regulation for the market.
"You don`t necessarily have a greater inclination towards less regulation, because there are more players in the market who make demands for more 'fairness`, operating from a variety of platforms in different market segments with very different interests."
Socikwa says it is also better for the regulator to interact with industry once it has consolidated its views. She praised industry organisations, such as the Internet Service Providers Association, the Wireless Applications Providers Association and the SA Communications Forum.
"A consolidation of views such as those organisations present is far better than the divergent and dispersed views we get from individual operators."
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