Subscribe

Licence conversions to miss deadline

Paul Vecchiatto
By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent
Johannesburg, 12 Mar 2008

Telecommunications regulator Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) is unlikely to meet its obligation of completing the licence conversion process by July, as mandated by law.

This emerged yesterday during ICASA's briefing before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications, when the committee's chairman Ismail Vadi tried to pin down the regulator on whether the deadline would be met.

ICASA chairman Paris Mashile stated that some issues were beyond the regulator's control, but that extensive business plans had been drawn up, although they were only tentative, because things change. But he said these plans could be produced if needed, and begged for the "indulgences of the operators; but this is a two-way street".

"Just answer simply. Are you able to or are you not able to meet your obligations in terms of the Electronic Communications (EC) Act?" Vadi asked.

At this point, ICASA CEO Karabo Motlane interjected by saying: "Some things are just not within ICASA's control; for instance, the DOC [Department of Communications] is responsible for setting the licensing fee and we are still waiting for them."

Vadi then asked DOC director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole, who was sitting in the gallery, if this was true.

She answered: "I can give ICASA those fees tomorrow, if necessary. However, I believe that they are not the only challenges that ICASA faces in this process."

Mashile partly agreed with this, saying: "Meeting the deadline is one factor; however, we must also make the right decisions."

In terms of the EC Act, ICASA is supposed to convert all licences granted under the old Telecommunications Act two years after the EC Act was promulgated into law. This means that a public switched telecommunications service, which includes Telkom and Neotel, will become individual electronic communications network services (ECNS), and value-added network services would then be known as electronic communications services.

'Mesh' up?

Dene Smuts, of the Democratic Alliance, asked a question about when small wireless ISPs would be granted individual ECNS licences as envisaged by the EC Act.

"SMEs who want to provide individual ECNS services, mainly WiFi, can do so only if their equipment is type-approved," Mashile answered.

He said there was a potential problem that the possibility of mesh networks (where a number of WiFi networks are linked into a larger network) could interfere with a larger operator's network.

An ICASA official stated that regulations governing how the small wireless ISPs could apply for individual ECNS licences would be completed by the end of March and they would be able to do so from 1 April.

Related story:
Minister says 'no' to VANS licences

Share