ICASA clips Cell C's wings

By Siyabonga Africa, ITWeb junior journalist

Johannesburg, 04 Mar 2009

Cell C is confident the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) will endorse its community service telephone (CST) roll-out programme. This comes as the authority ruled in favour of limiting the scope of under-serviced areas (USAs) where the CSTs are to be installed.

“We are still in the process of studying the ICASA ruling. However, our initial view of the ruling is that our CSTs comply with ICASA's ruling on the definition of 'under-serviced area' in our licence,” says Cell C's executive head of regulatory affairs, Nadia Bulbulia.

ICASA has been holding public hearings on the matter since late last year. The authority had been reviewing several submissions from key players, including Vodacom, MTN, Telkom and the Universal Services and Access Agency of SA, before it made its decision.

Cell C, which holds a mobile cellular telecommunications service (MCTS) licence, was mandated to roll-out 52 000 CSTs to areas with tele-densities of less than 10% within eight years, starting from November 2001 and ending in November 2008. Media reports say the cellular operator doubled the installations to more than 100 000.

The move sparked a low-cost telephony war between Cell C and MTN over the definition of USAs, with MTN contesting the former had encroached on areas which were adequately serviced. The authority convened public hearings on the matter late last year.

ICASA rejected Cell C's definition of USAs and narrowed the term to include only identifiable places, such as suburbs of a town or a city, or municipality defined section or ward or zone of a township, or a subplace as defined by Statistics SA.

The cellular operator had asked for USAs to be widened instead of narrowed in order to promote equality and operator competition between MCTS operators.

Access for who?

ICASA also rejected Cell C's call for the application of the tele-density method of measurement and reference to objects of universal access which would determine the meaning of access within the context of the definition.

The authority interprets access to mean the ability of inhabitants of an area to reach and use a house telephone or public payphone. ICASA says Cell C's definition of access did not take into consideration the acceptable interpretations such as that of the International Telecommunications Union, which includes fixed-line and mobile telephony. Cell C's definition of access only refers to fixed-line telephones.

Cell C's roll-out plans will still be scrutinised by ICASA when the cellular operator gives its reasons for installing CSTs in certain areas. Should the authority find them to be agreeable, they will be accepted as a part of Cell C's universal service obligations.

Above and beyond

Bulbulia believes Cell C has met its part in upholding the obligations set in its MCTS licence. The cellular operator has installed above and beyond the minimum number of CSTs it was mandated to, she notes.

“Not only have we exceeded our minimum requirement, but we have also done so two years before deadline. Making affordable telephony accessible to the poorest of the poor in the country has been the driving force behind our dedication to roll-out CSTs.”

Cell C contends it has also done the community a world of good in its CST roll-out programme by not only providing millions of South Africans with affordable telephony, but also creating employment opportunities for more than 9 100 CST owners.