Telcos deny Idols responsibility

By Candice Jones, ITWeb online telecoms editor

Johannesburg, 11 May 2009

Telecoms operators are denying any responsibility in the SMS vote debacle that left the top two South African Idols finalists in limbo last week.

M-Net was compelled to call a joint win for Sasha Lee Davids and Jason Hartman in the popular reality show, after almost 600 000 valid SMS votes were delayed and not counted after the cut-off times.

M-Net's channel director for general entertainment, Theo Erasmus, says the broadcaster has initiated a technical investigation to determine the actual cause of the problem. He says the mobile operators have been co-operating with the broadcaster to discover the source.

“Somewhere between when the vote was sent by the cellphone user, and it being received by the wireless application service provider (WASP), some significant delays occurred. We have been able to track all delayed votes, but have not been able to determine the cause of the delay,” he adds.

He says the results of the investigation should be available within the “next day or so”, and the results will determine what the broadcaster will do. “We will have to wait for the outcome of the technical investigation and take it from there.”

Past problems?

The big three mobile operators were immediately fingered in the Idols debacle, following a recent outcry by customers who complained about network issues. Those complaints included delayed SMSes and dropped calls, which prompted the Independent Communications Authority of SA to start its own investigation into the matter.

No results have yet been released by the regulator, and most of the network operators said user trouble could be attributed to old SIM cards and incompatible handsets. MTN was the only operator that said it had significantly increased call volumes that could have been responsible for user delays.

Similarly, the operators have all said they are not responsible for the missing Idols SMS votes. “Vodacom would like to state that its network is not the cause of, nor responsible for, any voting irregularities in connection with M-Net's Idols competition,” says Vodacom's chief communications officer, Dot Field.

African telecoms giant MTN says it conducted a network investigation, which turned up no network irregularities that could account for the delayed messages. “After a full investigation, MTN can confirm that no delays were found in the MTN SMS system. All information has been submitted to M-Net for scrutiny by the appointed auditors for their findings,” says MTN's chief marketing officer, Serame Taukobong.

Cell C says only 2% of the votes were transmitted through its systems and all the SMSes went through without delay. “However, we have established that there was a delay in these SMSes being confirmed as received by the independent WASP, which could be attributed to the high call volumes as the competition reached its climax,” noted Steve Boiles, Cell C's executive head of networks.

The messages were delivered to WASP Grapevine Communications. The contact number listed on the company's Web site goes directly to a voicemail service. ITWeb could not reach the company at the time of publication.

SMS volume

From the Top 14 round of Idols to the final, viewers cast almost 8 million votes. In 2007, the entire show received same number of votes cast in total.

The final show saw around 2.4 million votes cast, split between call, SMS and Internet votes. Only 1.8 million had been counted by the final on 3 May. It is unclear how many of those were cast via SMS.

The telecoms operators usually experience similar problems during the Christmas season, when call and SMS volumes increase dramatically. Vodacom did not release figures for the Christmas period last year, however, it did indicate that its network behaved well over the season.

On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, 26 million SMSes were sent from MTN handsets. The company said it had also handled the increased volume without trouble. Cell C did not have specific figures, but indicated SMS traffic increased by 80% over the season.

By Friday last week, Sasha Lee Davids and Jason Hartman were crowned joint winners of the coveted SA Idol competition. Sponsors have agreed to double the prize winnings.