While the information requirements for registering cellphone subscribers have been substantially trimmed, the cellular network operators say it is still going to affect the customer experience.
From 1 July, the relevant sections of the law (also known as Rica) - requiring the network operators to register and verify the identity of their subscribers - came into effect. Parliament has given the operators 18 months in which to comply.
MTN SA corporate affairs manager Zolisa Masiza says the cost and information requirements are not the real issue. Rather, it is how the whole process will impact the subscriber experience.
“Until now, it has been very simple to get people to connect. This process will affect the customer experience, but exactly how we don't know,” he notes.
Masiza says another complication is that many citizens of countries bordering SA use SIM cards bought from network operators here.
“We are not exactly sure how this will affect them, and then we have to comply with the various registration regulations in those countries as well,” he says.
Vodacom chief communications officer Dot Field has a more sanguine view and says there will be initial inconvenience for subscribers.
“We will probably face the same hiccups as the implementation of the FICA [Financial Intelligence Centre Act] that the banks had to implement. But once that is over, it will become a fact of life for everyone,” she says.
Field points out that many other countries have similar registration processes for their prepaid and contract subscribers, but since SA was the first country to implement the prepaid service, such requirements were not considered.
Vodacom was the world's first GSM network operator to implement prepaid services to cater for this country's large unbanked population.
Network operators are not disclosing what implementing this system will cost them. Three years ago, former Vodacom CEO Alan Knott-Craig indicated to Parliament that the figure could be about R100 million. However, this was when a paper-based system was being seriously considered.
Field is adamant costs will not be passed onto consumers: “We will not be seeking to recover costs from our subscribers for this.”
Other operators have made similar commitments, as the politicians who drafted the law have taken a strong view that the costs must not be passed onto the consumer.
No escape
In terms of the legislation, all contract, top-up and prepaid customers must register their phone SIM cards with the network operators. Information that has to be supplied includes full names, identity numbers, and proof of residential address via a utility bill.
For those who cannot provide a utility bill, a letter of affirmation can be submitted from a prominent person, such as a village headman, church elder or even a police station confirming who they are and where they live.
Driver's licences are not acceptable as proof of identity, as they do not contain a person's full names, a requirement that is similar to the banks'.
Parents with children under the age of 16 have to register SIM cards in their names, and the same applies to anyone who pays a cellular phone bill on behalf of others.
The SIM card resellers will not retain any of the physical customer information, as all of it will be captured electronically and stored in a database by the network operators. It is still unclear if the networks will maintain their own databases, or will pool these.
Visitors to the country do not have to register their SIM cards if they bring their own. However, if they buy one in SA, then they have to comply with the positive proof of identity requirements, which includes producing their passport.
Step by step
Leona Mentz, Cell C manager for regulatory affairs, says essentially RICA has three steps for the network operators to carry out: verify, capture and activate the connection.
“The information will be captured through a variety of devices; some we will share with the other network operators and others will be our own,” Mentz says.
She says Cell C will use information systems that are a mixture of their own and industry-wide networks.
These are:
* Clarify - a system to be used by all service providers, including Nashua and Autopage;
* Gateway - a technology mostly used in channels shared between the networks;
* Web portal - for all retail channels that have access to the Internet, but are not using Gateway or Clarify; and
* Wap - for all retailers that do not have access to Gateway, Clarify or the Internet, and is a handheld device.
Field says each cellular network is responsible for collecting and storing their customers' SIM card information. Various solutions were deployed to collect this information at the different points of sale. These solutions were tailored to suit the requirements of each type of distribution channel.
Rica was integrated into Vodacom's internal point of sale systems, and some retailers included Rica into their point of sale systems.
Where it has been unable to integrate it into its systems, Vodacom provided retail channels with terminals that are specifically designed to collect the information. In many cases, these terminals will be used to collect information for all three of the cellular networks. A simple solution has also been developed and made available on a cellphone for agents in Vodacom's informal channels.
Related story:
All ready for mass subscriber registration
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