ATIO Corporation to host Electronic Communications Bill conference

ATIO Corporation, a black empowered company specialising in ICT solutions and services, is to host a public conference on the controversial Electronic Communications Bill.

The aim of the conference is to stimulate debated about key issues raised by the Electronic Communications Bill, especially the implication of these regulations for the consumer.

"It has been unclear of what the Electronic Communications Bill actually contains in terms of its impact on the end-user. This is the first time these issues are to be addressed and we at ATIO Corporation are proud to create a public forum for debating the Bill," said Nicholas Maweni, marketing director for ATIO Corporation.

The Electronic Communications Bill is a seemingly innocuous piece of legislation proposing regulations for a competitive and stable South Africa`s broadcasting and telecommunications landscape. With the heated debates of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act of 2002 now part of the broader ICT industry`s collective consciousness and the deregulation of the telecommunications sector still not fully realised, the Electronic Communications Bill points to a policy framework that will have far-reaching consequences on the regulator, industry, ICT development agencies and the end-user.

The Electronic Communications Bill has been debated by the National Assembly and approved by the National Council of Provinces. Although interested parties were called to put forward their positions and share their concerns, the Electronic Communications Bill has not been debated publicly outside of the regulatory process.

The Electronic Communications Bill is a re-writing of the Convergence Bill and aims to regulate matters pertaining to broadcasting and telecommunications under the rubric of "electronic communications" - a pervasive term to include, as the Bill states it, "voice, sound, data, text, video, animation, visual images, moving images and pictures, signals or a combination thereof" and the means and mode of their transmission.

The policy is controversial and industry is frustrated with the delay in enacting the Bill. However, it is not just a matter of signature that is holding up the process. The real reason for the delay is that the Bill is linked to another regulatory process, that of the ICASA Amendment Act. The ICASA Amendment Act, besides providing ICASA with additional responsibilities, will dictate whether the regulatory authority will be directly accountable to the minister of communications or to public scrutiny via Parliament. The outcome will have a direct bearing on liberalisation of the sector, regulating telecommunications competition, and reducing the costs of communications, especially that of cellular services.

"Government cannot approve the Electronic Communications Bill until ICASA`s reporting lines are finalised. Yet, a pro-competitive outcome for the ICASA Amendment Act would make ensure that the Electronic Communications Bill will be interpreted as continuing the liberalisation of the communications sector. The net effect of a pro-competitive regulatory framework will make ICT more assessable to more people and provide more opportunities for doing business in South Africa," said Maweni.

The importance of this piece of legislation for the ICT industry`s relationship to end-users cannot be understated. Prior legislation governs Telkom, the network operators, Internet service providers and the Universal Services Agency. The Bill is the first regulatory measure to actually address a consumer protection and rights. Although other sections of the Bill are geared at promoting competition and regulating the cellular network operators and other players, there are clauses in the Bill that promote price transparency for services, raise the need for a consumer code of conduct, and hint at the regulation of age restricted content and services downloaded to a mobile phone.

Currently, the distribution of mobile content, unlike other content, is not regulated by the Films and Publications Act. As a result there is question of whether one can actually download content to a mobile phone or PDA (personal digital assistant).

"The reason ATIO Corporation has become involved in the debating the Bill is to provide clarity to end-users as to the implications of the Bill. The conference will look to the procedures industry will need to put in place to ensure consumer rights as well as discuss the costs that a network provider will probably pass on to the end-user due to the introduction of new fees related to number portability and interconnectivity between networks," said Maweni.

The Electronic Communications Bill Conference hosted by ATIO Corporation is to held in Johannesburg on 7 March. For further information about the conference, visit www.atio.com/newsn/conference06.htm.