The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) remains under-resourced, and a successful and timeous execution of an initiative launched recently to combat high communications costs in SA is unlikely.
This is according to industry observers, and comes in the wake of the regulator's failure to meet the deadline for draft local loop unbundling (LLU) regulations - originally scheduled for publication on Tuesday.
It has been just over a month since ICASA launched its Cost to Communicate programme - complete with set deadlines - and already the authority has shifted the timeline goalposts.
ICASA spokesperson Paseka Maleka said yesterday the authority has not yet set a new deadline for LLU draft publications. "[ICASA] will inform all stakeholders about the future publication date for these regulations in the next week, since the conclusion of the drafting of these regulations is taking longer than anticipated."
Gazetted on 4 June, ICASA's Cost to Communicate programme contains deadlines for final regulations on broadband administration, mobile termination rates and LLU - ranging from 25 October this year for a reassessment of termination rates, to 14 April for the broadband value chain.
Last month, when the authority presented the programme to stakeholders, its GM of markets and competition, Pieter Grootes, said ICASA was confident it would be able to meet its tabled deadlines, because the issues at hand were all critical to the country's economy - and in everyone's interests - including business, consumers and government.
Dubious deadlines
Dobek Pater, an analyst at Africa Analysis, says the extension of publication of the LLU guidelines does not bode well for adherence to ICASA's own timelines.
He says, while the industry will have a clearer view once ICASA has disclosed the new publication date, he would be surprised if the authority meets its deadlines, "given [ICASA's] track record".
That being said, in light of the market having already had to wait for guidance on some of the issues (focused on in the Cost to Communicate programme) for a while now, another couple of months will not make a difference, adds Pater.
Ovum analyst Richard Hurst says ICASA is historically under-resourced and constantly fails to meet promises made to the industry. Add to this the pushing out of the LLU timeline once again, he says, and it points to the authority struggling to meet the deadline for final regulations, set for 4 March next year.
But Grootes said last month that the March deadline was more than achievable: "We will beat that deadline - that I promise."
Government concern
ICASA has been focusing on the high cost to communicate in SA since 2006, with initiatives like the call termination glide path, LLU and the enquiry into wholesale transmission services - among others - being undertaken.
We will beat that deadline - that I promise. - ICASA's Pieter Grootes
Renewed efforts are underpinned by the World Economic Forum's Global IT report for 2013, which illustrates SA's low ranking in terms of affordability when it comes to mobile tariff charges relative to other countries across the globe. SA is currently ranked 117th out of 140 countries on a global scale, 28th out of 32 African countries and 9th out of the 12 of 14 Southern African Development Community countries included in the study.
Hurst says, while ICASA "has all the right basic ingredients to fulfil its mandate" regarding lowering the cost to communicate, the government could do more to unfetter the entity - "such as funding and control and allowing it to purpose its objectives".
He adds that many communications ministers have tried to light a fire under ICASA, but have been met with mixed success or been stonewalled. In the current environment, with the appointment of Yunus Carrim and the challenges the Department of Communications faces, he does not foresee any radical change or sense of urgency being injected into ICASA from the department.
Pater says he expects Carrim will make a lot of noise, and will want to be seen to be pushing things forward with greater urgency - especially in the run up to the 2014 elections.
ICASA has also announced that telecoms companies now have more time to submit the requisite information as per the Cost to Communicate programme.
Maleka notes that the broadband value chain study deadline has been extended to 29 July, while the call termination market review has been postponed to 2 August.
"At this stage, the authority foresees no change in the deliverable timelines of these projects."
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