ICASA clamps down on mobile

By Candice Jones, ITWeb online telecoms editor

Johannesburg, 27 Jul 2009

Mobile operators stand to face hefty fines if their quality of service drops below newly regulated levels.

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) released the final version of its End-User and Subscriber Service Charter regulations on Friday. The regulations require operators holding an ECNS or ECS licence to scale connectivity failure down to 3% over six months.

ICASA says the operators will also have to ensure service availability is 95% over the same period.

Operators that do not offer the quality of service prescribed by the regulator, will face fines of either R500 000 or R150 000, depending on the terms that have been breached. A repeat offence will rake in an additional R50 000 fine.

The new regulations have been three years in the making, with ICASA chairman Paris Mashile saying there is no excuse for bad service. The new regulations are intended to ensure consumers are getting the service levels for which they pay.

Mashile says the operators must be responsible for additional capacity on their networks, even if there is an increase in the number of subscribers.

Earlier this year, operators were lambasted for a spate of dropped calls, poor network access and delayed SMS delivery. The vast number of complaints prompted the regulator into action and the authority subsequently demanded that Vodacom, MTN and Cell C explain the source of the network troubles.

The results of the meetings were never fully disclosed; however, the operators committed to being more transparent about faults on their networks, promising to provide detailed reports on consumer complaints and transmission troubles.

ICASA's new regulations have made the reporting of faults official and operators are now expected to provide the authority with detailed fault reports every six months. ICASA has also decided to install equipment that will monitor the ECNS and ECS licence-holders.

ICASA councillor Brenda Ntombela says the regulator has put aside R6 million for the current financial year to install the equipment and monitor network quality.

The End-User and Subscriber Service Charter will come into effect in a month.