The communications regulator has proved yet again that it has a bark, but no bite, as it has failed to implement the conditions for the regulations it published over a year ago to maintain mobile network quality in the country.
Through dealings with the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA), it has emerged that, while the authority has the regulations in place regarding mobile network quality, it has not defined an agreeable methodology to measure network quality and by extension can take no recourse to penalise non-compliant operators.
In 2009, ICASA published the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter regulations, calling for operators to maintain 95% network service availability over a period of six months and an average of 3% or lower in connectivity failure rate. Failure to do so is supposed to result in a R500 000 fine.
Until recently, ICASA assured that it was monitoring the networks, but had not made any of its findings publicly available. Recently, however, the authority released a report indicating that Vodacom, MTN and Cell C had all missed quality of service targets, which the authority had been monitoring throughout the World Cup.
Despite the bleak performance by all three operators, ICASA said last month that its report is not definitive and subsequently the authority will not follow through with penalties for operators' missed quality targets.
Flawed methodology
“The authority will not penalise operators at this stage, because the tests, as they are currently, are not definitive for now. However, a meeting with stakeholders was held and this was discussed. The purpose is to start a discussion and come up with an agreed and definitive framework,” explained ICASA spokesperson Paseka Maleka at the time.
Maleka notes that ICASA will now prioritise an approved methodology.
“It is true that we need a concrete methodology that will be acceptable by all parties (including the authority and operators). On 30 November, the authority had a meeting with Vodacom, and they (Vodacom) were not happy with the methodology we used during 2010 FiFa World Cup of 100 samples - they say that at least we should have used 1 000 samples,” he explains.
“However, it was agreed that there should be sharing of information and methodologies,” he notes.
This means that, a year after the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter regulations were published, the authority has not yet defined a generally accepted way to monitor network quality in the country. All the while, operators continue business as usual, with no risk of fines for non-compliance.
Vodacom troubles
Vodacom has recently come under fire from its subscribers who have reported a surge of dropped calls and network failures.
The operator also performed badly in the above-mentioned World Cup report, which found that Vodacom had underperformed in all of its key metrics, and is the only operator to miss the target for dropped calls.
Vodacom has attributed its recent network issues to the upgrading of equipment in various areas, which it says will ultimately result in higher-speed and higher-quality connections but may have resulted in localised temporary connection issues.
However, the operator maintains it is still in compliance with the regulations: “Our network availability and dropped call statistics, as reported to ICASA, have been well within the prescribed guidelines (95% availability and dropped calls less than 2%) and have both actually shown an improving trend,” says Vodacom spokesperson Richard Boorman.
ICASA has confirmed these reports. “Based on the measurements conducted in Gauteng and Durban in the past week, the authority observed that the network performance was good and Vodacom is exceeding the targets,” offered Maleka.
However, based on its own admission of flawed methodology, it has to be questioned as to how these measurements have been conducted and whether the results can be trusted. Nonetheless, despite complaints from its subscribers, Vodacom will not be fined for its poor performance.
Share