ICASA prioritises collection

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has prioritised revenue collection of licence fees for 2012.

Chairperson Stephen Mncube, talking about the authority's plans for the year ahead, says enabling legislation mandates the regulator to collect licence fees - as service licence fees or radio frequency spectrum licence fee - on behalf of the national fiscus. However, it experienced challenges in the past financial year.

As a result of the concerted initiative to collect fees from all licensees going forward, the South African Police Services and the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Council recently made payments of R7.2 million and R485 100, respectively, to ICASA.

“The authority will be embarking on a publicity drive to encourage all licensees to bring their accounts up to date as we go into the new financial year,” says Mncube. “We have to hit the ground running to ensure that we complete what we undertook to do a year ago.”

ICASA has begun road shows across all the provinces to interact with stakeholders in reviewing the existing broadcasting regulatory framework. The Review of the Broadcasting Regulatory Framework will also feed into the digital migration process, and communications minister Dina Pule has undertaken to gazette the Digital Migration Policy in February. “Thereafter, ICASA will finalise the digital terrestrial television regulatory process.”

It is almost a year since ICASA published the call termination regulations that set a pricing structure for charging wholesale voice call termination services among mobile and fixed-line licensees over a three-year period, starting from 1 March 2011 to 1 March 2013, ultimately with termination rates for mobile voice services reducing to R0.40 per minute and between R0.12 and R0.19 per minute for fixed-line services.

“At the time of publishing the regulations, the authority undertook to monitor the benefits that would accrue to the consumer at the retail level. This continuing monitoring exercise will enable the authority to make a determination on the impact at retail level by 1 March 2013.”

There will be new radio frequency spectrum licence fee regulations from 1 April 2012.

“In order to ameliorate the confusion among licensees, whether to pay radio frequency licence fees for the current financial year in terms of the Radio Regulations of 1979 or the Radio Frequency Spectrum Fees Regulations of 2010, the authority intends to approach an appropriate High Court with the necessary jurisdiction for relief,” says Mncube.

He explains that the relief sought is for the court to order that for the period 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012, licensees should pay radio frequency licence fees, in terms of the Radio Regulations of 1979. And in respect of the period 1 April 2012 onwards, licensees will be required to make payments in terms of the Radio Frequency Spectrum Licence Fees Regulations of 2010.