Mobile lock-ins in legal lock-up

By Candice Jones, ITWeb online telecoms editor

Johannesburg, 27 Feb 2009

Consumers hoping to see the Independent Communications Authority of SA's (ICASA's) new draft regulations on how telecommunications companies deal with phone subsidies will have to wait a little longer.

The authority confirmed this morning that the expected regulations have been drafted; however, ICASA is waiting to receive a legal opinion on the proposition.

“All regulations are looked over by legal teams and we are waiting for the opinion on these regulations,” explains ICASA spokesman, Sekgoela Sekgoela.

This will be the second set of draft regulations released by the authority; the first set having been shot down by several telecoms companies.

The good news...

The first set of regulations, which were supposed to have been implemented by August, would have been a boon to mobile subscribers. Industry watchers hailed ICASA for protecting consumers from ambiguous mobile costs and long-term contract lock-ins.

Subscribers would have been able to choose the duration of their cellphone contracts, ranging from six months to two years. The current standard contract period is two years.

The regulations would also have forced providers to show clearly how much of a cellphone subsidy (the amount a customer pays monthly for the handset) remains on any given contract.

Most importantly, customers would be clearly told how much they would have to pay if they decided to opt out of a contract with a given provider. All of this would be required to be shown on a subscriber's bill at the end of every month.

Then the bad news

However, consumers' delight was short lived. In response to the looming implementation date in August, Vodacom approached the courts to obtain an urgent interdict against the regulations. ICASA then decided to postpone the implementation of the regulations.

Not long after, ICASA pulled the initial set of regulations entirely, saying: “Due to various issues raised by the operators on the implementation process and the pending legal challenge by Vodacom, the authority has decided to withdraw the handset subsidy regulations published on 17 June 2008.”

ICASA has not given a timeframe for when these regulations can be expected, and consumers will have to wait to see what aspects of the regulations have changed.