Despite its fault-finding 2010 Soccer World Cup mobile network quality report, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has no intention of penalising the guilty mobile operators for their poor performance.
ICASA released findings that Vodacom, MTN and Cell C had all missed quality of service targets, which the authority had been monitoring throughout the World Cup.
The report outlines details of service quality, including dropped calls, signal strength and voice quality, on networks operated by MTN, Vodacom and Cell C on certain match days during the World Cup.
Despite the bleak performance by all three operators, ICASA says its report is not definitive and subsequently the authority will not follow through with penalties for operators' missed quality targets.
“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,” explains ICASA spokesperson Paseka Maleka.
“We are currently busy improving the model. Of course, the results help us to see which direction we should be pointing. We would also like to be transparent and create a discussion point with the public - hence the disclosure of the methodology,” he maintains.
ICASA failures
Operators have been escaping potential quality fines for some time now, with ICASA's relaxed attitude to the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter regulations.
However, ICASA has confirmed that to date, no fines have been issued, saying it is continuously monitoring the mobile networks for adherence to the regulations.
According to Maleka, the authority follows the complaint handling process in these matters. “In terms of our complaints handling processes, complaints/matters relating to networks, quality of service, are investigated and we usually engage the licensee before these matters are referred to the Complaints and Compliance Committee (CCC) for adjudication.
“This is the committee that has the power to recommend fines or penalties after a formal hearing process has taken place. So far, no matter relating to non-compliance with these regulations has been referred to CCC for hearing and adjudication,” he continues.
The regulations call for regular reports to be conducted by the authority, and although ICASA claims to have conducted such a report last year - it has yet to made publicly available.
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