Mobile operators MTN and Cell C will join Vodacom in lobbying for an extension of the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (RICA) deadline.
The law requires subscribers to register their SIM cards and provide proof of residence and an identity document. Operators will have to register all of its subscribers by 31 December, or face cutting them off the network.
Last week, Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys noted that the operator still has 8.2 million of its local subscribers to register before the deadline, and would, therefore, be lobbying government for an extension.
“Vodacom has written to the Department of Communications (DOC), providing evidence of its RICA experience and hopes to have a meeting with the department, but no date has been set,” he explained.
Now MTN and Cell C will add to pressure on government to reconsider the deadline.
“MTN can confirm that the industry is in discussion with the government regarding an extension of the deadline to the registration requirements contained in RICA,” says Robert Madzonga, chief corporate services officer at MTN SA.
“Cell C has presented a case to the Department of Justice, with the other network operators, requesting an extension on the deadline for RICA.”
Other extensions
Earlier this year, Nigeria's regulator granted MTN and Zain's Nigerian units a two-month extension to allow more time to register the masses of customers on their networks who have yet to do so.
While SA and Nigeria find themselves in very different situations, every country that grants an extension bolsters the chances that SA may also receive one, say market observers. The Democratic Republic of Congo has also granted a two-year extension to its citizens and operators.
Tanzania also had to extend its deadline as just 10 million of the estimated 18 million mobile subscribers had registered on time.
ICT industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan Spiwe Chireka says the extension in Nigeria comes as no surprise, since operators in the region were only really given six months to comply. “Registering around 70 million customers in six months is impossible,” she notes.
Vodacom, earlier this year, stated that - for the year ended March - it had 26.3 million active SIM cards. So far, MTN has said it has 16.4 million and the smallest operator, Cell C, has 6.9 million.
Thus far, says Uys, about 15 million subscribers, or just over half of Vodacom's base, have been registered. The balance must be registered by year-end to avoid them being cut off from the network. Uys says it will be difficult to get the last few million customers registered.
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