VANS licence application deadline extended

Johannesburg, 27 Feb 2004

The deadline for the submission of value-added network service (VANS) and private telephone network (PTN) licence applications, which was initially set for today, has been extended for a minimum of two months.

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has stated that the absence of final terms and conditions for the VANS and PTN licences has resulted in an undesirable situation for both the regulator and the interim and deemed VANS and PTN licensees.

ICASA has deferred the closing date for licence applications until two months after the promulgation of the final terms and conditions for VANS and PTN licences.

According to Ant Brooks, co-chairman of the regulatory subcommittee of the Internet Service Providers Association, several organisations, including the SA VANS Association and the Communication Users Association of SA, lobbied hard for this extension.

"Because the terms and conditions for the licences have not yet been made public, it has caused a problem, in that it is difficult to bind people to a legal agreement when they can`t see the terms," says Brooks.

"We also have a number of other issues that are contentious and need to be discussed with the regulator."

He says ICASA is happy to discuss these issues with the concerned groups and the regulator appears to be very open to engaging in talks with the industry.

"This is a good decision by ICASA and it is heartening to see they are prepared to make the tough calls like this; although to be fair, I must admit that we`ve generally had good experiences with the authority.

"We now have time to work out a list of all the issues that need clarification and we will hopefully be able to discuss them individually with ICASA," says Brooks.

"There is uncertainty over a number of key issues, so now that we have the time to figure out the problem areas and discuss them, we will hopefully be able to resolve them all."