Icasa told Parliament it had established monitoring and compliance units to address the enforcement of compliance amongst the service providers. File photo
The failure of mobile telecoms giants MTN and Vodacom to fully cover all areas of the country with network and data services put regulator Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) on the back foot with Parliament yesterday.
Icasa was charged with not being able to bring its charges to heel in ensuring coverage, particularly worse with the advent of load shedding.
“The instability of the network or signal is a serious issue, it disadvantages people in the rural communities, there are instances where for two weeks there is no coverage in the rural areas. Is Icasa declaring its absolute independence by not doing what it is supposed to do?" Select Committee on Public Enterprises and Communication Chairperson Zolani Mkiva said.
MTN and Vodacom are expected to cover 97% of the population over the first licence period while the smaller operators are charged with an 80% obligation.
Icasa told Parliament it had established monitoring and compliance units to address the enforcement of compliance amongst the service providers.
It had also formed a council committee to probe the impact of load shedding on the ICT sector and seek possible solutions to the electronic communications, broadcasting and postal services sectors disruptions from load shedding.
Icasa was working towards an October deadline to be able to make amendments to the licences of mainly the six major spectrum holders including Rain and Cell C force compliance on the six major spectrum licence holders.
"The aim of the committee is to publish a notice of conducting an enquiry into the impact of the ICT sector and the regulatory relief to address the challenge faced by operators," Executive of Policy Research and Analysis Norman Mgidi told Parliament.
The end of October is also when Icasa is expecting final payments for the R14.4 billion spectrum would be fully paid after one licensee, Cell C delayed making the payments.
Cell C was the only remaining successful bidder among the six that bought various units of spectrum slots that has not fully serviced its part of the fees.
Meanwhile, Icasa said the price of megawatts of data was steadily coming down from R160 per gigabyte to R99 and could be as low as R55 per gigabyte in future.
It is also working on the licence rollout obligatory social responsibility spectrum to 18 000 schools, 3 967 clinics and 1 764 hospitals.
In other news, Icasa told ITWeb its operations had not been affected by the strike action initiated yesterday by members of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu).
The dispute between the telecoms regulator and the labour body stems from failing to reach an agreement over salary increases for the 2023/24 financial year.
While Icasa is offering a 4.4% salary increase, Nehawu is demanding an 8% hike, and the union has embarked on the industrial action amid the impasse.
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