Cellphone laws
And despite looming competition due to government’s plans to further liberalise the telecommunications market, growth predictions remain strong. However, there is a dark cloud on the horizon, according to the cellphone companies, in the form of an amendment to the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act.
The act allows the state access to a whole host of “private’’ correspondence, be it by e mail, post, cellphones or the internet. It was passed in 2002 after heated debate. At that time, the cellphone companies received a reprieve when a section of the act calling for them to keep records of their clients was held back.
This was largely because cellphone companies kicked up a fuss, saying the bureaucracy and cost involved in keeping records of everyone who bought a cellphone and SIM card was untenable. Four years down the line, government has revisited the issue in the form of an amendment bill that threatens cellphone companies with fines of up to R100000 a day if they don’t create the necessary registers. The bill, if enacted, will make it a crime to operate a cellphone unless the personal details of the person are provided along with the numbers of the SIM card and the phone.
The aim of the bill is laudable. It seeks to give authorities the tools they need to crack down on crime. But is it workable? The cellphone operators think not. It’s no problem to provide details of cellphone users on contract, and some prepaid phones. But roughly 20-million prepaid users fall outside this ambit. Many live in rural areas and their livelihoods often depend on their cellphones. Many do not have identity documents or postal addresses.
The cellphone operators argue that the proposed legislation will stunt the growth of the market, deprive millions of existing users of their phones, and stop many more from ever owning one. Further, they say it will have little effect on crime as many criminals will simply falsify their details or use untraceable phones from other countries.
The cellphone companies are obviously talking their own book here, but government should not be hasty in discarding their views. Bureaucracy, whatever its aims, should not be allowed to interfere with an industry that is having a huge positive effect on the economy.
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