Divvying up the digits
These changes are being made in terms of a new numbering plan drawn up by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) and approved this month by communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.
SA needed a new numbering plan to deal with growing competition to Telkom and the cellular operators in voice telephony. Internet service providers and others are demanding their own numbers to provide consumers with voice services using the Internet and other technologies. The numbering plan sets out the structure of SA’s numbering scheme and a prescribed set of administration principles to be followed by all interested parties.
Icasa says numbering administration requires it to establish a framework for numbering conventions that ensures a seamless transition to a new competitive environment by making numbers available on a nondiscriminatory basis. The system must not unduly favour or disadvantage any particular industry segment or group of consumers and must not unduly favour one technology over another, it says.
In terms of the numbering plan, the prefixes "01" to "05" are reserved for geographic code ranges ("01" being the old Transvaal region, for example). Prefix "07" is designated for mobile cellular services and future nongeographic services, prefix "08" for mobile cellular, paging, inbound call services and future nongeographic services", and prefix "06" has been kept in reserve for potential future use.
The "09" prefix, which is used to place an international call, will be changed to "00". It has been mooted that this change be enforced in about 12 months from now but the dates are open to change. Icasa was due to meet the operators on Thursday to discuss timing, according to the authority’s numbering administration manager Harrish Kasseepursad.
The change to the "00" prefix will bring SA in line with international norms. For a period of time still to be determined, consumers will be able to dial "09" and "00". Thereafter, only the "00" prefix will work.
Consumers will also have to acquaint themselves with 10-digit local dialling. Mandatory 10-digit dialling will be introduced, probably within the next six months, though, again, the implementation date will be discussed at this week’s meeting between Icasa and the operators.
The new system will only affect people who use Telkom’s network to place local calls as the mobile operators, whose numbers are nongeographic in nature, already regard all calls, even calls to Telkom numbers in the same city or town, as being national.
The public can already use the new 10-digit dialling system, though it’s not being enforced yet.
Internet service providers will welcome the publication of the new numbering plan. The "087" number range has been reserved specifically for companies providing voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. MWeb, for one, has already applied for and been granted access to numbers in this range. Subscribers to its new MWeb Broadband Talk product, which is aimed at the 45 000-odd users of its high-speed ADSL Internet service, are allocated a number with the prefix "0877".
However, Telkom and the cellular operators won’t interconnect with MWeb, says MWeb CEO Rudi Jansen. This is ironic as it means that a customer of Telkom, for example, can’t call an M-Web user, but anyone outside the country can. Jansen says that until Icasa forces the big operators to interconnect with smaller industry players, they simply won’t as it’s not in their financial interest to do so.
It’s no surprise. The incumbent operators are protecting their lucrative voice telephony businesses. MWeb offers big discounts to Telkom’s published rates. It offers international calls to most major cities at 60c/minute. Compare that with Telkom’s reduced rate of 72c/minute for national calls. Telkom’s international rates are much higher still.
Because the incumbent operators won’t interconnect with VoIP operators such as MWeb, calls to Telkom have to be routed internationally. MWeb’s local call rate is 50c/minute against Telkom’s 38c. MWeb has, however, reached an interconnect agreement with Internet Solutions and is in talks with Storm and Verizon Business (formerly UUNet).
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