ICASA: Telecoms providers must interconnect
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) released draft interconnection regulations on 24 December 2007.
The draft regulations place an obligation on all licensed telecoms providers to interconnect upon request, unless the request is unreasonable.
Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have complained about Telkom and other larger players refusing interconnection despite what they describe as reasonable requests.
ICASA also lays down some interconnection agreement principles which include Quality of Service, Service Level Agreements, Standardization, Confidentiality, Non-discrimination and transparency.
Other issues which are addressed in the set of draft regulations includes the required terms and conditions for interconnection agreements, the negotiation and conclusion of such agreements, the filing of interconnect agreements, the implementation and contravention of agreements, dispute resolution, significant market power and penalties.
According to the regulations any ‘person’ who contravenes the regulations can be fined up to 10% of its annual turnover over the period of the offence.
Interested parities are invited by ICASA to submit feedback regarding the draft regulations by 11 February 2008.
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