ICASA under fire at Internetix
ICASA came under fire in a recent panel discussion hosted at Internetix, Sandton. ICASA chairman Paris Mashile put up a good fight, defending the regulator’s action or lack of action. According to Mashile, ICASA is under-resourced and has difficulty retaining its senior staff.
“As soon as we train someone and they gain some experience, he or she is snapped up by industry. We simply cannot compete. To succeed we have to retain skills and somehow stop the poaching of experienced staff. Remuneration-wise we are simply not competitive and it comes back to the fact that we are financially under-resourced.”
What many people do not realise is that ICASA does not get to keep the licence fees, they go into the government’s coffers. ICASA is dependent on a budget provided by the Department of Communication, which is simply not enough to keep the regulator functioning efficiently.
Alan Knott Craig, CEO Vodacom Group, said that the regulator’s role in convergence is too slow and needs to speed up significantly. He said that the regulator should remove the barriers and should not be embroiled in price issues.
That is the job of industry to regulate prices through open competition. ICASA has too much red tape and consultative process. Andile Ngcaba of Didata reminded those present that it is three years to the World Cup, with two years to fast track regulations and get everything in place.
We need to make a list of the urgent regulatory issues, prioritise the critical items and start to do things differently. Eddie Funde, chairman of the SABC Board suggested that industry come up with a programme of action.
It needs to speak with one voice and work together to influence regulatory policy. He said industry should set up a study group and do some of the preparatory work to free ICASA to deal with the real issues.
At one stage during the debate the discussion went in the direction that industry should second technical experts to ICASA, but this idea was soon thrown out as it may lead to some industries deriving benefit from having seconded a person.
The question of industry funding the regulator was another option.
There was also a discussion on geting rid of senior personnel who have little practical experience in the telecommunications environment, and re-staffing ICASA with people from the industry with years of experience. With less unproductive people, ICASA could match salaries to the industry level.
Mashile also pointed out that the recently promulgated Electronic Communications Act (ECA) requires long processes of consultation.
From getting input and researching regulatory requirements, publishing draft regulations for comment, holding hearings and reviewing inputs and comments, making adjustments to the draft regulations and then to go out again for public comment, the process can take several months before a regulation can be implemented.
There were murmurs that industry is planning to get together and put forward a strong case to government to speed up the regulatory processes even if it means suppressing certain provisions of the ECA.
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