Consumer protection revisited
ICASA (Independent Communications Authority of SA) published its regulations setting out the minimum standards for end user and subscriber service charters in Government Gazette No. 30792 on February 25.
These regulations addressed various issues regarding the obligations of providers towards consumers and service levels, including availability and reliability of services, average install times, call failure rates, operator response times for helpdesks and resolving faults.
The regulations call for, among other things, 99.9% service availability, 14 day installation times, call centre answer times of a maximum 3 minutes and a 100% Fault Clearance success rate within 3 working days.
Scarcely a month later and ICASA appears to be backtracking on its regulations.
ICASA has officially published its intension to revisit the ‘Regulations setting the minimum standard for End –Users and Subscriber Service Charters’. In Government Gazette 30956 published on 7 April ICASA states that “The Council of ICASA has resolved to reconsider the regulations … for possible amendment.”
When asked why this decision was made, ICASA said that “The decision to reconsider was taken by Council after having considered the other regulatory processes,” ICASA said.
Industry pressure?
Industry speculation however suggests that it is pressure from providers that forced ICASA to go back to the drawing board. According to one source the regulations are being reconsidered as a result of protests lodged by a body called the ‘Telcos Group for the Service Charter’.
While no details are available about the so-called Telcos Group for the Service Charter, it is thought to involve Telkom, Vodacom, MTN and Cell C.
It is further suggested that the current regulations were written by the operators who were involved in a workshop on the draft regulations, where industry advised on matters without any input from consumer bodies.
When quizzed about the meaning and possible impact of the current regulations, ICASA said that “The answers to these questions are dependent on the outcomes of the reconsideration process that ICASA Council has embarked on.”
This gives a strong indication that the current regulations are not enforced despite being published more than a month ago.
Providers reserved on regulations
The large telecoms providers did not want to provide any specifics regarding their views on issues like the reliability of services, average install times and operator response times for helpdesks.
“Telkom has noted the contents of the regulation in question and, as a result, has engaged ICASA in writing. Currently, the Company awaits a response from the Regulator and will only comment once both parties have reached a resolution on the issues raised,” said Nabintu Petsana, Telkom’s Acting Group Executive for Corporate Communications.
“Vodacom welcomes ICASAs decision to possibly amend and republish the regulations as set out in the draft End-User and Subscriber Charter for comment. This provides interested parties with reasonable opportunity to comment on the technical feasibility of the regulations contained therein,” said Vodacom’s Chief Communications Officer Dot Field.
MTN and Cell C did not respond to requests for information about the regulations, which could possibly be attributed to a ‘don’t care’ attitude towards consumer protection issues.
ICASA consumer protection discussion
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