ICASA’s failed mobile quality promise
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) promised in 2011 that it will continuously do testing on the quality of mobile networks, and publish quarterly results of their findings. This has not happened.
In July 2011 the regulator published a quality of service survey report which found that the largest three mobile operators have failed to meet the minimum requirements for Call Set Up Success Rate (CSSR) and Dropped Call Rate (DCR).
Vodacom, MTN and Cell C hit back soon after the report was released, slating ICASA’s methodology and saying that the findings are not accurate.
At the time ICASA defended its testing, saying that it is “confident of the methodology and the equipment used as it is the same or similar equipment as used by the network operators”.
“We are continuously doing testing and would be publishing results quarterly of our testing, increasing our sample size and hence a reflection of the overall network quality,” ICASA spokesperson Paseka Maleka said at the time.
It is now eighteen months later, and ICASA has not released quarterly reports on mobile network quality in South Africa as promised.
It is not clear whether the regulator buckled under pressure from the mobile operators, or whether the lack of performance in this regard is related to incompetence.
ICASA was asked why it has not published quarterly network quality reports as promised, but the regulator did not answer this question by the time of publication.
The regulator also did not say whether it is still doing network testing as it promised.
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