WHILE MANY ALTERNATE OPERATORS celebrate the High Court’s ruling in Altech’s favour, some are still frustrated by communications regulator Icasa’s decision to grant them numbers in the 087 range. Voice over IP (VoIP) operator ECN, which has secured a number of large corporate clients, maintains being granted those numbers is equivalent to being treated as second-class citizens. Many switchboards (PABX machines) block calls to 087 numbers because they were previously used for premium-rated services.<\/p>\n
ECN CEO John Holdsworth says the numbering range is “absolutely useless” to the company. He says it’s written to Icasa applying for geographic numbers (for example, such as those pre-fixed by 011 and 012) but so far has received no response.<\/p>\n
The alternate telcos say Icasa issuing them with geographic numbers would go some way towards helping them compete on a level playing field. They maintain that having their licences converted from value-added networks (Vans) to electronic communications services (ECS) licences, in terms of SA’s Electronic Communications Act, should give them the same rights as the incumbents – even more so if they’re eligible for electronic communications network services (ECNS) licences, as the Altech judgment suggests they should be.<\/p>\n
Switch Telecom, another alternate telco, doesn’t see the 087 range as being as problematic as ECN maintains. However, it says it’s affected its business to some extent and it also wants Icasa to ultimately grant it geographic and toll-free numbers.<\/p>\n
Switch MD Greg Massel (a former joint chairman of industry body ISPA) says companies regularly call out their PABX vendors and it was simply a case of getting them to re-programme the switchboard to unblock the calling of 087 numbers. If done as part of a general callout, that shouldn’t prove to be costly. Alternatively, Massel says companies could upgrade their PABX machine or consider a VoIP-enabled PABX, which would have a host of additional features.<\/p>\n