{"id":77408,"date":"2013-05-09T09:38:51","date_gmt":"2013-05-09T07:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=77408"},"modified":"2013-05-09T11:06:25","modified_gmt":"2013-05-09T09:06:25","slug":"icasa-creates-another-network-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/telecoms\/77408-icasa-creates-another-network-mess.html","title":{"rendered":"ICASA creates another network mess"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA<\/a>) has sparked more controversy after taking down the Easttel<\/a> network yesterday (8 May 2013) for alleged unpaid license fees.<\/p>\n

This follows a similar action brought against iBurst<\/a> parent, WBS<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

ICASA obtained a search and seizure warrant and started confiscating Easttel\u2019s telecoms equipment early on 8 May 2013. Easttel is a division of Amatole Telecommunication Services<\/a>, the last remaining underserviced area licensee (USAL).<\/p>\n

Easttel, through Amatole Telecommunication Services (Amatole), has a license to provide WiMax services using 3.5GHz spectrum with microwave backhaul links within the 13GHz and 23GHz spectrum bands.<\/p>\n

Easstel director, Mark Gray said that the company’s voice and data went down around 11:30 on Wednesday, which left its customers without Internet or voice services.<\/p>\n

The company acted quickly and obtained an urgent court interdict at 17:30 on Wednesday to set aside the search and seizure warrant. The network was brought back up at around 18:00.<\/p>\n

\"Easttel<\/a>

Easttel WiMax equipment<\/p><\/div>\n

ICASA not serving the interests of consumers<\/h3>\n

Easttel\u2019s legal representative, Dominic Cull<\/a>, explained that this action from the regulator is regrettable, considering that Amatole was in discussions with ICASA to resolve any outstanding licensee fee issues.<\/p>\n

Cull said that the situation shows a strong resemblance to the recent WBS\/iBurst case, where ICASA was also on the wrong side of an urgent interdict court ruling.<\/p>\n

He said that ICASA seems unable to consider the merits of the matter, and that the authority’s actions left many consumers and businesses without telecoms services.<\/p>\n

According to Cull, communication within ICASA is also lacking. ICASA\u2019s own legal department, for example, was not informed about the action against Amatole.<\/p>\n

Curiously, the regulator\u00a0apparently\u00a0said that it tried to contact Amatole after it had taken down the company\u2019s network, but was not able to reach them.<\/p>\n

\"Dominic<\/a>

Dominic Cull<\/p><\/div>\n

Poor communication from ICASA regarding licensee fees<\/h3>\n

Some telecoms players have indicated that ICASA is unable to provide any accurate figures about outstanding license fees.<\/p>\n

Yesterday (8 May 2013), Cell C issued a statement highlighting that it appears as if ICASA is unable to verify its own information regarding outstanding license fees.<\/p>\n

iBurst CEO, Thami Mtshali<\/a> also previously said that the regulator was unable to provide them company with an accurate license fee invoice. Despite this, the regulator still took down its network.<\/p>\n

The same situation seems to prevail in the Amatole case. Despite this uncertainty, and ongoing discussions between the parties, ICASA still decided to take\u00a0down the network.<\/p>\n

Cull said that Amatole will continue to engage with the regulator to resolve the issue before the next court date of 29 May 2013.<\/p>\n

ICASA was asked for comment regarding the network takedown, but the regulator did not respond by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

More ICASA articles<\/h3>\n

ICASA breaks silence on iBurst equipment seizure<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth behind iBurst network problems<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

iBurst network damage: photos and cost<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

iBurst wins court interdict against ICASA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ICASA has been accused of trying to shut down SA\u2019s last standing USAL, leaving consumers and businesses without Internet access and voice services for a day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":74723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3004,19344,35,683,533,19346,8975,3572],"class_list":["post-77408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecoms","tag-dominic-cull","tag-easttel","tag-headline","tag-iburst","tag-icasa","tag-mark-gray","tag-thami-mtshali","tag-wbs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77416,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77408\/revisions\/77416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}