South Africa’s communications regulator is failing to perform and allowing mobile service companies to “rip off” the poor, MPs said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Members of Parliament’s labour and public enterprises select committee were briefed by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa<\/a>) on the high cost of broadband and cellphone calls.<\/p>\n During the briefing, African National Congress<\/a> MP Livhuhani Mabija<\/a> said the committee had been experiencing “a lot of problems with Icasa”, and suggested it was suffering from a disease.<\/p>\n “According to my personal understanding, analysis, and diagnosis… there is a very dangerous cancer… that is eating Icasa.<\/p>\n “And, before a thorough examination is done, and there is a diagnosis and medication to heal it, our masses are going to be suffering. The poorest of the poor are going to suffer. Something needs to be done.”<\/p>\n She said Icasa was not playing the role expected of it.<\/p>\n “We are not happy about the product. They [Icasa] are not giving us what is expected of them. This is very serious. Heads must start rolling,” Mabija said.<\/p>\n Earlier, Icasa senior marketing manager Christian Mhlanga<\/a> showed members a graph indicating that the cost of using pre-paid mobile phones in South Africa was “way above” that of most other African countries.<\/p>\n “The cost to communicate in our country is too high,” he said, adding that Icasa was taking steps to address this.<\/p>\n The committee also heard from communications department deputy director general Themba Phiri<\/a>, who said the mobile market in South Africa was dominated by the two biggest operators — MTN<\/a> and Vodacom<\/a>. Between them, they had over 91 percent of the market.<\/p>\n He said the telecommunications sector was “plagued with high prices”.<\/p>\n In a recent study, South Africa was ranked 30th out of 46 “as having the most expensive pre-paid mobile tariffs among African countries”.<\/p>\n He also pointed out that the South African telecommunications sector “grew from about R7 billion in 1992, to over R100bn in 2009”.<\/p>\n Among outcomes of this growth were high retail wholesale prices, and pricing information being presented in such a complex manner “that even the most sophisticated consumer cannot comprehend for informed decision making”, Phiri said.<\/p>\n Committee chairwoman Priscilla Themba<\/a> lambasted senior Icasa officials present at the briefing, including the authority’s chairman Stephen Mncube, telling them their presentation was “not up to what we expected”.<\/p>\n ANC MP Mbuyiselo Jacobs wanted to know when “the rot had started” at Icasa.<\/p>\n “Because Icasa is the regulator and supplier of licences. [Yet] it supplies them without any restrictions; it just gives.”<\/p>\n He suggested mobile service companies could do whatever they liked.<\/p>\n “That is why these companies are regulating themselves. That’s why they are putting such high prices, and no-one is monitoring that.”<\/p>\n Jacobs also accused the cellphone service companies of “ripping off” the poor.<\/p>\n “You [Icasa] say… South Africa is ranked 30th out of 46 countries as having the most expensive pre-paid mobile tariffs. And this is meant for the poor because the ordinary people [use] pre-paid. They do not use contracts.<\/p>\n “So it means they [the companies] are ripping off the poor… and now, what is the function of Icasa if we allow that our people should be ripped off?”<\/p>\n Cellphones were an essential means of communication nowadays.<\/p>\n “So why do we have to make it expensive…? I’m not happy at all.”<\/p>\n Jacobs further suggested mobile service providers were determining prices among themselves.<\/p>\n “They are talking among themselves on how to determine the prices, and we are not there to monitor, or to bring them [the prices] down… they are talking among themselves, and we are not protecting our own people,” he said.<\/p>\n Committee members also called for a review of existing legislation so that mobile service companies which wanted to operate in South Africa could “dance to the music we play”.<\/p>\n Phiri said existing legislation — the Electronic Communications Act –did not make provision for price regulation.<\/p>\n “We do not have a regime of a definite price regulation, where you can say the minimum must be this, and the maximum shall be that.<\/p>\n However, this was an issue that “the ICT policy review, having been launched at a ministerial level, has to look at”, he said.<\/p>\n Phiri said the matter of high pre-paid tariffs was “a huge problem”.<\/p>\n Wednesday’s committee meeting comes at the same time Parliament’s communications portfolio committee is conducting public hearings in three provinces on the high cost of communication, including mobile tariffs, in South Africa.<\/p>\n A recent international survey ranked the country 117 out of 140 countries in terms of mobile tariffs.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t me: Vodacom on Cell C network problems<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Cell C network upgrade plans<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Best prepaid prices: Vodacom vs Cell C vs MTN vs Telkom Mobile<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nMore on mobile services<\/h3>\n