Cellphone companies will now be fined if the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) finds that their network quality has dropped.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Friday, Icasa said the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations 2009 would come into operation within 30 days from the date of publication in the Government Gazette.<\/p>\n
“It is envisaged that these regulations will be published in the Government Gazette by midday today [Friday],” Icasa said.<\/p>\n
According to the regulations, cellphone companies have to ensure that they achieve an average of 95% network service availability, over a period of six months.<\/p>\n
In addition, the percentage of connectivity failure rate must not exceed an average of three percent of all connections over a period of six months.<\/p>\n
Icasa said regulations demanded that cellphone companies had to maintain an average of a 90% fault clearance rate for all faults reported within three days.<\/p>\n
It added that cellphone companies should – within seven days upon receipt of a request – notify and provide full reasons to qualifying service applicants where they were unable to provide service within the period.<\/p>\n
Icasa said cellphone companies had to prepare and submit to it six monthly reports on the standards as prescribed.<\/p>\n