The ADSL Regulations - Designed to Benefit You.

Not sure if it is apathy, denial, brainwashing, or whatever, but the gazetting of the ADSL regulations is very good news for ADSL subscribers. It is not good news for Telkom. It is certainly not good news for ISPs. The press don't generally interview common or garden-gnome consumers, and are much more likely to interview their advertisers, so all that we have heard in the press about these regulations is negativity. And most of us seem to have fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

Why? Because these regulations are quite clearly designed to benefit you, the ADSL subscriber (and indirectly every other broadband user in SA). Shock. Horror.

Where possible I use the definitions from the gazetted regulations, or clarifications from the draft regulations. I'm comfortable doing this because Paris Mishale, Chairperson of ICASA, has said “There is no material difference between the two provisions but a matter of semantics or choice of words, otherwise the principle is the same.”

Following is the relevant sections of the ADSL regulations. [My comments are in bold brackets]

Section 2: Fees and Charges

2.1 – The structure of an ADSL tariff shall comprise of

an installation and bringing into service charge [This is defined in Section 1 as "the initial charges in respect of costs relating to the set-up and connection of a subscriber to the network for ADSL services"],

a monthly rental for provisioning and maintenance of ADSL lines [which are the same lines on which basic telephony is delivered] and

a bandwidth charge.

2.2 – The installation charge shall be levied once off at the inception of the services ["where after access charges shall be restricted to line rental. The network operater shall only levy a connectivity and rental for basic telephony. The bandwidth charge shall be a monthly charge levied by the Internet Service Provider (ISP)" - this taken verbatim from the Draft regulations]

Section 3: Consumer Protection Issues

3.1 – Subscribers who enlisted for the ADSL service prior to the introduction of the monthly cap shall have an election to abide by, terminate the contract for the service upon notice to the Telkom, SNO or ISPs or vary the terms and conditions in relation to the monthly cap.

3.2 – Subscribers that have reached the monthly cap shall be allowed to top-up their monthly cap without the need to purchase a new user account. This provision shall not in any way be used to prevent subscribers who choose to purchase new accounts once their monthly cap has been reached from doing so, should they wish to do so.

3.3 – Telkom, SNO and ISPs shall inform subscribers, at least on a weekly basis, of their bandwidth usage until the monthly cap has been reached.

3.4 – Local bandwidth usage [This is defined in section 1 as "data that can be transferred from South African based Internet protocal addresses"] shall not be subject to the cap. [This implies both local bandwidth being uncapped and local bandwdith not counting towards the cap. This does not preclude a flat-rate charge for unlimited local access, but it also implies that an ISP may not offer an ADSL service without unlimited local access included.]

3.5 – Telkom or SNO shall publish updated information on ADSL-enabled exchanges in the white pages of the telephone directory or electronic directory

3.6 – Telkom or SNO shall install the ADSL service within thirty (30) working days of receipt of an application if the applicant qualifies and resides within an ADSL-enabled exchange area. [Increased from 14 days in the draft regulations - this could be 6 weeks if working days are viewed as Monday to Friday]


Section 4: Throughput Speeds

4.1 – Telkom, SNO and ISPs shall guarantee minimum broadband speeds for the ADSL service in order to ensure that the service does not lose its broadband character

4.2 – Any services provided with speeds lower than those defined as broadband [minimum download speeds of 256Kbps] shall not be advertised as broadband services.


Section 5: Port Prioritization

Telkom, SNO and ISPs shall not be allowed to impose port prioritization on their subscribers. [ No shaping. ]


Section 6: Key Performance Indicators

6.1 – Telkom, SNO and ISPs shall, on a quarterly basis, publish on its website the contention ratio as a commitment to good business practice.

6.2 – Telkom, SNO and ISPs shall publish on its website, on a quarterly basis, key performance indicators comprising of at least packet losses, average latency and jitter for the provided ADSL service as a commitment top good business practice.


Section 7: 24 Hour ADSL Service Reset

7.1 – Telkom, SNO and ISPs shall not periodically reset the ADSL service.

7.2 – Any reset required for the service maintenance shall be done with a prior notification of at least seven (7) days to the subscribers and by notification on the website.


Section 8: Service Level Agreements

Telkom, SNO and ISPs shall enter into service level agreements with subscribers. Such agreements shall determine among others:

(i) complaint processes and procedure
(ii) dispute resolution mechanisms
(iii) turn around time in effecting repairs
(iv) penalties for failure to effect repairs in time and issues related thereto
(v) guaranteed minimum downstream data rate for local loop length of a given distance

The Authority may, at the request of any party wishing to conclude a service level agreement contemplated herein, intervene to resolve any dispute in instances where a service level agreement cannot be concluded within sixty (60) days.


Section 9: Repeal and Amendment of Regulations

This regulation shall not in any manner be construed to repeal and amend the price cap regulation or any other regulation.

The ADSL regulations have been breached if:

1) Telkom/SNO charges you for ADSL access rental, ie the R245, R362 or R516 for DSL384, DSL512 and DSL1024 services respectvely.

2) Your ISP does not offer the ability to top-up your international bandwidth cap.

3) Your ISP counts local bandwidth access towards your international bandwidth cap.

4) Your ISP caps local bandwdith.

5) Your ISP or Telkom/SNO shapes your bandwdith, either for local bandwdith or in-cap international bandwidth. Shaping includes any reduction from your maximum in-cap speeds.

6) Telkom/SNO does not install your ADSL service within 30 working days provided you are within an ADSL-enabled exchange.

7) Telkom/SNO or ISP resets your ADSL without at least 7 days prior notice. Specifically, Telkom/SNO cannot reset your connection every 24 hours.

To help these regulations take effect it requires every ADSL subscriber to become a policeman and report every violation to ICASA and to any other parties that would be interested in hearing about Telkom/ISPs breaking the law.

Excellent post Gatecrasher - only time will tell if the draft can be used to clarify the final set of regulations.

Can anyone verify the correct email address to send violation notices to? I found [email protected] on ICASA's site - http://www.icasa.org.za/Content.aspx?Page=128

Nice posts GC

only you.... can make me feel la la la la only you.... can erm yes only time will tell

bwana v.16 said:

Excellent post Gatecrasher - only time will tell if the draft can be used to clarify the final set of regulations.

Can anyone verify the correct email address to send violation notices to? I found [email protected] on ICASA's site - http://www.icasa.org.za/Content.aspx?Page=128

Click to expand...

It is worthwhile posting the complaint procedure here. Seems you must give your service provider a chance to resolve your complaint before contacting ICASA...

Independent Communications Authority of South Africa

Having problems with your communication services and your company does not resolve your complaint?

Consumer Protection Department was established to provide free, independent, just and speedy resolution of complaints.

This guide sets out the procedures for complaints which are related to communication services of licensed communications operators.

1. How to send a complaint?

Every complaint must be put in writing and should be send to: Consumer Department – Complaints Handling Unit. Kindly note, it is an office of last resort and you must give your service provider the opportunity to resolve the complaint before ICASA will become involved.

2. Acknowledgement

We will acknowledge receipt of a complaint in writing via fax, email or ordinary post. The acknowledgement of the receipt will include contact information of the case officer handling the complaint, to whom enquiries concerning the progress of the case may be made.

3. We will examine the information provided by the complainant and if the complaint is not within the scope of services provided by the licensees, the complainant will be informed and may be given the contact information of the agencies that will continue to deal with the complaint.

4. If the complaint falls within our jurisdiction, we will write to the licensee to inform them about the problem.

5. In all cases, we will invite the licensee to comment on the case and provide any information that is relevant towards the complaint and advice the Authority on the outcome.

6. The licensee will be given sufficient time to respond. We have a standing Memorandum of Understanding with operators that they have to respond to us within 14 days.

7. If the case is complex, we take an approach of inviting both the licensee and the complainant to a meeting that will be mediated by the Authority.

For more information contact:

Consumer Protection Department:

Tel no: 011 321 8277
Fax no: 011 448 1870

Email address: [email protected]

Just heard the news last night

That the government is snubbing the court order to provide ARV's to prisoners. That's another issue, but if they are prepared to snub the high court....

Excellent post indeed!

It is also important that consumers will inform ICASA should they feel that the regulations have been ignored by a certain party. Without such complaints ICASA will not have a mandate to act…

Regards,

RPM

Excellent post indeed! Now how can we translate this info into action? How do I put pressure on my ISP to conform to these regulations? Will an email to my ISP detailing the specifics as outlined by Gatecrasher suffice? Or should all complaints be directed to the monopoly? We all know how much they care about complaints!

Well I'm with SAOL and have emailed them twice so far with regards to the new regulations, asking them what their progress is in conforming with them. I am yet to receive any reply.