Good morning.
On behalf of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) I would like to welcome you to the media briefing on the End-user and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations and Findings document.
Introduction
The process of developing the regulations on end-user and subscriber service charter began with the establishment of a committee of council in January 2007, in terms of section 17 of the ICASA Act, 2000 (act no. 13 of 2000).
In terms of section 69(3) of the electronic communications act, 2005 (act no. 36 of 2005), “The authority must, as soon as reasonably possible after the coming into force of this act, prescribe regulations setting out the minimum standards for and end-user and subscriber service charters”.
The authority is further endowed, in terms of section 69(4) of the electronic communications act, 2005 (act no. 36 of 2005), with discretionary powers that it may develop different minimum standards for end-user and subscriber service charters for different types of services.
First consultation
The committee, as its first major task, drafted regulations that were published in Government Gazette Number 30073 dated 13 July 2007 and interested parties were invited to comment thereon and to submit such written representations to the authority by 24 August 2007.
A workshop was held on 17 October 2007 to deal with the written as well as oral representations that were made by the interested parties. The authority thereafter published and promulgated regulations in the Government Gazette Number 30792 dated 25 February 2008.
Second Consultation
By way of Government Gazette Number 30956 dated 7 April 2008, the authority withdrew the regulations promulgated on 25 February 2008 and the regulations were once again placed in the public domain for further comment and scrutiny by members of the public and the licensees.
The rationale for the withdrawal was as a result of concerns raised by some licensees that the promulgated regulations were extremely onerous and would be difficult, if not impossible, to implement in practice. The authority again received written representations from the licensees with concerns on legal and technical implications if the regulations were promulgated into law in their then current form and content.
The authority thereafter dealt with the written representations made by licensees and members of the public and incorporated the proposals made and published the said regulations in the Government Gazette Number 31556 dated 31 October 2008.
Third Consultation
The authority further received complaints in the regulations that were published in October 2008. The authority therefore afforded the licensees and members of the public a further opportunity to comment when it published the regulations in the Government Gazette Number 31807 dated 19 January 2009. This would assist the authority to take a decision whether to repeal or amend or replace the regulations.
The closing date for such comments was 20 March 2009.
Following the above processes, the authority has finalised the regulations. It is envisaged that these regulations will be published on the Government Gazette by midday today. It is also hoped that they will be published on the ICASA website by Monday, 27 July 2009.
The regulations are, amongst others, focusing on the following:
* minimum standards
* additional definitions
* keeping the standards in an average form rather than the absolute
Examples:
Availability of the electronic communications network (ECN) services
All licensees must ensure that they achieve an average of 95% network service availability, over a period of six months.
Connectivity failure rate (including dropped calls)
The percentage of connectivity failure rate must not exceed an average of 3% of all connections, over a period of six months, for all ECNs and electronic communication services (ECS) licensees.
Fault clearance rate / mean time to clear faults
All ECNS and ECS licensees must maintain an average of 90% fault clearance rate for all faults reported within three days.
Licensees shall within seven days upon receipt of a request notify and provide full reasons to qualifying service applicants where they are unable to provide service within the period.
Licensees must prepare and submit to the authority six monthly reports on the standards as prescribed
Conclusion
The authority has resolved to repeal the following regulations:
* The end-user and subscriber service charter regulations, published in
Government Gazette Number 30792 dated 25 February, 2008
* The end-user and subscriber service charter regulations, published in
Government Gazette Number 31556 dated 31 October, 2008
The regulations are called end-user and subscriber service charter regulations 2009 and will come into operation within 30 days from the date of publication in the Government Gazette.
Enquiries:
Sekgoela Sekgoela
Cell: 079 492 3450
E-mail: ssekgoela@icasa.org.za
Issued by: Independent Communications Authority of South Africa
24 July 2009
Source: Independent Communications Authority of South Africa http://www.icasa.org.za/
