Showing Tag: ""electronic communications act"" (Show all posts)
Posted by LA Thornton on Tuesday, March 1, 2016,
In the Gauteng Division of the High Court, judgement was handed down in all of the cases challenging ICASA’s decision in the proposed Vodacom/Neotel transaction finding the following.
* ICASA’s ex parte meeting(s) with the parties were unlawful and therefore ICASA is “reasonably suspected of bias” in deciding the matter.
* ICASA was obligated to consider the issue of competition within the ICT sector when considering the matter.
* Applications for transfer of control of licences must me...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Thursday, December 18, 2014,
ICASA has published a notice of hearings to be held in the proposed transaction between Neotel and Vodacom on 15-16 January 2015. This notice follows a call for written comment on the proposed transaction in September 2014.
It is not certain whether these hearings concern only the service licences of Neotel or both the service and spectrum licences, as neither notice mentions provisions of the EC Act concerning spectrum.
It is also not certain under what authority the proceedings are taking...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Monday, December 8, 2014,
On December 2 2014, the President published a proclamation re-assigning the administration of powers and functions of the ICASA Act and EC Act to the now separate Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services.
This new attempt to unscramble the egg is a far better attempt than the
original notice. However, difficulties remain.
ICASA ActThe MoC has the authority in terms of section 14A of the ICASA Act to approve the appointment of experts by ICASA (in cert...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Wednesday, April 9, 2014,
The President has signed into law the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) Amendment Act, 2013 and the Electronic Communications (EC) Amendment Act, 2013, both on 7 April 2014. The ICASA Amendment Act will come into force on a date to be set by the President and the EC Amendment Act on a date or dates to be set by the Minister of Communications.
Many of the amendments appear to be intended to clear up procedural difficulties in the primary legislation, which has
hamper...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Wednesday, August 8, 2012,
The Minister of Communications has published the Electronic Communications Amendment Bill, 2012 for comment due 29 August 2012.
Two classes of individual ECNS licences?
In the Memorandum on the objects of the Bill, one is led to believe that the amendment to section 20 of the Act would limit the rights of certain individual ECNS licensees in respect of gaining rights of way. However, upon examination of the proposed amendment, it appears that this would not be the result. The proposed amendme...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Wednesday, November 9, 2011,
UPDATE: The proposed Electronic Communications Amendment Bill was withdrawn on 23 Nov 2011.
The Department of Communications published the Electronic Communications Amendment Bill on the 4th Nov 2011, for public comment, due
19 Dec 2011. The Bill seeks to do a number of things, including -
- ensure that ICASA and the USAASA follow policy directions issued by the Minister (now, policy directions must only be considered)
- change the distinction between individual and class ECS licences to coin...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Tuesday, August 30, 2011,
ICASA published a notice on 23 August 2011 calling all licensees to submit information to it by 30 August 2011, on ownership and control issues, in order to assist ICASA in carrying out an audit of shareholding of licensees. Although not indicated in ICASA's notice, the Standard Terms and Conditions of all licensees calls upon licensees to submit shareholding changes to ICASA within seven days of any such occurance.
For more information on this and other compliance issues in respect of licenc...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Tuesday, April 12, 2011,
ICASA has finally replaced the old Radio Regulations made prior to the Telecommunications Act, with the Radio Frequency Spectrum Regulations published on 31 March 2011. The Regulations set out application procedures (standard and extended) and forms and application fees. They also incorporate the spectrum licence exemption regulations and set out special provisions for services such as amateur radio, communal repeaters, burlar alarms, and citizen band services. It would appear that these "...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Friday, January 7, 2011,
ICASA published a second draft of "compliance manual" regulations on 20 December 2010, for public comment due 18 January 2011. The compliance manual calls for no less than eight new reports that licensees will be required to submit to ICASA, if the regulations are enacted. These reports include two that will be due quarterly, with respect to compliance with the E-rate regulations and code of conduct regulations. Comments on these draft regulations are due by no later than
31 January 2011. ...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Wednesday, December 1, 2010,
Did you know that all licensees must provide a 50 percent discount to public schools and universities for Internet services, including connectivity charges, charges for equipment and charges for calls to an Internet service provider? For more information, contact info@thornton.co.za.
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Posted by LA Thornton on Thursday, November 18, 2010,
Did you know that all individual electronic communications service and electronic communications network service licensees must file tariffs with ICASA? For more information, contact info@thornton.co.za.
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Posted by LA Thornton on Wednesday, November 11, 2009,
Wow, what a lot of noise about call termination rates!
Don't get me wrong, this noise is far better than the almost complete silence on the matter for the past decade. My optimism says the mobile providers will reduce their call termination rates in accordance with the agreement announced by the Minister today. Even greater optimism says that this will translate into a reduction in retail rates.
However, this will not solve the real problems that exist. ICASA needs to be able to regulate e...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Tuesday, May 12, 2009,
Lisa Thornton Inc welcomes the new Minister of Communications, Mr Siphiwe Nyanda and the new Deputy Minister, Dina Pule.
The ANC's main election promise was to provide services to those that had up to now, been left out, including education, health care and housing. Electronic communications is increasingly being seen as an essential service, much like water and electricity. Although South Africa has not succeeded in providing universal service to electronic communications, the opportunity...
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