The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) yesterday published the first regulations based on the telecommunications policy directions released by the Communications Ministry last week.
The regulations include number portability and carrier pre-select, as well as supplements to previous facility leasing guidelines, meant to ease the way for competitors to Telkom.
"We will have inquiries into these three regulation areas to pave the way for the introduction of the second and third operators," said councillor Libby Lloyd in presenting the drafts.
The drafts set out the mechanism for operators to recover the costs of implementing number portability and carrier pre-select from subscribers outside of the tariff structure which regulates fees.
If implemented, the regulations will enable both location and carrier number portability, so that subscribers will be able to retain their telephone numbers regardless of a change of location or service provider. Subscribers relocating outside the geographical area which defines their area code, cellular to fixed-line transfers and the reverse are excluded.
Number portability costs will be recovered directly from subscribers as a separately billed item and by billing other operators for queries to their database of numbers.
Under the proposed carrier pre-selection guidelines, subscribers will be able to elect to use Telkom, the second or third national operators for their long distance service, and any of these operators or Sentech for international calls. Subscribers will be able to override their pre-selected choices on a call-by-call basis by using only a four-digit access code.
In both cases the overall cost of implanting the systems will be shared among Telkom and its competitors based on the number of telephone numbers allocated to each. Sentech is to pay a share determined by ICASA "in relation to its potential benefit received arising out of the implementation of carrier pre-selection".
The facilities leasing guidelines dictate how Telkom is to share its infrastructure with its competitors for their first two years of operation.
ICASA has invoked the fast-tracking sections of the Telecommunications Act with regard to the regulations, which allows it to shorten the period for public comment on the drafts. Interested parties have until 24 August to comment on the proposals, with public hearings scheduled for early September.
ICASA councillor Willie Currie said a streamlined selection process would mean the authority could select the preferred bidders for the second and third fixed-line licences within three to four months of bids being submitted. For the May deadline for competition to be met, bids would have to be submitted by early January 2001, which would give potential operators two to three months to prepare their business cases after the invitation to apply (ITA) for licences is issued in September.
The issue of the ITA itself must wait for legislative amendments to the Telecommunications Act to be passed through Parliament.
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