Users may have been sidelined from the process of developing policies that will govern mobile number portability (MNP), leaving government and service providers as the only real contributors, says Communications Users Association of South Africa (CUASA) spokesman Ray Webber.
While he acknowledges that draft functional specifications were published for comment on 6 December 2004, Webber says CUASA was not specifically approached to provide comment. He is also unaware of other organisations that were consulted on the matter.
Webber notes that the MNP regulations, which were published on 30 September 2005, say specifications must be drafted with input from users.
Nomvuyiso Sobatyi, Independent Communication Authority of SA (ICASA), manager for policy analysis and development, insists that public participation was ensured through workshops and the publishing of the draft in the Government Gazette.
However, Webber says ICASA may have fulfilled its legal obligations by publishing the regulations in the Gazette, but it is not good enough.
"They know we exist and normally they solicit our comment directly, so why did they not do that this time?" he asks.
Webber further notes that network operators must prepare an ordering system specification for number portability to be lodged with ICASA by the end of October and that this is to be carried out in consultation with interested parties, including user organisations. He urges operators to move with haste to schedule the meetings with regard to this and ensure all interested parties and organisations are invited in reasonable time.
Associated costs
Webber says CUASA is concerned with possible user costs associated with number portability. Unless the issue is addressed, it will be difficult for consumers to tell how much a call will cost them.
Acknowledging that clause 7 (6) of the MNP regulations provides for the retail call tariff to be no more than 10% higher than it would have been had the subscriber not ported to another network, Webber says the 10% additional cost does add up. He says the business sector will potentially be most affected due to the high volume of calls it makes.
He says CUASA`s overall concern is that the network operators, particularly the incumbents, are likely to fight hard to have their "reasonable" number portability costs accepted, but that their "reasonable" will in effect be high, pricing MNP out of the market for consumers. If this occurs, it will be to the detriment of new entrants and subscribers.
He also notes that the use of least-cost routing (LCR) has become fairly widespread in SA in recent years, due mainly to the excessive call costs of the incumbent fixed network operator. It is therefore of concern to see how number portability will impact LCR and what steps could be taken to enable subscribers to maximise their call cost savings, he says.
MNP conference
Webber is expected to chair the first day of a conference on MNP in Africa organised by IRR Conferences.
Scheduled for 7 to 10 November, participants will look at some of the technical issues arising out of MNP implementation. A pre-conference workshop on 7 November will allow participants to examine the impact of MNP on business and operational processes and systems.
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