Carrier pre-select regulations delayed

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has pushed back implementation of phase one of carrier pre-select (CPS) regulations to 30 November, more than a year after final regulations were published.

Last September, ICASA finalised the regulations, which will allow consumers to choose which operator they want to use to carry a call. However, ICASA says in a statement that actual CPS will now only kick off in November.

According to Ellipsis Regulatory Solutions, fixed-line operators had to provide CPS within two months of the regulations coming into effect, while mobile operators have to provide CPS within four months of the first request being received.

Carrier pre-select has been in the pipeline since December 2008, when ICASA issued draft regulations and invited public comment.

ICASA says it engaged with the industry on progress of the implementation of phase one and decided to “develop an industry-led CPS code of conduct/practice to be completed in September 2011”.
A general notice containing full details of these developments will be published in the Government Gazette in due course, it says.

More choice

The purpose of CPS regulations is to promote competition by giving end-users the ability to choose which telecommunications carrier they prefer when making calls, ICASA says.

In practice, the regulations will allow a Telkom customer, for example, to select Neotel to carry a particular call, potentially benefiting from better rates. Consumers will choose which operator to use by first dialling an access code when calling a number.

Globally, regulations governing CPS have been accompanied by local loop unbundling (LLU), a highly-contested and long-awaited development in the local telecoms market.

LLU has been on the cards for the past decade, but has yet to become a reality in SA. In May 2007, then communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri set a 2011 deadline to free the last mile, a commitment the department repeated last November.

ICASA recently released a discussion document on LLU. The regulator says it will have regulations in place by November to facilitate open access to the last mile.

- ITWeb
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