South Africa's government introduces new minimum service levels for mobile networks and Internet service providers

The newest modifications to the End-user and Subscriber Charter laws, which establish the level of service South Africans could expect from cell carriers and other electronic service providers, have been gazetted by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).

According to Icasa, the modifications aim to improve the country’s supply of excellent electronic communication services.

The new laws alter the boundaries for expected phone and data service levels, including what download and upload speeds carriers must match.

The criteria apply to all Icasa licensees who provide fixed, fixed wireless, and mobile services.

The laws also give Icasa the authority to monitor the quality of service performance offered by licensees, with licensees having to monitor their networks 24 hours a day, seven days a week to maintain performance levels.

Icasa stated that the quality of service audits it would perform will not be disclosed ahead of time, so operators may be required to give data at any moment.

If licensees must perform service upgrades or experience network outages, the regulations require that affected end-users be notified via SMS, social media, and licensee websites seven days before planned interruptions, or as soon as any major service outage that results in poor service quality occurs.

The regulations went into force immediately after the gazette was issued (28 March 2023).

South Africa’s service levels should correspond to the following:

State of Disaster

In addition to increased service levels, Icasa published adjustments that have been effective as a result of the proclaimed national state of disaster relating to the ongoing energy crisis.

Licensees are directed under the disaster to guarantee that steps are implemented in the communications and digital technologies sector to effectively cope with the impacts of the national state of disaster and, when necessary, avoid the escalation of energy supply limitations.

Specifically, operators in the sector will be required to do the following:

• Electronic communications service and electronic communications network service licensees that are mobile network operators and broadcasting service licensees will need to issue public service announcements on the national state of disaster, at no cost to the user, after consultation with the Government Communications and Information System.
• Consult with Icasa and the relevant government departments and make recommendations on what services and infrastructure are considered critical – this is specifically regarding the granting of exemptions from load-shedding or reduced load shedding.
• Consult with Icasa and the relevant government departments on what can be done in the sector to meet the goals of the state of disaster, vis-a-vis, ensuring constant energy supply and reducing the impact of load shedding.

“The Authority is requested to assess the impact of the interventions contemplated herein following its implementation, in order to make recommendations to the Minister on further actions required,” the gazette noted.