The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) is actively in the process of identifying the constraints service providers are facing amid persistent loadshedding and identifying potential mitigation measures that lie within the scope of the authority, says Icasa acting chairperson Dr Charley Lewis.

Speaking during a virtual public consultation on the impact of loadshedding on the telecommunications, broadcasting and postal sectors, he said that Icasa established a disaster management task team, with the council committee in place from early February, to prepare to deal with the electricity supply constraint crisis.

“There has been a considerable amount of work that has been done internally. We have experts in the various regulatory areas who have been looking at some of the potential areas where we, as the authority, might be able to intervene, to assist the country to weather the nonelectricity storm that seems to have been presetting us for some time going forward,” he says.

This followed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s declaration of a national State of Disaster in response to the ongoing electricity crisis and its effects, during his February 9 State of the Nation Address.

“We, in fact, are actively now in the process of consulting with stakeholders, licensees and members of the public to identify some of the constraints and problems that they face as service providers under the current electricity situation.”

As required by the National Disaster Management Centre, organs of the State are required to prepare and submit reports detailing the measures they have taken to avert the State of Disaster.

Policy direction emanating from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and from the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies is expected and the policy direction will feed into Icasa’s process, along with the feedback received from Icasa’s consultations, with a subsequent formal notice and comment procedure to follow, Lewis comments.

On Monday, Icasa received presentation input from the Internet Service Providers Association; the South African Communications Forum; the Association of Communications and Technology; the National Association of Broadcasters; and Sentech, besides others.

The authority may consider the inputs received from this consultation meeting when developing a consultation document, which will be published in the Government Gazette for public comment.

Icasa, actively considering regulatory measures which could be considered and applied during the national disaster period, is soliciting views from interested stakeholders on enabling regulatory interventions, relief measures and adjustments to the regulatory frameworks that could reduce the impact of loadshedding on stakeholders and licensees; as well as any adjustments to the regulatory frameworks for equipment, electronic communications facilities and radio apparatus that could reduce its impact.

The authority is also examining specific reporting requirements for licensees to submit information to Icasa in order to assess the impact of loadshedding on the provision of electronic communications and broadcasting services; measures that stakeholders and licensees intend to take to assist their subscribers and members of the public during the State of National Disaster; and proconsumer measures, including the reduction of the cost to communicate, which the authority should consider during this period.

In addition to this, regulatory forbearance on compliance with licence terms and conditions, such as network roll-out, universal service and access targets and quality of service obligations; and any other measures or interventions that the authority should consider to ameliorate the impact of loadshedding on service provision, economic activity and social well-being is being reviewed.

“It is the view of the authority that any of the above proposed regulatory interventions should be justified by showing how it either directly minimises the impact of loadshedding or specifically facilitates ongoing service provision during the State of National Disaster,” Icasa highlights in its consultation notice.