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Johannesburg - The cellphone industry might run out of
numbers due to the waiting time dictated by the Consumer Protection Act before
they can reuse inactive numbers, the SA Communications Forum (SACF) said on
Thursday.
"Should the industry now be required to keep all
numbers active on their networks for as long as three years - even though it (sic)
might have been inactive throughout that time period - then numbers might soon
run out," it said in a statement following a submission to the Independent
Communications Authority of SA (Icasa).
Currently, in terms of Section 63 of the act, pre-paid
vouchers, credit and similar devices should not expire until they are used or
for a period of three years after they were issued and this could have the
unintended consequence of the industry being unable to recycle numbers.
They explained that currently any consumer that activates a
voucher on their phone links the airtime to their cellphone number and
companies and other licencees can't recycle or churn the inactive numbers until
all the credit has been used, or for a period of three years from the date of
issue.
Section 68 of the Electronic Communications Act allows Icasa to develop regulations prescribing a numbering plan for the efficient use and allocation of numbers.
To use numbers more efficiently, the industry changed all its systems to introduce "dynamic" numbering or numberless sims.
The industry has put measures in place to warn consumers
about their airtime window periods and the fact that they may lose unused
airtime at the expiry date.
The ad hoc working group of the SACF urged Icasa to apply
for an industry-wide exemption from Section 63 to address this.
The group also believes that the rate of R1.50 as set to
enter an on-air competition should not apply as these competitions account for
a considerable portion of the revenue stream for broadcasting service licencees,
and especially for community-based broadcasting licencees.
For this, they called for the broadcasting industry to be
exempt from Section 36 and the related regulations for on-air competitions.
