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ID President Patricia de Lille has slammed the three cell phone operators, Vodacom, MTN and Cell C, ‘for ignoring their 3G licensing obligations to roll-out internet connectivity to Institutions of People with Disabilities.'

Ms De Lille, who recently spearheaded the campaign to bring down exorbitant interconnect rates in time for Christmas, has received a written reply [below] from Siphiwe Nyanda, the Minister of Communications, ‘which is proof that the three companies have not taken their licensing obligations seriously.'

‘It is shocking that not one of the three companies has delivered on their obligations to Institutions of People with Disabilities. Besides this, MTN and Cell C are far behind in terms of rolling out Internet connectivity to their allocated schools,' says De Lille.

‘Once again it is clear that Icasa is their dead wood partner because how could Icasa have drafted regulations that were impossible to enforce?

In response to the ID Leader's query about whether there is a penalty clause in the contracts, the Minister wrote -

"It should be noted that the manner in which the obligations were crafted made it very difficult for the Authority to implement the obligations beyond what the licensees undertook in terms of their implementation plans."

‘Only now, when investigations by the ID have found that the operators have not complied with their 3G licensing agreements, only now has Icasa suddenly identified the flaws in the current regulatory framework and embarked on a process of reviewing it.

‘This is yet another example of the cozy relationship between Icasa and the operators and we would like to call on the regulator to take note of what the Minister has said in his reply and to now and in future report the operators to the Complaints Compliance Committee, in line with the Icasa Act,' says De Lille.

‘These three companies have consistently shown that disrespect for the rules is probably just as rampant, if not more rampant in the private sector than it is in the public sector and those of us that expected them to play their part in building an honest society were hopelessly naïve.'