[14 November 2022]
ICASA has issued final regulations amending the Ordering System Specification for Geographic, Non-Geographic, and Mobile Number Portability.
[3 January 2022]
ICASA published an amended Ordering System Specification for number portability. The updated OSS will come into effect on 7 March 2022.
Reasons Document for Amendments to the Ordering System Specifications 2021
[17 December 2021]
Notice of Commencement of Number Portability Regulations on 7 March 2022
Starting 7 March 2022, South Africans will be able to port non-geographic numbers (0800, 086x, 087).
According to regulation 14 of these Regulations, they will come into effect on 7 March 2022.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (“the Authority”) published the Number Portability Regulations in Government Gazette No. 41949 dated 1 October 2018.
[28 May 2021]
ICASA plans to amend the Ordering System Specification for Geographic, Non-Geographic, and Mobile Number Portability. The proposed amendments have been published for public comment.
Written submissions should be submitted by 4:00 PM on June 18, 2021, and must be addressed to Mr. Lordwill Zwane at lzwane@icasa.org.za.
[3 April 2019]
Cell C has filed an application in the High Court seeking a review and overturn of ICASA’s decision to enact the Number Portability Regulations 2018.
Cell C High Court Notice of Motion 29 March 2019
The initiation of legal action stems from ICASA’s publication on 29 March 2019 of the final Ordering System Specification for Number Portability. This was the final step ICASA needed to complete before setting a date for the implementation of the Regulations.
Final – Ordering System Specification for Geographic, Non-Geographic and Mobile Number Portability
Cell C is seeking to block the enactment of the Regulations on the following four grounds:
- The Regulations introduce an additional validation process into the porting process, which Cell C argues is not rationally connected to ICASA’s reasons for drafting them and will have a “substantial adverse effect” on competition among mobile operators.
- The Regulations significantly extend the total period allowed for completing the port authorization process. Cell C contends that this extension is not rationally connected to ICASA’s reasons and will negatively impact competition among mobile operators.
- The Regulations remove the prohibition on winback conduct, which Cell C believes is irrational, disconnected from ICASA’s rationale, and was opposed by all mobile operators during the drafting process.
- The Regulations introduce an impermissibly vague requirement for verifying porting requests without specifying acceptable forms of verification, making the requirement arbitrary and unreasonable.
A date for the hearing has not yet been set, and it is unclear whether ICASA will oppose the challenge.
[11 February 2019]
ICASA announced public hearings for the Draft Ordering System Specification for Number Portability scheduled for 18 February 2019 at ICASA’s head office in Centurion.
Schedule of Oral Presentations – Draft Ordering System Specification for Number Portability
Submissions previously received can be found below:
[18 December 2018]
ICASA published a Draft Ordering System Specification for Number Portability for public comment, covering porting of geographic, non-geographic, and mobile numbers.
The Draft Ordering System Specification for Number Portability
Written submissions are due by 16:00 on Wednesday, January 31, 2019, and should be emailed to Mr. Lordwill Zwane at lzwane@icasa.org.za.
The purpose of the OSS is to outline the process that must be followed when a geographic, non-geographic, or mobile number assigned to a subscriber is ported from one operator to another. This includes specifying the information that must be exchanged between operators, the format of this information, acceptable times and response limits, and the management of error conditions.
[3 October 2018]
Number Portability Regulations 2018
Number Portability Regulations 2018 Reasons Document
ICASA has released a new set of regulations along with an accompanying reasons document.
These new regulations replace the version published on March 28, 2018. ICASA identified an error in regulation 14, which incorrectly stated that the regulations would be repealed on the date they come into force, as the reason for issuing a corrected version.
The regulations will take effect on a date to be announced by ICASA in the Government Gazette. Previously, ICASA had indicated they would provide 60 days’ notice before the regulations came into force, but this requirement has now been removed.
[15 September 2018]
Following the publication of the finalized Number Portability Regulations on March 28, 2016—which have not yet been enforced—ICASA has indicated that it will release the revised Number Portability Regulations and a corresponding reasons document by September 28, 2018.
This revision is prompted by Cell C’s threat to initiate review proceedings, citing several potentially unlawful aspects of the regulations as they were originally published.
[2 August 2018]
ICASA announced a review of the Ordering System Specification Regulations 2010 to align them with the new number portability regime, with meetings planned for August. This review is necessary before the Number Portability Regulations 2018 can be enforced.
[28 March 2018]
ICASA finalized and published new regulations for number portability in South Africa. These will come into effect on a future date, with a 60-day notice to be provided.
Number Portability Regulations 2018
[14 March 2018]
ICASA’s Complaints and Compliance Committee (CCC) will address a complaint filed by Transnet against Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN), alleging MTN’s refusal to port certain numbers to another mobile network operator as required by the Number Portability Regulations.
The CCC will consider this matter on an urgent basis, with a public hearing scheduled at the ICASA head office (Block C Presentation Room) at 10:00 on 19 March 2018. Media inquiries should be directed to Paseka Maleka at pmaleka@icasa.org.za or 011 566 3455.
MTN CCC hearing – Media Release
[9 March 2018]
Responses to the Draft Number Portability Regulations 2017 are available from various stakeholders
[28 February 2018]
ICASA will hold public hearings for the Draft Number Portability Regulations on 12 March 2018 at its offices.
Schedule – Draft Number Portability Public Hearings
[4 December 2017]
ICASA published the Draft Number Portability Regulations 2017 for public comment.
Draft Number Portability Regulations 2017
ICASA publishes the draft Number Portability Regulations for public comments
Submissions are due by January 29, 2018, and should be emailed to lzwane@icasa.org.za, attention: Mr. Lordwill Zwane.
[26 July 2017]
ICASA has issued a media release regarding the report. You can find it at the link below:
[1 July 2017]
ICASA has released the results of its review of the number portability regulatory framework.
Number Portability Public Inquiry Findings Report June 2017
The executive summary of the findings is set out below:
These are the summary of the findings which are dealt with in detail in section 2 below:
- There is strong support for the current number portability process and the role of the NPC as the central database provider (CRDB). However, all stakeholders recognise that there are performance issues that need to be addressed with a better enforced process.
- Key performance indicators (KPIs) are scarce. In particular, the Authority has only access to limited information through the NPC. Considering the under-performance of mobile portability and the issues on process inefficiencies that are recognised by all stakeholders, there is a need for sufficient information to be available to the Authority and for possible dissemination of this information to all stakeholders.
- Legacy issues have hindered geographic number portability in the past. There is, however, a strong case to lift some of the area number constraints to allow for portability based on ON codes. All stakeholders also agree that the block sizes can be reduced for increased efficiency in the process. However, it may be prudent to try and preserve the number block sizes through a different pricing mechanism.
- Stakeholders generally agree that the scope of fixed portability should be extended to non-geographic numbers – this is available in the majority of jurisdictions.
- The cost per port is generally considered to be efficient. However, there may be a need to introduce a tiered structure for geographic number portability, where fees are levied per ported block rather than per individual number, resulting in an overall lower cost (than currently) to port number blocks.
- Times to port could be reduced – in particular, real-time port is becoming a standard feature for mobile portability. However, stakeholders generally agree that times to port are currently adequate and that other issues should be addressed first (notably to streamline the escalation process and to improve the updating of routing tables). A reduction of the times to port could be a medium-term target.
- The risk of fraud or slamming has become a key concern for the industry. Some operators consider that this justifies a donor-led confirmation request. However, in line with international experience, an option to consider is adjusting the current portability process, adding an initial step whereby the CRDB sends a PIN to the customer wishing to port as an additional safety measure to ensure that the port request is not fraudulent
- Some adjustments to the current process have been proposed by the operators, including the port lock period, the causes to reject ports, winback activities and tariff transparency methods. The current process is aligned with international standards and only minor changes and clarifications should be considered.
- Customer complaints and issue escalation procedures ought to be revisited. From the review, the Authority might be required to play a more active role as an arbitrator to ensure better coordination within
the industry. - Enforcement of existing regulations could limit the issues around routing information.
- The setting up of a technical committee with industry representatives and effective governance rules would be an important step to ensure a quicker response to change requirements. The Authority’s role would be to actively coordinate the committee’s work and remain the only entity that can introduce changes to the process.
[20 February 2017]
Responses to the questionnaire regarding number portability regulations are available from stakeholders
[9 February 2017]
ICASA’s schedule of oral presentations for the inquiry into number portability regulations, set for 16 February 2017, is available.
Schedule of oral presentations
[27 August 2016]
ICASA announced an inquiry into the existing number portability regulatory framework to address potential gaps given the increase in licensees with numbering resources.
ICASA Inquiry Number Portability Regulations
Submissions should follow the format outlined in the annexure to the notice. They must be sent to Mr. Lordwill Zwane at lzwane@icasa.org.za, with a copy to numberportability@icasa.org.za, by 4:30 PM on 28 October 2016.