The universal service and access obligations that formed a condition of securing an electronic telecommunications licence in South Africa should be revised to be more proportionate to the size of the licence holder, proponents in the industry argued on Thursday.

Telecommunications groups Neotel and Telkom called on the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to review the responsibilities placed on telecommunications companies to deploy infrastructure and services to underserviced areas as part of their licence agreements.

The two parties were presenting at Icasa’s state of competition public hearings, held in Sandton from October 1 to 3.

Currently, South African regulations, as part of a universal service and access programme, imposed a number of obligations on companies to meet Icasa-defined social targets before issuing any service or spectrum licence to operate telecommunications services in the country.

The regulatory framework, within the Electronic Communications Act, No 36 of 2005, aimed to ensure affordable, available and accessible communications infrastructure, content and services for all citizens in all areas.

Universal service governed the direct provision of telecommunications, broadcasting or postal services to households regardless of the geographic location, while universal access directed access to communication services on a shared basis such as on a community or village-wide level.

The services included fixed and mobile telephony, Internet and fixed and wireless broadband – including telecentres and cyberlabs – as well as broadcasting services.

However, Telkom and Neotel believed that the proportion of responsibility placed on the respective groups was skewed and called on Icasa to consider the size, market share, turnover and revenue base of each licence-holding group to ensure fairness of the services to be distributed.

“The licence obligations do not fully consider [the] market position of the company,” Neotel CEO Sunil Joshi pointed out.

“[The obligation allocation] should be reflective of start-ups [or] smaller companies relative to larger [organisations],” he said, pointing out that, compared with the larger players, smaller companies simply did not have the scale to deploy expensive infrastructure and remain profitable.

Telkom’s Siyabonga Mahlangu noted that Telkom’s formerly dominant position and size had reduced, requesting Icasa to review the obligations required for licences and distribute social responsibilities proportionately across the industry.