WAPA

The Wireless Access Providers’ Association (WAPA) is calling upon the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to take urgent steps to address the high numbers of unlicensed providers of Internet and other electronic communications services in South Africa. WAPA estimates that there are more than 500 such operators in South Africa.

“It is a relatively straightforward and inexpensive process for a provider to obtain the necessary licensing which will permit it to provide services lawfully in South Africa” says Sumaiyah Makda of Ellipsis Regulatory Solutions, regulatory advisors to WAPA.

Attempts to work with regional offices of ICASA have met with mixed results. “In some cases the response has been that the unlicensed provider will be given 12 months within which to apply for licences and in most others no action has been taken at all”, says Makda.

“This seems to ignore the fact that providing electronic communications services or network services without valid licences issued by ICASA is a criminal offence under the Electronic Communications Act of 2005. ICASA is also entitled to confiscate or seal equipment which is being used for illegal service provision.”

WAPA currently has 94 members, all of whom are licensed providers of wireless access services to consumers in South Africa. Members are bound by a Code of Conduct which governs their interaction with their subscribers and other providers as well as requiring them to be compliant with ICASA regulation.

WAPA wishes to urge ICASA to beef up its efforts to curtail illegal service provision and points out that unlicensed providers are competing unfairly in that they are not paying annual licence fees or contributions to the Universal Service and Access Fund as required by ICASA. Nor are such providers observing the consumer protection regulations which ICASA has put in place.

WAPA offers assistance to unlicensed providers who wish to legitimise their operations.
Further information is available here.

From the general meetings it seems there is a mandate to pursue this with WAPA as the complainant.

WAPA will
- Draft a letter to go to ICASA council and speak to certain councillors about the need to deal with the issue (top-down)
- Engage with ICASA enforcement in the regions (bottom-up)
- Draft some PR on the issue calling for ICASA to take action to stop the proliferation of unlicensed fly-by-night operators

An initial approach will be made to an unlicenced operator to invite them to become part of WAPA and obtain the necessary licensing. If they do not accept the invitation, an approach to ICASA/SAPS will be formulated.

Anyone wishing to lodge a complaint with ICASA should notify WAPA with the full details of the entity so that the initial invitation to join WAPA and sort out licensing can be made. If this is not successful, it can then be passed on to Ellipsis.

WAPA held a meeting on the 29th and 30th of July in Johannesburg and Cape Town with a turn out of 30 and 36 attendees respectively.

On the agenda for the WAPA meeting was activities for the year so far and defining WAPA’s goals and focus areas. Members were invited to join the working groups formed to address these areas. Ellipsis provided a regulatory update and there were presentations on VoIP by Christopher Geerdts (Multisource) and Mohammad Patel (Otel Africa) as well as on Installation standards and best practices by Chris Sutherland, Miro. Joe Botha from Trustfabric presented a RICA proposal and some of the vendors had the opportunity to promote their products.

The GM minutes and presentation slides have been posted on the members’ mailing list.

The meeting at Asara in Stellenbosch was concluded with a wine tasting which presented an excellent networking opportunity.

Many thanks to Internet Solutions for providing the venue in Johannesburg.

If anyone is interested in sponsoring a speaker on a relevant topic or promoting a product at the next event, please contact WAPA.

WAPA would like to thank the following WAPA members:

- Internet Solutions, for hosting our Management Committee meetings and regulatory workshop this year, as well as for sponsoring our teleconference facilities.

- MB-Net for providing us with a free fax 2 email line.

- Trinet Online for assisting us with the printing of our high site equipment tags.

Much appreciated!

The following goals have been identified by the WAPA management committee and will be WAPA’s main focus in 2010:

1. Spectrum: Light Licensing Strategy ; Getting spectrum allocated for
use by WAPA members

2. Awareness: Promoting Wireless ISP services to the wider public ;
Roadshows to attract more members

3. Self-regulation: High Site Training and Enforcement

4. Services to members: National coverage map and area list; Quarterly
newsletters; Vendor sponsorships

5. Co-operation with the ISPA on events and activities; collaboration on
regulatory issues

6. Membership Growth: Goal of 100 members by June 2010

Wireless networks are popping up all over South Africa, with an estimate of 500-800 unlicensed networks out there at present.

WAPA understands that many of the wireless service providers are small and it could be argued that getting licenced is a costly operation for a small business but the new licensing framework is very clear about the need for an ECNS license to operate network infrastructure.

The Wireless Access Providers’ Association (WAPA) believes that it is in the industry interest that all service providers are properly licensed and can assist with this process by applying to ICASA on their behalf for the required licensing needed to provide wireless access services.

WAPA currently has 69 members, of which 5 are NPO’s. 2009 saw a 75% growth in membership, with 29 new members being signed up, some of whom were already licenced. WAPA has so far assisted with 22 licence applications, with 8 submissions completed, 11 still in process, and 3 on hold.

Once WAPA receives the new membership application, the licence application is submitted to ICASA within a few days of receiving all the necessary information and documents. According to regulation, ICASA has a total of 60 working days to consider the licence application, following which the applicant is deemed to have been registered. WAPA is concerned that ICASA is taking longer than the ECA stipulates and have communicated this to ICASA.

WAPA’s current fee of R2 500 (excluding VAT) for a class ECS and ECNS application for new members is set to increase to R3 500 (excluding VAT) as of 1 March 2010. The increase is attributed to delays in the awarding of licenses by ICASA, resulting in a substantial increase in the administration process.

WAPA advises that unlicensed wireless access providers make use of the window period before the 1 March 2010 increase in fees. Enquiries can be directed to info@wapa.org.za or 082 458 1656.

The 2010 Management Committee was elected at the 2009 WAPA AGM on the 4th of December at Asara, Stellenbosch.

Photos of the event

Elected 2010 Management Committee:

* David Jarvis
* Eugene van der Merwe
* Henk Kleynhans
* Justin Spratt
* Nicola Smith
* Leon Botes

WAPA will be hosting its Annual General Meeting on Friday, the 4th of December, from 14:00 – 17:00, on Asara Wine Estate in Stellenbosch.

The event is open to members only. There will be giveaways sponsored by our equipment vendors, as well as discounts offered to all members attending.

On the agenda are activities accomplished in 2009, as well as goals and focus areas for 2010. We will present our Light Licencing strategy and the Open Spectrum Alliance will be represented by Steve Song. The new Management Committee for 2010 will also be elected.

All WAPA members are most welcome and we look forward to seeing you there. If you have not received the invitation formally via our members’ mailing list, please RSVP asap.

It’s the third time lucky, perhaps, for ICASA, as it makes another attempt to publish a workable set of quality of service standards, as required by section 69 of the Electronic Communications Act 2006.

These regulations, setting out the minimum standards for end-user and subscriber service charters, came into force on the 8th of September, 2009. The regulations have twice previously been published and after an Inquiry into whether the existing regulations should be amended, repealed and rewritten, the outcome was published together with the new set of regulations:

http://www.ellipsis.co.za/end-user-and-subscriber-service-charter-regulations-2009/

The problem with the regulations are that most of its obligations, sourced specifically from old Mobile Network Operator (MNO) licences issued under the Telecoms Act, have very little relevance at times to anything else, and are now intended to cover the entire industry from fixed DSL to hotspots to VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) to FWA (Fixed Wireless Access), etc.

This one-size-fits-all approach is not a good idea, as it leaves a lot of room for future disputes, which in turn is not good for consumer protection (assuming that consumer protection is the intention of the regulation).

Furthermore, in many ways, Fixed Wireless Access is not like GSM / MNO. The Wireless Access Providers’ Association (WAPA) is concerned that the subscriber service charter was designed for MNO, but now seems to be forced on WAPA members who don’t use the same technologies.

It may be that differentiating between broad categories of service is problematic for ICASA, or that it is in fact not very concerned with the FWA market, and in not understanding our industry as well as we do, the question is raised whether the FWA market should self-regulate with the support of ICASA. We know what our technologies are realistically capable of.

WAPA as a collective represents the second biggest fixed connectivity provider in SA. WAPA membership, currently comprising of over 60 service providers and providing services to an estimated 50 000 consumers, is focused on using open standard wireless technologies.

WAPA member technology is the logical choice for under-serviced areas and has a proven track record in these areas. WAPA also works with registered equipment suppliers to promote the enforcement of type approval regulations by such suppliers as well as its members. Their Code of Conduct focuses on wireless activities, an enforcement process, certification and training and WAPA members also have a forum for sharing knowledge and resolving technical problems.

With the support of ICASA, self-regulation is the best way forward for the FWA market, with WAPA being ideally positioned to be an interface between the government regulator (ICASA), network operators, service providers and consumers.

A new Spectrum Analyser supporting 1 MHz to 9.4 GHz is now available to WAPA’s Johannesburg membership. The SPECTRAN® NF-5030 & HF-60100 V4 will be kept at UniNet’s office.

This particular Spectrum Analyser:

1. has a high sensitivity (-155dBm) and low Noise Floor, which is advantageous to have for long range measurements and/or when the receive signal is weak.
2. supports narrowband signals and takes into account the modulation scheme of the signal: Wifi / WiMAX, Video signals, etc.
3. has an 80 times faster sampling time than the average hand held spectrum analyser.
4. has a vastly improved “spurious free dynamic range”
5. has improved filters and excellent bandwidth resolution which is important for distinguishing signals on adjacent channels.
6. has a faster battery charging than previous models.

Please note that use of the spectrum analyser requires that you have attended a WAPA spectrum analyser course. You can go here to apply for borrowing the unit.