Government sets new minimum service levels for mobile networks and ISPs in South Africa
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has gazetted the latest amendments to the End-user and Subscriber Charter regulations, which determine the standard of service South Africans should expect from mobile operators and other electronic service providers.
According to Icasa, the amendments aim to strengthen the provision of quality of service for electronic communication services in the country.
The new regulations change the parameters for expected service levels for voice and data, including what download and upload speeds need to be matched by operators.
The standards are applicable to all relevant Icasa licensees offering fixed, fixed wireless and mobile services.
The regulations also empower Icasa to monitor the quality of service performance provided by licensees, with licensees expected to monitor their networks 24/7 to maintain performance levels.
Icasa said that the quality of service audits it will conduct will not be advertised in advance, so operators could be expected to provide data at any time.
If licensees need to perform service upgrades or suffer network outages, the regulations stipulate that affected end-users need to be notified via SMS, on social media and via licensee websites seven days before planned interruptions, or as soon as any major service outage that results in poor quality of service occurs.
The regulations came into effect as soon as the gazette was published (28 March 2023).
Service levels in South Africa should match the following:
| Parameter | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Voice services | |
| Average Call Setup Success Ratio | ≥ 98% |
| Average Call Setup Time | ≤ 9 seconds |
| Average Dropped Call Ratio | ≤ 3% |
| Average Speech Quality Mean Opinion Score (MOS) | ≥ 3 |
| Average SMS End-to-End Delivery Success Rate | ≥ 98% |
| Average SMS End-to-End Delivery Time | ≤ 10 seconds |
| Data services | |
| Application Throughput | Average value of Download ≥ 5 Mbit/s |
| File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Average Download Throughput | Average value of Download ≥ 5 Mbit/s |
| File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Average Upload Throughput | Average value of Upload ≥ 1.5 Mbit/s |
| Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Average Download Throughput | Average value of Download ≥ 5 Mbit/s |
| Hypertext Transfer Protocol Average Upload Throughput | Average value of Upload ≥ 1.5 Mbit/s |
| Round Trip Time RTT (Latency) | Average value ≤ 100ms |
| Average Speech Quality Mean Opinion Score (MOS) | ≥ 3.5 |
| Minimum Signal Strength | ≥ -105 dBm |
| End-user test cases | |
| Web Page Access Success Rate | ≥ 95% |
| Web Page Completion Success Rate | ≥ 95% |
| Web Page Download time | ≤ 5 seconds |
| Video Streaming Set-up Success Rate | ≥ 95% |
| Video Streaming Completion Success Rate | ≥ 95% |
| Video Streaming Reproduction Cut-off Ratio | ≥ 95% |
State of Disaster
In addition to new service levels, Icasa also gazetted changes that have come into effect as a result of the declared national state of disaster related to the ongoing energy crisis.
Under the disaster, licensees are being directed to ensure that measures are taken in respect of the communications and digital technologies sector to effectively deal with the effects of
the national state of disaster and, where applicable, prevent the escalation of the electricity supply constraints.
Specifically, operators in the sector will be required to do the following:
- Electronic communications service and electronic communications network service licensees that are mobile network operators and broadcasting service licensees will need to issue public service announcements on the national state of disaster, at no cost to the user, after consultation with the Government Communications and Information System.
- Consult with Icasa and the relevant government departments and make recommendations on what services and infrastructure are considered critical – this is specifically regarding the granting of exemptions from load-shedding or reduced load shedding.
- Consult with Icasa and the relevant government departments on what can be done in the sector to meet the goals of the state of disaster, vis-a-vis, ensuring constant energy supply and reducing the impact of load shedding.
“The Authority is requested to assess the impact of the interventions contemplated herein following its implementation, in order to make recommendations to the Minister on further actions required,” the gazette noted.
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