RICA provisions onerous on ISPs

"We remain concerned about the obligations that Rica places on our members in terms of customer registration and verification," said Dominic Cull, regulatory advisor to ISPA. "It is unfortunate that the department continues to insist that licensees, acting as Internet access providers, personally verify the documents which their customers are required to submit before a service can be activated. It has previously written to the department to explain the challenges this requirement will pose for its members, particularly those who do not have a national retail presence."

The primary difficulty with the obligation is that Internet access providers are generally online businesses in the sense that they sign up customers and maintain customer relationships online.

Verification possible without a national retail presence?

"An ISP may be based in Cape Town but provide Internet access services to the whole of South Africa. It is not clear to ISPA how it will be able to verify Rica documentation in person when its customers are hundreds or thousands of kilometres away."

Cull drew a distinction between the requirements placed on mobile cellular providers who have a pervasive national retail presence and small and niche Internet access providers who do not.

"Notwithstanding this national presence and the vast amounts of money which the mobile providers are throwing at Rica registration, it seems clear that this is being done at a massive cost to those providers and there are indications that the exercise will not be completed within the 18 month deadline set by Rica."

"If the mobile providers are struggling to comply with personal verification, then it follows that personal verification will be close to impossible for ISPs to comply with. Most of our members have a purely online relationship with their customers since they do not provide a physical component of their service such as a SIM card."

DoJ taking steps

ISPA notes that the DoJ is taking a number of steps to accommodate the concerns it has expressed about Rica customer registration and verification processes in the past. It acknowledges, in particular, the amendments to section 39 of Rica that will allow ISPs to use agents to verify customer documents.

"While this represents a step in the right direction it remains our view that the imposition of a personal verification obligation will have a chilling effect on Internet access and competition in South Africa,” continues Cull.

Its previous submissions to the department have highlighted the fact that South Africa, under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act of 2002, has created a framework for the authentication of documents in electronic format.

"South African law clearly provides for verification of documents in electronic format and ISPA is not sure why this framework is not being used for customer registration under Rica.

"It will make further submissions to the DoJ in the hope of getting it to recognise the difficulties and costs our members will face in meeting Rica obligations in their present form. Nobody's interests will be served by creating an obligation, which is impossible to comply with."