OpenZA

Despite years of negotiations over fixed number portability, industry players are now questioning the entire process. And they may be right, considering the recent decision by ICASA to only allow customers with blocks of 1,000 consecutive numbers to port. Vox Orion MD Jacques du Toit calls the decision a “sham” in a recent editorial and says that “there is no way the vast majority of South African businesses or consumers will benefit from the way the system has been set up. It’s taken nearly six years since the telecoms market was officially deregulated to come up with something that doesn’t actually work.”

The intention of number portability is to increase competition by allowing customers to change providers without changing their numbers. “For a business your telephone number is like your ID, you don’t change it,” says Du Toit. “That is the single biggest thing that locks customers in to contracts and service providers that aren’t delivering value.”

Full fixed number portability was supposed to have been available in late 2008, says Du Toit. “We have not only got it late, we have got much less than what was promised. After intense lobbying by Telkom, ICASA has announced that only customers with blocks of 1 000 consecutive numbers or more will be able to port their numbers.”

Only a tiny handful of South Africa’s largest enterprises will qualify, says Du Toit. “It does absolutely nothing for the larger market. It’s a sham: on paper it looks as though we have number portability, but in reality the incumbents have got exactly what they wanted.”