Norman Manoim, a member of the tribunal panel, discussed telecommunications regulation in South Africa at a forum hosted by the Link centre, at Johannesburg's Wits University.

While having two authorities with overlapping responsibilities can lead to “forum shopping” -- where complainants can approach another authority if their grievance is not adequately dealt with by the other -- it can also result in neither authority assuming responsibility for certain tasks, Manoim said.

“The system of enforcement (in the telecoms industry) is failing,” said Manoim, citing the VANS versus Telkom case, which started in 2004.

“The High Court is yet to hear the dispute,” he noted.

“ICASA has good market knowledge, and the tribunal has vast competition theory, and economic and market structure knowledge -- so each has its skills,” Manoim said.

While the new Electronic Communications Act upholds the right of the Competition Act for competition in the telecommunications sector to be regulated, some ambiguity over jurisdiction still exists.

“The Convergence Act, the first draft of which was published in 2003, sent a strong message there would be concurrent jurisdiction between the sector regulator and the Competition Tribunal.”

However, no solution appears to be on the horizon. One way of managing the situation, he said, is to assign different roles to the regulator and the tribunal.

Source: ITWeb - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News