Monitoring and evaluation of universal service obligations for mobile network operators in South Africa.

Abstract

Universal Service Obligations (USOs) have been used, for over a decade, as a regulatory mechanism to bridge the digital divide in South Africa. For USOs to be effective and efficient in bridging the digital divide, it requires close coordination between various impacted and interested stakeholders, such as mobile network operators (MNOs), the ICT regulatory authority (the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa), and the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa in order to extend the number of beneficiaries of the USOs. Furthermore, this requires stakeholders to understand the full impact, as well as the costs and benefits (financial and non financial) before imposing the USOs. The evidence from this research confirms that there was no monitoring and evaluation of USOs for MNOs during their implementation. More importantly, the Regulatory Impact Assessment (as a regulatory tool) was never used by ICASA in respect of the USOs initiative. This led to the failure of the initiative in achieving most of its objectives. Such failure can be attributed to lack of understanding by ICASA of the general impact of imposing the USOs upon MNOs, given that no impact assessment was done before such imposition. Recommendations arising from the research include the need for a shared vision on the USOs initiative, the need for clearly identified and defined roles for all stakeholders with an interest in the initiative, the need for a properly analysed and know ICT access gap, the need to balance the use of market and non market mechanisms in respect of USOs, the to ensure a proper funding mechanisms for USOs, and the need to identify effective regulatory governance in respect of USOs.