Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (Act No. 36 of 2005) Regulations End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations, 2016 1. Definitions

 

In these Regulations any word or expression to which a meaning has been assigned in the Act bears that meaning unless the context otherwise indicates:

 

"Act"

means the Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (Act No. 36 of 2005), as amended;

 

"Alternative Dispute Resolution"

means a process or mechanism that helps resolve an end-user's complaint through mediation;

 

"Application Throughout"

means the average data transfer rate, after a data link has been successfully established, measured throughout the entire connection time to the service;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.1) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations, 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Authority"

means the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa established by section 3 of the ICASA Act 13 of 2000;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2.1(a) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Amendment Regulations, 2018 (Notice 233 of 2018)]

 

"Availability of ECS"

means the proportion of time that a licensee's network services are operational;

 

"Availability of ECNS"

means the proportion of time that a licensee's network resources are available to an end-user;

 

"Call Setup"

means activities that occur during the time a call is being established, but not yet connected;

 

"Call Setup Success Ratio"

means time interval from the instant a user initiates a network connection request until a complete message indicating call disposition is received by the calling terminal;

 

"Call Setup Time"

means time interval from the instant a user initiates a network connection request until a complete message indicating call disposition is received by the calling terminal;

 

"Complaint"

means an expression of dissatisfaction resulting from a licensed service;

 

"Complainant"

means a person who lodged a complaint to the Authority;

 

"Data bundle"

means a set amount of data for a set price;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2.1(b) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Amendment Regulations, 2018 (Notice 233 of 2018)]

 

"Dropped Call"

means a call which is established and assigned a traffic channel but dropped prior to the deliberate completion by the user due to network problems;

 

"Dropped Call Ratio"

means the proportion of incoming and outgoing calls, which, once correctly established and having been assigned a traffic channel, is dropped or interrupted prior to the deliberate completion by the end-user;

 

"ECNS"

means electronic communications network service;

 

"ECS"

means electronic communications service;

 

"Fault"

means failure of a network which results in disruptions or the degradation of services to an end-user that can directly be attributed to the ECNS licensee;

 

"Fault Clearance"

means the successful resolution of a fault;

 

"File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Average Download Throughout"

means the average of the data transmission speed achieved for a given number of samples, when downloading a file, using file transfer protocol;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.2) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Average Upload Throughout"

means the average of the data transmission speed achieved for a given number of samples, when uploading a file, using file transfer protocol;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.2) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Fixed Wireless"

means the operation of wireless devices or systems at any fixed location;

 

"Fixed Service"

means a radio communication service between specified fixed points;

 

"Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPP) Average Download Throughput"

means the average of the data transmission speed achieved for a given number of samples, when downloading a file using hypertext transfer protocol;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.3) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Hypertext Transfer Protocol Upload Average Upload Throughput"

means the average of the data transmission speed achieved for a given number of samples, when uploading a file, using hypertext transfer protocol;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.3) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPP) Service Non-accessibility"

means the probability that a subscriber cannot establish a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) Context within a given time, and access the service successfully;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.3) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Hybrid plans"

means a service in terms of which an end-user pays monthly subscription that includes allocation of voice minutes, SMS and data services and allows an end-user to purchase additional voice minutes, SMS and data services.

[Definition inserted by regulation 2.1(c) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Amendment Regulations, 2018 (Notice 233 of 2018)]

 

"ICASA Act"

means the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Act of 2000 (Act No. 13 of 2000) as amended;

 

"Installation"

means making available a requested fixed line service to an end-user;

 

"Latency"

means the delay, or round-trip time required for a packet to travel from the source to the destination and back;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.4) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Major network outage"

means an outage that affects one or more entire district municipalities and last four hours or more and disrupts emergency call processing for any period;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.5) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Major service outage"

means any network condition that causes 1,000 or more customers to be out of service for 30 or more minutes; causes an unplanned outage of, or completely isolates a central office for 30 or more minutes; or disrupts 911 emergency call processing for any period.

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.5) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Mean opinion score (MOS)"

provides a numerical measure of the human-judged overall quality of voice or video sessions, judged on a scale from 1 (bad) to 5 (excellent);

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.5) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Packet Data Protocol (PDP)"

means a packet data connection over which the User Equipment (UE) and the network can exchange IP packets;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.5) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Mobile Services"

means a radio-communications service between land stations or between mobile stations;

 

"out-of-bundle"

means a rate that an end-user is charged upon the depletion of the allocated bundle;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2.1(d) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Amendment Regulations, 2018 (Notice 233 of 2018)]

 

"Point of Sale"

means a physical service outlet where a transaction has been concluded or a transaction concluded electronically;

 

"Post-paid plans"

means a service in which an end-user pays monthly subscription and usage charges at the end of each month for the allocation of voice minutes, SMS and data services;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2.1(e) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Amendment Regulations, 2018 (Notice 233 of 2018)]

 

"Qualifying Service"

means application made by end-users on service provided by a licensee in an area where there is coverage;

 

"Quality of Service Measurements"

[Definition deleted by regulation 2.2 of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Amendment Regulations, 2018 (Notice 233 of 2018)]

 

"Rebate"

means the deduction from an amount payable by an end-user as a result  of service disruptions which affected the ability of an end-user to use a service;

 

"Reporting Period"

means prescribed period for which a licensee must measure specific parameters and/or report to the Authority;

 

"Round Trip Time (RTT)"

means the time required for a packet to travel from a source to its destination and back, and is used to measure the delay on a network at a given time;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.6) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Service Activation"

[Definition deleted by regulation 2.2 of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Amendment Regulations, 2018 (Notice 233 of 2018)]

 

"Service Activation Time"

[Definition deleted by regulation 2.2 of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Amendment Regulations, 2018 (Notice 233 of 2018)]

 

"Service Installation"

means connecting an end-user service point to the network, making the service available to an end-user;

 

"SMS End-to-End Delivery Success Rate"

means the ratio of ‘received to sent’ test SMSs, from one mobile device to another mobile device, excluding duplicate received and corrupted test SMSs;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.7) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"SMS End-to-End Delivery Time"

means the time between sending an SMS to an SMS Centre and receiving the very same SMS on another mobile device;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.7) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"SMS Transmission Ratio"

means the proportion of SMS's transmitted completely without errors between network termination points;

 

"Speech Quality"

means the condition of the conversational speech without noise and echo interference.

 

"Video Streaming Completion Success Rate"

means the proportion of times that the video is reproduced until the end, out of the number of times that reproduction is started, expressed as a percentage. The prerequisite for this parameter is that the streaming reproduction has started successfully;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.8) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Video Streaming Service Access Time"

means the time between requesting a video stream from a portal and receiving the first stream data packet at the terminal. The first data packet refers to Transmission Control Protocol (TCP);

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.8) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Video Streaming Reproduction Cut-off Ratio"

means the probability that a successfully started video stream reproduction is ended by a cause other than the intentional termination by the user;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.8) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Video Streaming Set-up Success Rate"

means the ratio of successful video stream reproduction starts to user requests for the stream. The prerequisite for this parameter is that the PDP Context is activated;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.8) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Web Page Access Success Rate"

means the number of times that the subscriber can successfully access a web browsing service out of the total number of attempts, expressed as a percentage;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.8) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Web Page Completion Success Rate"

means proportion of times that a web page is successfully retrieved, once the download has already started, out of the total number of times that the service is accessible, expressed as a percentage;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.8) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

"Web Page Download Time"

means the time needed to retrieve the content of a web page successfully;

[Definition inserted by regulation 2(2.8) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Fourth Amendment Regulations 2023, Notice No. 3207, GG48318, dated 28 March 2023]

 

" Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (or USSD)"

means a Global System for Mobile communication technology that is used to send text between a mobile phone and an application program in the network.

[Definition inserted by regulation 2.1(f) of the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Amendment Regulations, 2018 (Notice 233 of 2018)]