Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Act, 2000 (Act No. 13 of 2000)

Regulations

Code of Conduct for Premium Rated Services

1. Definitions

Purchase

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

“Act”

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

“Adult service”

means a service containing material or adult experiences not appropriate for any persons under the age of 18 as classified in terms of the Film and Publication Board’s Classification Guidelines issued in terms of the Films and Publications Act, Act No. 65 of 1996;

“Advertisement”

means any direct or indirect visual or oral communication transmitted by any medium, or any representation or reference written, inscribed, recorded, encoded upon or embedded within any medium, by means of which a person seeks to—

(a)	bring to the attention of all or part of the public—

(i)	the existence or identity of a supplier; or

(ii)	the existence, nature, availability, properties, advantages or uses of any goods or services that are available for supply, or the conditions on, or prices at, which any goods or services are available for supply.

(b)	promote the supply of any goods or services; or

(c)	promote any cause.

“the Authority”

means the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa

“Billing network operator”

means a licensee that bills and collects payment from subscribers for the charges incurred as a result of the use of a premium rated service over the licensee’s electronic communications network;

“Charge”

means the rate payable by an end-user for the use of a premium rated service;

“Children”

means persons under the age of 18 years as defined in the Children’s Act 38 of 2005;

“Children’s services”

means services which, either wholly or in part, are aimed at children.

“Double opt-in”

means a process defined in these regulations which entails that a premium rated service provider, shall, upon receipt of a subscription request from an end user and before any charges are incurred by that end user send a Short Message Services (SMS) subscription confirmation to the number that initiated the subscription request message at no charge to the enduser. The confirmation SMS must be followed a response from the subscriber either confirming or refuting the request for subscription by responding either YES or NO respectively;

“Electronic Communications Network”

means an Electronic Communications Network as defined in the Act;

“End-user”

means an End-user as defined in the Act;

“End-User Information”

means all information that a premium rated service provider obtains as a result of a use of a premium rated service by an end-user of the premium rated service and includes, but not limited to, information regarding:

(a)	the end-user’s usage patterns (including number of calls, times of calls, duration of calls and parties called);

(b)	the services used by the end-user;

(c)	the end-user’s telephone number and network configuration;

(d)	the end-user’s location information; and

(e)	the end-user’s billing name, address and credit history.

“ICASA Act”

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

“Licensee”

means a person issued with a licence to provide services in terms of Chapter 3 or to use the radio frequency spectrum in terms of Chapter 5 of this Act;

“Media”

means a manner of communication through which a large number of people can receive and access information, which amongst others includes:

(a)	television broadcasts;

(b)	radio broadcasts;

(c)	publications (digital and print) i.e. newspapers, magazines; and

(d)	the Internet.

“Premium rated service”

means Premium rated service as defined in the Numbering Plan Regulations GG 39861;

“Premium rated service provider”

means a licensee or any other third party that engages in the provision of a premium rated service; and

“Strong language”

means crude words, threats, verbal abuse, profanity or language that amounts to prejudice.