Hon Deputy Speaker, when the mobile cellular telecommunications service companies, which are mobile operators that are commonly known as Vodacom, MTN and Cell C, were licensed by the regulator, part of the license conditions for all of them was to submit a roll-out plan and a timetable to cover the South African population, including rural areas.
Furthermore, it is a requirement that these mobile operators report on the roll-out plans annually to the regulator so that there could be measurements with regard to the progress made against the timelines that these mobile operators committed themselves to in their business plans.
One of the priorities in terms of these roll-out plans is to cover areas which previously did not have cellular coverage, specifically the rural areas or the under-serviced areas, as we call them.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, Icasa, regulates and makes an analysis of the roll-out reports that these companies provide, and any cellphone coverage gaps that are identified for that particular period under review by the regulator is brought to the attention of these specific companies by the regulator.
Sometimes, of course, when consumers from these companies have trouble with this cellular reception they will complain to the regulator through a special complaints section, and the regulator would then raise these matters with the relevant cellular companies.
Icasa will then make the respective operators aware of these shortcomings and request them to expand the networks accordingly, so that those areas, which are normally in rural areas, can in fact get the kind of cellphone coverage that they require. Operators are then expected to report on progress separately on such specific cases, over and above their respective annual reports.