Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (Act No. 36 of 2005)RegulationsNumbering Plan Amendment Regulations, 2020Reasons Document13. Machine related number changes and migration |
| 13.1 | Several respondents have welcomed the implementation of machine related number changes and migration within a period not exceeding 12 months after the publication of the Regulations. Some respondents that did not support the 12 months implementation period mentioned that they found it difficult to attach an implementation timeline without clear definitions in the Regulations. |
| 13.2 | The Authority has maintained throughout the consultation process that the definitions were clear and address its intentions. Licensees recommended that revising the definitions will enhance the Authority’s intentions further. Regulations have clearly defined what a machine related service is. |
| 13.3 | Some respondents commented that bulk SMS/MMS should not be defined as MRS. During the consultation process, the Authority requested licensees to submit services that fell within the scope of MRS. It was drawn from those submissions that bulk SMS/MMS is a subset of MRS. |
| 13.4 | This resulted in other licensees requesting the Authority to exclude bulk SMS/MMS from the MRS migration. Licensees motivated that due to efficient utilisation of numbers, complicated security detail and that the current numbers provisioned were enough to cater for medium to long term demands it will be uneconomical to migrate bulk SMS/MMS. |
| 13.5 | In consideration of the request, the Authority requested licensees to submit numbering ranges currently provisioned for bulk SMS/MMS provision. The submission supported the arguments presented and the Authority granted the exclusion of bulk SMS/MMS to currently provisioned numbers not entirely to bulk SMS/MMS as a subset of MRS. It is for this reason that if and when the demand for bulk SMS/MMS exhausts the current numbers provisioned, such demand should be catered for in the designated numbering range for MRS. |