South Africa’s biggest mobile operators, through their industry body, will not back Icasa’s proposed biometric Sim checks and five-number cap in their current form, warning that the draft rules overlap with Rica, the existing Sim registration law, and could disrupt the industry’s own clean-up of the Sim market.
The Association of Comms & Technology (ACT), which represents Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell C, Rain and Liquid Intelligent Technologies, said it supports the goal of stronger Sim registration but not the measures as drafted.
“We would distinguish between supporting the objectives of the proposed regulations and endorsing the specific measures in their current form,” ACT CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi said on Friday in a written response to questions from TechCentral about the draft regulations.
“There are material differences between Icasa’s proposals and the framework developed by industry, particularly regarding Sim registration limits, biometric verification requirements and the practical arrangements for implementation.”
The draft amendments to the numbering plan regulations, published for comment on Wednesday, would require operators to verify a subscriber’s face or fingerprint against home affairs records whenever a Sim is activated, reactivated or swapped.
Operators would have two years to re-verify their existing customers, and no operator could assign more than five numbers to one subscriber. Breaches of the core verification rules would carry fines of R2-million to R4-million per contravention.
Cost and the five-number cap
Batyi said several matters needed “further assessment”, among them the cost and technical feasibility of checking subscribers against home affairs records, the system integration and verification infrastructure required, operational readiness and the implications for existing subscribers.
The five-number limit “warrants careful consideration, particularly in light of South Africa’s socioeconomic circumstances and the legitimate reasons consumers and businesses may require multiple Sim cards”, she said. Icasa’s draft exempts companies from the biometric checks but not from the cap.
ACT also objected to the pace of change. Icasa amended the same regulations in July, setting rules for how operators deactivate dormant Sims. “Introducing further substantive obligations within such a short period raises questions regarding regulatory predictability, policy coherence and the cumulative compliance burden imposed on licensees,” Batyi said.
The deeper dispute is over which law should govern Sim registration. That is Rica’s job, through section 40 of the act, and the department of justice & constitutional development is its custodian. Icasa is instead using its power to regulate numbering resources.
“While Icasa has a statutory mandate to regulate numbering resources, greater clarity is required on the rationale for introducing substantive subscriber registration and identity verification requirements through a separate regulatory instrument,” Batyi said. “We are concerned that overlapping regulatory processes could introduce uncertainty, duplicate implementation costs and potentially disrupt progress already made by industry.”
Icasa’s explanatory memorandum says its verification requirement is “distinct from” Sim registration under Rica. The regulator told parliament last year that it wanted the administration of Rica moved from the justice department to itself.
The operators have their own plan. In June, ACT announced an interim framework of stronger identity verification, tighter registration controls and greater oversight of Sim distribution channels, and sent the justice department proposals to reform section 40. Wider use of biometric authentication at registration points was among the solutions the industry discussed. Batyi said in October last year that Rica amendments kept stalling: “Every time it is updated and sent up the chain, it is turned back.”
The industry’s plan
ACT said it had engaged the Competition Commission and the justice department over the past two years. “We are also currently in the process of reaching out to the department of home affairs to align verification technical standards. This work has progressed to the technical development stage,” Batyi said.
Icasa’s memorandum says most operators told the regulator last year that they had rolled out biometric verification only for contract customers, not prepaid.
ACT said it would make formal representations to Icasa. Interested parties have 30 working days from 28 October to comment. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
