Illegal Phones Cause Problems for South African Networks

An increase in the use of certain illegal cordless phones and wireless camera systems in South Africa is interfering with cellular network signals, causing dropped call rates in the vicinity of the illegal devices to rise dramatically.

Gert du Plessis, chairman of the South African Cellular Telecommunications Association (SACTA), an independent association representing cellular equipment manufacturers and network operators, said that the telecoms regulator, SACTA had noticed a sharp increase since 1999 in the number of devices operating illegally in bandwidths already allocated to licensed cellular operators.

"The licences issued to Vodacom, MTN and Cell C reserve certain frequencies in the 900MHz band for the provision of national cellular services but these bandwidths are increasingly being polluted by illegal devices, which interfere with cellphone calls in the area," said Du Plessis.

Up to 40% of calls made within a certain cell from 19 to 26 March 2002 were dropped due to interference from an illegal cordless phone or wireless camera operating nearby. After the interferer was identified and removed on 27 March, the dropped call rate decreased to less than 2%.

"As a result of the detrimental effects of these devices, the mobile operators are obliged to fully exploit all legal and other measures at their disposal, which may extend to the installation of advanced interference monitoring equipment at their base stations, in order to protect their legal rights and the quality of service levels to their customers. Information collected on the location of the illegal devices will then be provided to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) for action in terms of the legislation," said Du Plessis. He added that South Africa's three cellular network operators would ask ICASA to enforce the law on cordless devices more stringently in order to help curb the use of such devices.'"

Posted to the site on 9th May 2002