‘‘affiliate’’ means with respect to any person, any other person that, directly or indirectly—

(a) controls the first mentioned person;

(b) is controlled by the first mentioned person; or

(c) is under common control with the first mentioned person.

‘‘Agency’’ means the Universal Service Agency referred to in Chapter 12;

‘‘Authority’’ means the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa established by section 3 of the ICASA Act;

‘‘broadcasting’’ means any form of unidirectional communications service intended direct reception for—

(a) the public;

(b) sections of the public; or

(c) subscribers to any broadcasting service,

having appropriate receiving facilities, whether carried conveyed by means of radio frequency spectrum or any other communications network or any combination thereof, and ‘‘broadcast’’ is construed accordingly;

‘‘Broadcasting Act’’ means the Broadcasting Act, 1999 (Act No. 4 of 1999);

‘‘broadcasting service’’ means any service which consists of the broadcasting of television or sound broadcasting material to—

(c) subscribers to such a service, and which service is conveyed by means of a communications (network), but does not include

(a)(i) a service (including text service) that which provides no more than data, or no more

than text (whether with or without associated still images); or

(ii) a service or components of a service that make programmes available on

‘‘broadcasting service radio frequency radio band’’ means that part of the electro-magnetic radio frequency spectrum which is allocated for the use of broadcasting services by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), in so far as such allocation has been agreed to or approved adopted by the Republic;

‘‘broadcasting service licence’’ means a licence granted and issued by the Authority to a person in terms of this Act for the purpose of providing a defined category of broadcasting services; section 5(2)(b)

‘‘broadcasting signal distribution’’ means the process whereby the output signal of a broadcasting service is taken from the point of origin, being the point where such signal is made available in its final content format, from where it is conveyed to any broadcast target area by means of a communications process and includes multi-channel distribution;

‘‘carrier pre-selection’’ means the ability of a subscriber to a communications service provided by a communications service licensee to access and use the communications services of another communications service licensee; or person exempted as provided for in section 6 ‘‘channel’’ means a single defined programming service of a broadcasting services licensee;

‘‘class licence’’ means a licence authorising granted by Authority to a person to provide a class of communications services; in terms of section 5(3)

‘‘commercial broadcasting’’ means a broadcasting service operating for profit or as part of a profit entity but excludes any broadcasting service provided by a public broadcasting licensee; service

‘‘communications’’ means the—

(a) emission;

(c) "Communications" mean the emission, transmission or reception by circuit-switched and packet-switched or other by any means, of information, including without limitation voice, sound, data, text, video, animation visual images, moving images and pictures, signals or a combination thereof,including applications, by means of electricity, magnetism, radio or other electromagnetic waves, optical electromagnetic systems or any agency of a like nature, whether with or without the aid of tangible conductors, but does not include content services;

‘‘communications facility’’ means includes but is not limited to any---

(a) (a)wire;

(b) (b) cable (including undersea and land-based fibre optic cables);

(d) ©antenna;

(e) (d) mast;

(h) (e) satellite transponder;

(j) (g)cable landing station;

(k)(h) international gateway;

(l) (I))earth station or other thing, allowing for carrier pre-selection and number portability; or

(m) an apparatus, which can be used for, or in connection with, communications, including where

applicable—

(i) collocation space;

(ii) monitoring equipment;

(iii) space on or within poles, ducts, cable trays, manholes, hand holds and conduits; and

(iv) certain associated support systems, sub-systems and services,

ancillary to such communications facilities or otherwise necessary for controlling connectivity of the various communications facilities for proper functionality control integration and utilisation of such communications facilities;

‘‘communications network’’ means any system of communications facilities (excluding subscriber equipment), including without limitation—

(a) any transmission system and associated communications facilities; and

(iii) optical; or other electromagnetic means or similar technical systems,

(aa) (a) satellite systems;

(bb) (b) fixed systems (circuit-switched and packet-switched);

(cc) ©mobile systems;

(dd)(d) fibre optic cables (undersea and land-based);

(ee) (e) electricity cable systems (to the extent used for communications

services); and

(ff) transmission systems, f) other transmission systems, used for conveyance of communications;

used for content services, including radio and television broadcasting, and cable television, irrespective of the type of information conveyed (to the extent such transmissions systems used for content services are also used for communications services); ‘‘communications network service’’ means a communications service whereby a communications network service licensee person makes available a communications network or communications facilities, whether by sale, lease or otherwise—

(a) for its that person’s own use for the provision of a communications services or any other

services contemplated by this Act or the related legislation; service or broadcasting service; or

(b) to another communications network service licensee for that licensee’s use in providing communications services or any other service contemplated by this Act or the related legislation; or

(c) for resale to a communications service licensee, or to any person providing content services broadcasting service licenseeor any other licensed service contemplated by this Act or the related legislation; and ‘network services" shall be constructed accordingly;

‘‘communications network service licensee’’ means a person licensed to provide whom a communications network services licence has been granted in terms of section 5(2);

‘‘communications service’’ means any service provided in terms of this Act or the related legislation which is normally provided for remuneration to—

and the public, sections of the public, the State or the subscribers to such service, which consists wholly or mainly of the conveyance by any means of communications over communications networks, including transmissions over communications networks used for but excludes broadcasting, but excluding content services;

‘‘communications service licensee’’ means a person authorised to provide whom a communications services licence has been granted in terms of a class license issued under this Act; section 5(3)

‘‘community’’ includes a geographically founded community or any group of persons or sector of the public having a specific, ascertainable common interest;

‘‘community broadcasting service’’ means a broadcasting service which—

(a) is fully controlled by a non-profit entity and carried on for non-profit

purposes;

(b) serves a particular community;

(c) encourages members of the community served by it or persons associated with or promoting the interests of such community to participate in the selection and provision of programmes to be broadcast in the course of such broadcasting service; and

(d) may be funded by donations, grants, sponsorships or advertising or membership fees, or by any combination of the aforementioned;

‘‘Complaints and Compliance Committee’’ means the committee established by the Authority in terms of section 17H of the ICASA Act;

‘‘content’’ means any—

‘‘Director-General’’ means the Director-General of the Department of Communications;

" dominant" shall have the same meaning as that term is defined in the Competition Act and dominance shall be construed accordingly;

‘‘election’’ means any election for any legislature contemplated in the Constitution; defined in section 1 of the Electoral Act, 1998 (Act No. 73 of 1998) ‘‘election period’’ means the period commencing with the date on which the election day is proclaimed and ending on the day immediately following upon the day on which candidates of any of the political parties are declared elected;

‘‘emergency organisation’’ means, in respect of any locality, the relevant police, fire, ambulance or traffic authority or coast guard services for that locality and any other similar organisation providing assistance to the public in emergencies; ‘‘end user’’ means a subscriber or a person who uses the services of a licensed service referred to in Chapter 3;

(a)" essential facility" means communicated facility or combination of communications facilities that are exclusively or predominantly provided by a single or limited number of communications network licensees and cannot feasibly (whether economically or technically) be substituted or duplicated by competitors be replaced in order to provide a communications service; in terms of this Act

or

‘‘existing licences’’ means the licences referred to in Chapter 13 and licences

granted to persons prior to the coming into force of this Act in accordance with the provisions of the related legislation; Telecommunications Act, the IBA Act, or the Broadcasting Act;

‘‘financial interest’’ means interest that may not have voting rights attached to it but which gives the person or entity a financial equity or debt interest directly through shares and/or other securities indirectly through an agreement giving it—

(a) the power to control the licensee; or

(b) an effective say over the affairs of the licensee;

‘‘free-to-air service’’ means a service which is broadcast and capable of being received without payment of subscription fees;

‘‘harmful interference’’ means interference which—

(a) seriously degrades, obstructs, or repeatedly interrupts a communication service operating in accordance with International Telecommunications Union Radio Regulations; or

(b) is not within CISPR interference level limits as agreed to or adopted by the Republic;

‘‘IBAAct’’ means the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act, 1993 (Act No. 153

of 1993);

‘‘ICASAAct’’ means the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Act, 2000 (Act No. 13 of 2000);

‘‘individual licence’’ means a licence that is granted by the Authority to a person in terms of section 5;(2)

‘‘interconnection’’ means the physical or logical linking of two or more communications networks of two communications networks service licensees; services, broadcasting services, services provided pursuant to a licence exemption or any combination thereof;

‘‘interference’’ means the effect of unwanted energy due to one or a combination of emissions, radiations or inductions upon reception in a radio communication system, manifested by any—

(a) performance degradation;

(b) misinterpretation; or

(c) loss of information, which could be extracted in the absence of such unwanted

energy;

‘‘investigation unit’’ means the unit established by the Authority in terms of section 17G of the ICASA Act;

‘‘licence exemption’’ means an exemption granted by the Authority in terms of section 6 of this Act or in terms of the related legislation;

"Licensce area" means the geographical target area of a broadcasting service as specified in the relevant broadcasting service licence

‘‘Minister’’ means the Minister responsible for Communications;

‘‘multi-channel distribution service’’ means a broadcasting signal distribution service that provides broadcasting signal distribution for more than one channel at the same time on the same signal, and ‘‘multi-channel distributor’’ is construed accordingly;

‘‘number portability’’ means a capability whereby a subscriber the ability of subscribers to a communications

service who so requests can retain—

when changing service or persons providing service pursuant to a licence exemption, to retain their existing numbers without impairment of quality, reliability, or convenience when switching from one communications service licensee to another communications service licensee;

‘‘party election broadcast’’ means a direct address or message broadcast free of charge on a broadcasting service and which is intended or calculated to advance the interests of any particular political party;

‘‘person’’ means a natural or a juristic person;

‘‘political advertisement’’ means an advertisement broadcast on a broadcasting service which is intended or calculated to advance the interests of any particular political party, for which advertisement the relevant broadcasting service licensee has received or is to receive, directly or indirectly, any money or other consideration;

‘‘prescribed’’ means prescribed by regulation made by the Authority in terms of this Act or the related legislation; and prescribe shall have the same meaning;

‘‘public broadcasting’’ means—

(a) service" means any broadcasting service provided by the South African Broadcasting Corporation; or other public state-owned enterprises;

‘‘radio’’ means an electromagnetic wave which is propagated in space without artificial guide; and having a frequency below 3000 GHz

‘‘radio frequency band’’ means a specified range of frequencies for use by one or more holders of a radio frequency spectrum licence; persons authorised to use the band ‘‘radio frequency band for security services’’ means one or more specified ranges of frequencies for use by one or more agencies classified as a security service;

‘‘radio frequency plan’’ means a national plan for that includes , but is not limited—

(a) the use of the radio frequency spectrum; and a table of frequency allocations for all bands below 3000 GHz taking into account the ITU table of allotments, in so far as such allotments have been adopted and agreed upon by the Republic, which may include designation of certain utilisations and

(b)a plan as applicable, for the migration, as applicable, of systems and equipment of existing users within specific radio frequency

bands, including radio frequency bands for security services, to allow for the introduction of new technologies and service consistent with this Act and the related legislation and for avoidance of harmful interference; out of such bands and, as applicable to different frequency bands;

‘‘radio frequency spectrum’’ means the portion of the radio electromagnetic spectrum used as a

transmission medium for communications—

‘‘radio frequency spectrum licence’’ means an individual licence authorising the holder to use the radio frequency spectrum;

‘‘radio station’’ means one or more transmitters or receivers or a combination of transmitters and receivers, including the accessory equipment, necessary at one location for carrying a communications service; communications

‘‘registered political party’’, for the purposes of Chapter 9, means—

(a) any registered party defined in section 1 of the Electoral Act, 1998 (Act No. 73

of 1998); or

(b) any alliance of such registered parties, as the case may be,

which, for the purpose of any particular election, has, before the commencement of the relevant election period, submitted its list of candidates for the National Assembly or any other legislature contemplated in the Constitution;

‘‘related legislation’’ means the Broadcasting Act, the ICASA Act, and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Act, 2000 (Act of 13 of 2000), and any regulations and guidelines made in terms of such legislation and not specifically repealed by this Act any regulations, determinations and guidelines made in terms of such legislation and not specifically repealed by this Act;

‘‘Republic’’ means the Republic of South Africa, its possessions, air space and territorial waters;

‘‘reseller’’ means a person who—

(a) acquires, through lease or other similar commercial arrangement, any communications network service or communications service; and

(b) makes such communications network service or communications service available to its subscribers or end users for a fee, whether or not such communications network services or communications services made available by the reseller are—

(i) identical to the communications network service or communications service acquired;

(ii) packaged, bundled or otherwise re-grouped to form new or varied service offerings; or

(iii) combined, linked or used in connection with communications networks or communications facilities owned by the reseller, and whether or not

(iv)the reseller adds value to such communications network services or communications services, and ‘‘resale’’ is construed accordingly;

‘‘retail’’ means the sale, lease or otherwise making available of services offered by licenseesa communications service by a communications service licensee to end users; to subscribers ‘‘security services’’ means the security services of the Republic established in terms of Chapter 11 of the Constitution;

‘‘Sentech Act’’ means the Sentech Act, 1996 (Act No. 63 of 1996);

‘‘service charter’’ means a document, developed by a licensee in consultation with its staff and customers, subscribers which sets out the standards of service customers subscriber can expect and is a performance measurement and accountability tool that focuses on customer subscriber service outcomes;

‘‘SMME’’ means a small business enterprise defined in section 1 of the National Small Business Enterprise Act, 1996 (Act No. 102 of 1996);

‘‘SMS’’ means short messaging service whereby text is sent over a communications network;

‘‘sound broadcasting service’’ means a broadcasting service destined to be received by a sound radio set; consisting of the transmission of audio signals and the reproducing of the signals in the form of sounds, but not also in the form of images or other visible signs or signals "subscriber" means a person who lawfully accesses uses or receives a retail service of a licensee referred to in Chapter 3 or ther retail services of a person providing a service to a licence exemption;

"subscriber equipment" means any device which is used by a subscriber to access, use or receive of a licensee referred to in Chapter 3 or other services of a person providing a service pursuant to a licence exemption, including without limitation, a telephone regardless of technology such as IP phones, mobile phones, publicly available phones; a handset, a computing device such as a personal digital assistant or a personal computer, a device for receiving a sound radio broadcasting service and television; or other device or equipment and any associated software;

‘‘subscription broadcasting service’’ means a broadcasting service provided to an end user a subscriber upon payment of a fee;

‘‘Telecommunications Act’’ means the Telecommunications Act, 1996 (Act No. 103 of 1996);

‘‘television broadcasting service’’ means a broadcasting service consisting of the transmission of visual images or other visible signals with or without accompanying sounds, where the visual images are such that sequences of them are seen as moving pictures;

‘‘transition period’’ means the period or periods referred to in Chapter 13 for among other things, converting the existing licences to the licensing structure set out in this Act; ‘‘this Act’’ includes the Schedule, regulations, orders, determinations and guidelines;

"underserviced area" means the geographicallly identified areas defined by the Authority in accordance with this Act.

‘‘wholesale’’ means the sale, lease or otherwise making available of a communications network service or communications services by a communications network service licensee or a communications service licensee, to another communications network service licensee or communications person providing a service licensee pursuant to a licence exemption.

2. The primary object of this Act is to provide for the regulation of communications in the Republic in the public interest and for that purpose to—

(a) promote and facilitate the convergence of telecommunications and broadcasting signal distribution and other services contemplated in this Act;

(b) promote the universal provision of communications networks and communication services and connectivity for all;

(c) encourage investment and innovation in the communications sector;

(d) ensure efficient use of the radio frequency spectrum;

(e) promote competition within the communications sector;

(f) promote an environment of open, fair and non-discriminatory access to broadcasting services, communications networks and to communications services

(g) promote the empowerment of historically disadvantaged persons; including women youth and people with disabilities

(h) encourage research and development within the communications sector;

(i) encourage the inter working interoperability of communications networks and communications network services; and any other services contemplated in terms of this Act

(j) provide a clear allocation of roles and assignment of tasks between policy formulation and regulation within the communications sector;

(k) ensure that communications services, viewed collectively, are provided by persons or groups of persons from a diverse range of communities in the Republic;

(l) provide assistance and support towards human resource development within the communications sector;

(m) ensure the provision of a variety of quality communications services at reasonable prices;

(n) promote the interests of consumers with regard to the price, quality and variety of communications services;

(o) subject to the provisions of this Act, promote and facilitate the achievement of the objects of the related legislation;

(p) develop and promote SMMEs;

(q) ensure information security and network reliability;

(r) promote the development of public, commercial and community broadcasting services which are responsive to the needs of the public;

(s) ensure that broadcasting services, viewed collectively—

(i) promote the provision and development of a diverse range of sound and television broadcasting services on a national, regional and local level, that cater for all language and cultural groups and provide entertainment, education and information;

(ii) provide for regular—

(aa) news services;

(bb) actuality programmes on matters of public interest;

(cc) programmes on political issues of public interest; and

(dd) programmes on matters of international, national, regional and local significance;

(t) protect the integrity and viability of public broadcasting services;

(u) ensure that, in the provision of public broadcasting services—

(i) the needs of language, cultural and religious groups;

(ii) the needs of the constituent regions of the Republic and local communities; and

(iii) the need for educational programmes, are duly taken into account;

(v) ensure that commercial and community broadcasting licences, viewed collectively, are controlled by persons or groups of persons from a diverse range of communities in the Republic;

(w) ensure that broadcasting services are effectively controlled by South Africans;

(x) provide access to signal distribution for content providers;

(y) provide access to signal distribution services for broadcast content receivers; and

(z) encourage the development of multi-channel distribution systems into the broadcasting framework.