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Nqobile Tshili Chronicle Reporter
INFORMATION Communications Technology (ICTs) experts have defended Velaphi Hlabangani who was recently fined for operating a “mobile call centre’” without a licence saying the country needs to revise its telecommunications legislation as it was inconsistent with technological advancements.

Hlabangani was found in possession of 98 NetOne lines, 36 Telecel and 30 Econet 3G lines — all operational and fitted to an IP-PBX system.

Some of the highly technical equipment that he used included two media sim-boxes, 16 mobiles antennaes, a 3 Cisko link system with E2500 and four-port router, a complete computer set, a laptop with hypermedia management software and a mobile satellite.

On Thursday last week, he was fined $400 by Bulawayo magistrate Sibongile Msipa for violating the Posts and Telecommunications Act.

Reacting to Hlabangani’s case, a prominent Bulawayo ICT consultant, Robert Ndlovu, said there was no law prohibiting the ownership and operation of an IP-PBX system.

“Potraz must put in place regulation pertaining to this issue. At the moment there is no specific law to curb these kind of activities. There are a lot of grey areas regarding this and people will always take advantage of the loopholes in the law,” he said.

Ndlovu said Hlabangani’s behaviour could have been prompted by exorbitant prices charged on international calls.

“Potraz should revise its termination rates. Potraz termination rates are artificial. Zimbabwe has one of the highest termination rates in Africa,” he said.

Ndlovu said Hlabangani did not tamper with the Econet Network but by-passed it as he used Voice over Internet Protocol.

“VoIP is designed to allow the user to make calls via the internet. So he did not tamper with the Econet system, he just  used another route to make his calls. What may be problematic is why was he hiding his numbers,” he said.

Ndlovu said if Econet found him at fault for tampering with their network, the treatment he received should have also applied to people making calls via the internet.

“There is nothing called an international call anymore. People can send international messages via WhatsApp. They can communicate using systems like Viber and Skype. Should they also go through Potraz  to ask for permission to use them?” he asked.

Ndlovu said technology was changing fast and Potraz should be dynamic and move with the times.

Concurring, University of Zimbabwe’s director of ICTs, Dr Gilford Hapanyengwe, said technologically related regulations should always be revised as technology changes daily.

“Regulation against technology should be constantly updated because of the fluidity of the technology,” he said.

Dr Hapanyengwe said it was not an excuse to abuse technology on the basis that the law was older than the technology.

“The law is older than the technology and we need to be careful with innovations. What he needed to do was to pass his idea through Potraz as he seemed to be a knowledgeable person,” he said.

Dr Hapanyengwe said making international calls through other mediums was not a new phenomenon as people have been using online telephone gateways instead of their local networks.

Comment could not be obtained from Potraz as the regulator did not respond to questions sent to the body on Wednesday by Chronicle.