Court decision a blow to cell users
The Johannesburg High Court ruled against watchdog company Cell Check, which had taken action against Vodacom on behalf of its client Hilti for dropped call charges in the amount of R18 200, end of last week. In terms of international benchmarking, cellular service companies in the UK, for example, are fined up to £5000 for billing for dropped calls.
A dropped call is defined as a call that is prematurely terminated without either party hanging-up, and can account for as much as three to six percent of cellphone charges for contract users.
The judge provisionally dismissed the case and has given the parties thirty days to make submissions, failing which the judgement will become final. The legal team, headed by Michelle Gishen of Louis Gishen and Associates, are regrouping and will decide on their strategic course of action next week.
Jason Blacklock, founder of Cell Check, says that in South Africa most cellular service providers charge a flat rate for the first minute and then per thirty-seconds thereafter. Thus, if the call is dropped mere seconds into the call, the caller is still charged for the full minute, and then pays again for the first minute again when he redials the connection.
Vodacom's subscriber base is estimated to be in the region of eighteen million users, and depending on the cellular service and provider chosen, consumers are spending between R1.80 and R3.60 per minute.
Cell Check does not charge for its services but takes a percentage of the money claimed back from cell companies on behalf of the consumer.
Says Blacklock, "I began the business after I'd successfully claimed back money on my personal account and been refunded, and decided that there must be a niche for a company that offers a forensic auditing type service to large corporates and individuals who lack the time and infrastructure to perform this."
"We approached ICASA (the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa) to step-in on behalf of ourselves and the consumer. But when they declined due to lack of resources, we founded the Cellphone Complaints Authority of South Africa to register complaints and discrepancies in cell phone billing," says Blacklock.
