South Africa’s communications regulator has fined a telecoms operator 6 million rand for misusing phone numbers, in a case that pulls back the curtain on the murky business of interconnect bypass fraud.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) announced on 8 July 2026 that it had sanctioned Session Telecoms for breaching the Numbering Plan Regulations, imposing two fines of 3 million rand each.
The regulator found that Session used invalid numbers and numbers that had not been allocated to it, in breach of regulation 6(3)(f), and failed to use its allocated numbers efficiently and effectively, in breach of regulation 6(3)(g).
Behind the breach
According to ICASA, the misuse was tied to interconnect bypass, a form of fraud that disguises international calls as local calls to avoid the higher termination fees carriers charge for land foreign traffic. The findings pointed to CLI manipulation, call refilling, and SIM-boxing, with communications routed inefficiently through MTN’s network.
The case began when MTN lodged a complaint on 26 April 2023. Following an investigation and hearings by ICASA’s Complaints and Compliance Committee, which ran from September 2023 to October 2025, the Authority approved the committee’s recommendations on 18 June 2026.
Two years of monitoring
Beyond the fines, Session must immediately stop the contraventions, surrender the affected numbering resources, and submit monthly compliance reports for 24 months detailing its call records and international call traffic.
Councillor Mushi, chairperson of ICASA’s Numbering Resources Committee, described numbering resources as “a scarce national asset” that must be used responsibly. The action lands weeks after ICASA finalised tighter rules on how operators manage and recycle numbers, signalling a regulator increasingly willing to police the plumbing behind South African phone numbers.
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