Vodacom cuts off iBurst for unpaid bills

South African telco Vodacom has terminated an SMS agreement with Wireless Business Solutions (WBS), the parent company of South African broadband provider iBurst, after WBS failed to pay its interconnection bills, My Broadband reports. For its part, WBS reportedly said that there was no approved agreement in place; the operator justified its claim by saying that the country’s telecoms regulator Icasa had not ratified the Vodacom-WBS SMS agreement, and should step in and resolve the issue. Further, WBS lodged an urgent high court application to try to stop Vodacom from cutting off the SMS interconnection, but reportedly failed in its legal challenge. Vodacom spokesman Richard Boorman confirmed: ‘An urgent application was brought by WBS on Thursday last week in relation to SMS interconnect and the blocking of services. The application was heard and subsequently dismissed on Friday.’