A South African court has thrown out the application for an urgent interdict by WBS, the parent company of internet provider iBurst, regarding mobile operator Vodacom’s termination of its contract over alleged non-payment of outstanding invoices.
A source familiar with the situation said Vodacom and WBS signed an agreement last year, under which WBS used Vodacom’s network to send out bulk commercial SMS messages to its users, with the agreement stipulating an SMS interconnect cost of ZAR0.11 per SMS.
WBS went on to send out millions of SMSs under this agreement, but did not pay the agreed fee to Vodacom, and began to challenge the validity of the agreement – which the source said is a standard agreement between commercial users of a mobile network wishing to send out bulk SMSs and the operator.
With the non-payment escalating, Vodacom cut WBS’s network access as of mid-May, prompting WBS to take legal action.
“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,” a Vodacom spokesperson confirmed to HumanIPO.
HumanIPO understands WBS is planning to continue its legal challenge, claiming it does not owe money because the agreement was not valid.
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