The Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association has created a new role to strengthen its positioning as a credible and effective self-regulating body. By taking direction from the association's management committee, Operations Manager Ilonka Badenhorst will also work to improve coordination and communication between WASPA, its members, the country's mobile network operators and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa .

"I hope to ensure that our views are heard in the greater telecoms industry while also facilitating more regular communication with the WASPA members who have given us our self-regulating mandate,” said Ms Badenhorst. “Mobile applications are driving the revolution in both business and society, and we are seeing that WASPA needs to plays a more visible part in guiding developments in this area. As the voice of our membership, we have a lot to offer on multiple levels," she added. Ms Badenhorst holds degrees in Commerce and Law. After completing her articles, she joined the telecommunications industry. Since 2011, she has filled a number of roles for telecommunications players, primarily in the legal and regulatory sphere.

Another important facet of her new job description, says Ms Badenhorst, is acting as a single point of contact for WASPA members. This means that WASPA members will now have one person to contact for any concerns they might have. “The WASPA management committee felt the time was ripe to expand and extend the organisation’s impact. We are confident that Ilonka has the experience and personal capabilities to both create and carry on this important new role,” says Casper de Villiers, WASPA chair. WASPA's remit is to promote and self-regulate the WASP industry. The association represents the mobile development; value added services and content services community in South Africa.

After lobbying the mobile operators and WASPs in late 2003 for an industry body, WASPA's formative meeting was held in August 2004. Membership of WASPA was made mandatory by the mobile operators and media houses for any company providing value added services in South Africa.