Vodacom’s 5G deal with Liquid will entrench its dominance, Telkom warns
February 6th 2020
Vodacom’s agreement with Liquid Telecom to roll out a national 5G network using the latter’s spectrum in the 3.5GHz band will entrench the dominance of the country’s biggest mobile operator to the detriment of smaller players and consumers, Telkom warned on Wednesday. In a wide-ranging interview with TechCentral — watch the video above — Telkom group executive for regulation Siyabonga Mahlangu said if Vodacom and Liquid are allowed to go ahead with their deal, it will preclude other operators from getting access to sufficient spectrum at 3.5GHz. Icasa, he said, must therefore scrutinise the arrangement to ascertain its impact on the market. The 3.5GHz band is seen as one of the best for the roll-out of next-generation 5G networks. Vodacom said this week it plans to leverage the Liquid spectrum through a roaming arrangement to launch commercial 5G services later this year. The deal, though non-exclusive in nature, could put Vodacom in pole position as the race for 5G coverage gets started. This, Mahlangu said, could distort the 5G market in its infancy and leave smaller players behind before they have had a chance to compete on an equal footing. He said operators need at least 80-100MHz of contiguous spectrum at 3.5GHz to roll-out a robust and high-quality 5G network. With Liquid’s spectrum tied up, through the Vodacom arrangement, this doesn’t leave enough spectrum in the band for other players. (Telkom has 28MHz of the band.) Even Vodacom will only be able to launch a “watered-down” version of 5G with the Liquid spectrum, while it awaits further licensing of 5G-suitable spectrum by Icasa, he said. The bigger problem, however, is how Vodacom’s deal with Liquid Telecom pre-empts Icasa’s plan to license spectrum in the band and threatens to tie the regulator’s hands before it has even licensed additional spectrum in the band.