Communications regulator Icasa is suspending expedited plans, at least temporarily, for licensing a wholesale open-access network (Woan). Instead, it will focus on licensing spectrum to commercial operators. Icasa published a timetable on 1 October for South Africa’s planned spectrum auction and a schedule for the “expedited licensing” on the Woan. Under that plan, Icasa should have published a...
Icasa is making steady progress in meeting the requirements for holding a long-anticipated spectrum auction next year. On Tuesday, the communications regulator published an updated Information Memorandum (IM) on the licensing of “high-demand spectrum” for a second round of consultation. “This publication of the IM is another critical consultative process Icasa is undertaking in the continued...
Communications regulator Icasa is moving to defuse the looming court battle over its planned withdrawal of Covid-19 temporary spectrum by raising the possibility of assigning what it’s calling “provisional spectrum” on a fairer basis to telecommunications operators. The move comes 10 days before the high court in Pretoria is expected to hear arguments from Telkom, Vodacom...
Hardly a week after telecoms regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) made its plans clear that it will oppose Telkom’s court application to halt the regulator’s move to take back temporary spectrum, Vodacom and MTN have also joined the fight. Vodacom and MTN – SA’s two biggest mobile operators – have filed court papers...
Telkom is taking Icasa to court to try to stop the communications regulator’s planned withdrawal of temporary spectrum at the end of next month, saying the move would disrupt the provision of services and harm consumers. Icasa originally made the spectrum available on an emergency basis in April 2020 to interested licensed operators due to the...
Communications regulator Icasa on Thursday set out a timetable for the licensing of so-called “high-demand spectrum”, saying it plans to expedite the long-delayed process. For the first time, the regulator has published a detailed schedule for when it plans to get key aspects of the licensing process concluded. This will start today, 1 October, with the...
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has rubbished claims from MTN that there will be “digital load-shedding” when the regulator takes back temporary radio frequency spectrum on 30 November. “This concept of a ‘digital load-shedding’ is unsubstantiated,” Icasa chair Keabetswe Modimoeng said during a recent interview with Newzroom Afrika. “I’m actually battling to...
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the country’s communications regulator, has announced that it will not be publishing invitations to apply (ITA) to participate in the long-awaited auction of high-demand spectrum in South Africa. ICASA says that the move was made to avoid a lengthy court battle against several litigators that had issues...
The council of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has resolved that the temporary radio frequency spectrum assigned to licensees will have to be returned to the authority by no later than 30 November. In a statement, the telecoms regulator says the temporary radio frequency spectrum was first assigned by means of an...
Speed in processing files is one of the criteria for assessing the level of ease of doing business in a country. In South Africa, Internet service providers denounce the slowness of the telecoms regulator and are considering actions to make it lose certain powers. The South African Association of Internet Service Providers (ISPA) calls for...
