The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) advises stakeholders that the announcement of qualified bidders in terms of the International Mobile Telecommunications invitation to apply of 2 October 2020 has been moved from the initial date of 22 February 2021 to 23 March 2021. The regulator says this, therefore, means the auction phase –...
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has confirmed to MyBroadband that it is in discussions with SpaceX regarding its satellite-based Starlink Internet service. SpaceX this week opened pre-orders for its fast, low-latency satellite broadband service across the world, including in South Africa. Those interested in signing up can put down a deposit of $99 to...
South African operator, Cell C has withdrawn its legal challenge to new number portability regulations published by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), MyBroadband reported. There had been industry speculation that the parties had settled the litigation, the portal said, but added that the operator and regulator have declared that there was no...
Communications regulator Icasa has hit back hard at Telkom’s application to interdict the upcoming spectrum auction, warning that if the company is successful, it will serve to entrench Vodacom and MTN’s “duopoly” – the very thing Telkom claims it wants to avoid. Telkom filed papers in the high court in Pretoria in late December seeking an interdict to...
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has messed up the definition of Tier-1 and Tier-2 operators in its current spectrum auction process, which has resulted in a legal challenge from MTN. ICASA published its Invitation to Apply (ITA) notice on 2 October 2020 to invite applications for new spectrum in the IMT700, IMT800, IMT2600,...
MTN has become the latest mobile operator to drag telecoms regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to court over the spectrum auction process earmarked for March. The company today filed an application in the Gauteng High Court to declare unlawful, and to review, correct or set aside two decisions made by ICASA...
As part of its ongoing commitment to rationalise government entities under its state-owned enterprises (SOE) plan, South Africa’s Department of Communications and Digital Technologies has announced plans to streamline a number of prominent bodies, including telecoms regulator the Independent Communications Authority South Africa (ICASA). MyBroadband cites the government department as saying: ‘The state signal distributor SENTECH will...
Communications regulator Icasa this week defended its plan to require successful bidders in South Africa’s 2021 spectrum auction to support a minimum of three black-controlled mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) amid industry criticism of the idea. An MVNO — examples of these include the recently launch PnP Mobile from Pick n Pay (the first to piggyback...
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has approved the amendment of the ICT COVID-19 National State of Disaster Regulations to extend the validity period of the temporary assignment of radio frequency spectrum from 30 November 2020 to ‘no later than 31 March 2021’, by which date the regulator plans to complete the country’s auction of...
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has asked telcos to pay for the emergency spectrum issued during the COVID-19 disaster regulations. This as SA’s leading mobile operators posted strong results during the National State of Disaster as more people took to working and learning from home. Operators such as Vodacom and MTN have already made use of...
