Vodacom wants Icasa to make the spectrum once reserved for the defunct wholesale open-access network (Woan) available to mobile operators for satellite-to-phone services, priced below what it would fetch for conventional mobile use.
Vodacom Group CTO Dejan Kastelic told TechCentral in an interview this week that the frequencies could help operators reach “100% coverage” in South Africa by linking ordinary phones directly to satellites in areas that towers do not reach.
“My thinking goes more in the direction of: why don’t we use those assets that still exist – call it the Woan spectrum – and maybe better position it for satellite connectivity, for us, the MNOs (mobile network operators), to actually get access to that spectrum and use it for satellite connectivity?”
Communications minister Solly Malatsi formally withdrew the Woan set-aside in September, more than four years after cabinet moved to scrap the scheme. That leaves Icasa free to license it. The department did not say which frequencies were involved. Cell C has described the remaining set-aside as 2x10MHz in the 700MHz band and 30MHz at 2.6GHz, or 50MHz in all, which matches unassigned blocks in Icasa’s spectrum road map. Working by elimination from Icasa’s 2021 auction documents, the 700MHz block sits at 703-713MHz and 758-768MHz, and the 2.6GHz block at 2 500-2 530MHz.
Satellite-to-phone services will at first rely on IMT spectrum, the frequencies set aside for terrestrial mobile networks and already supported by the phones in people’s pockets, Kastelic said. Only later will they add mobile satellite service (MSS) spectrum, the bands allocated internationally for satellite services, because few handsets support those bands yet.
Rural coverage
That is why the Woan spectrum fits, Kastelic argued. Neither block is currently allocated to satellite services, but both fall within the 694MHz-2.7GHz range in which the International Telecommunication Union’s 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference will consider new satellite allocations for direct-to-device services, according to the Global Satellite Operators Association.
Low-band frequencies such as 700MHz travel further and penetrate buildings better than higher bands, which is why satellite-to-phone operators favour them. Operators would not need it for satellite in dense city environments, where they want IMT spectrum for their towers, but would use it in rural areas where there is no terrestrial coverage.
The catch is price. “If you do the valuation the same standard way that you usually do for terrestrial spectrum, it will be very expensive,” Kastelic said. “But if you utilise it only for satellite connectivity, you will not get the same value out of that spectrum, because you utilise it more in areas where there is no terrestrial coverage.”
He proposed what he called “a win-win situation”. Icasa would value the spectrum for rural satellite coverage and assign it to operators that opt for it. Once MSS bands are allocated and handset support picks up, the valuation could be revisited. He said the approach would make sense “in the next three to five, five to seven years”.
Satellite partners such as AST SpaceMobile, which Vodacom is working with, beam an operator’s own spectrum from orbit to ordinary phones. In the US, SpaceX has been buying spectrum to strengthen Starlink Mobile, its own satellite-to-phone service, putting it in direct competition with mobile operators.
Icasa has previously committed to holding its next high-demand spectrum auction in the 2026/2027 financial year but has not set a date.
Kastelic also told TechCentral this week that South Africa could be ready to switch off its 3G networks within two years, if operators co-ordinate the shutdown. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
