Screamer Telecoms was still using Sentech’s radio frequency spectrum as recently as October 2009, internal Sentech documents leaked to TechCentral have revealed.

This is despite the state-owned company cancelling an agreement it had with Screamer (then Global Web Intact — GWI) in a letter dated 4 October 2007.

Sentech internal correspondence in TechCentral’s possession shows Screamer had an agreement with GWI dating back to January 2007. Sentech chairman Quraysh Patel says Screamer had been using the spectrum “unlawfully”.

Patel says even if the agreement between the two companies hadn’t been cancelled, it would have expired in January 2010. He says he met with Screamer executives about a month ago. At that meeting, he says they asked him to renew the contract. “I said I would absolutely not do that.”

It’s not known if Screamer is still using the spectrum to provide services, but Patel has asked the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) to investigate the matter if it has reason to believe that this is the case.

TechCentral could not immediately reach Screamer CEO Gavin Hart for comment.

Sentech's letter to Screamer — Sentech's letter to GWI (click for PDF)

It’s not clear why Sentech permitted its spectrum to be used by GWI in the first place, though several sources close to Sentech have told TechCentral that former communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and her director-general, Lyndall Shope-Mafole, knew of the agreement and tacitly approved of it.

Shope-Mafole, who is now an MP for the Congress of the People, an opposition political party, could not be reached for comment.

Sources say Eddie Funde, a politically well-connected former SABC chairman, was also involved in the agreement between the two companies. It’s not clear what role Funde, who was said to be have been a close associate of the late Matsepe-Casaburri’s, played in the agreement.

Funde’s mobile phone was switched off when TechCentral tried to reach him on Thursday for comment.

Former Sentech CEO Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane refused to comment when approached by TechCentral this week. “We raised this issue in parliament at the time and I have nothing more to say.”

TechCentral is in possession of a letter (published in PDF form alongside this article) — dated 29 June 2006, when Mokone-Matabane was CEO — in which Sentech makes a number of undertakings to GWI, including a promise to shield it from legal action that could have flowed from the latter’s use of the spectrum.

Sentech's letter to Icasa (click for PDF)

The letter, sent to GWI’s Dan Salmon and signed by Sentech executives Dingane Dube (now the company’s acting CEO) and Marcel Raath, states: “It is Sentech’s intention to enable Global Webintact [sic] to offer services to their customers without risk of service interference or threat of legal action.”

On 22 January 2007, the two companies entered into an “area partner revenue share agreement” in terms of which GWI would pay Sentech a rate per user on its network and a minimum monthly fee in exchange for the use of 10MHz of spectrum in the 2,6GHz band.

But by October, Sentech had done an about-turn over its agreement with GWI.

According to internal company correspondence, Sentech ended the agreement by way of a faxed letter sent to GWI’s offices. But GWI refused to accept the cancellation and it appears the company simply continued using the spectrum.

Sentech has 50MHz of spectrum in the 2,6GHz band. It was given the spectrum to roll out a broadband wireless network and was mandated by government to build a competitor to Telkom. But the company famously failed to make a success of that project, which was known as MyWireless.

In an October 2009 letter to Icasa’s then chairman, Paris Mashile, Sentech accused Screamer of continuing to use its spectrum “unlawfully”, two years after the contract had been cancelled. In the letter, Dube accused Screamer of causing interference with MyWireless through its “unlawful” use of the spectrum.

“Screamer is not the holder of a radio frequency spectrum licence authorising it to use the 2,6GHz radio frequency band,” Dube wrote. “Neither is Screamer contractually or otherwise authorised by Sentech to use the 2,6GHz frequency spectrum assigned to Sentech.

“As such, Screamer’s use of the … spectrum is unlawful and in contravention of the Electronic Communications Act.” — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral