Communications minister Solly Malatsi has shifted government’s position regarding the shutdown of 2G and 3G mobile networks in South Africa.
The previous administration had wanted to impose a deadline on the operators to complete switch-off of these legacy networks, but Malatsi believes it should be left to the companies to decide.
Speaking at a Mobile Monday event in Cape Town this week, Malatsi said government forcefully imposing a deadline for the shutdown of legacy networks risks excluding large sections of the population that rely on older devices for their connectivity needs.
“While there is a determination to get towards the sunsetting of 2G and 3G, I think the most important thing is that it has to be market led instead of a government imposition of a deadline,” he said. “If you do that (impose a deadline), you are going to leave millions and millions of South Africans – most of whom are poor [behind].”
In the previous administration, former minister Mondli Gungubele imposed a 31 December 2027 deadline for the sunsetting of 2G and 3G networks in South Africa. Gungubele, an ANC MP, is now deputy minister to Malatsi, a Democratic Alliance MP, under the government of national unity.
According to Malatsi, government needs to promote a collaborative approach in matters of digitisation and connectivity so that policy interventions “uplift people rather than suppress their prospects for prosperity”.
Counterbalance
He said there are around 20 million South Africans who rely on 2G and 3G devices for communication, meaning the opportunity presented by freeing the spectrum used by legacy technologies must be counterbalanced with the risk of displacing a large section of the population from mobile connectivity.
One factor keeping a large segment of the population on legacy networks is device affordability. The cost of 4G phones has fallen sharply in recent years, with 4G-capable feature phones now as low as R250. Despite their availability, users in this market segment are short of disposable income and will not upgrade to a 4G-capable device unless their current device is either lost or broken – and even then, they may not be able to afford a replacement device.
Read: Why South Africa may be stuck with 2G for longer
Further efforts to bring the cost of 4G devices down include discussions between the communications department and national treasury to remove the luxury goods tax imposed on these devices at import.
The Association for Comms & Technology, an industry lobby group representing South Africa’s major telecoms operators, previously cited the large number of devices responsible for machine-to-machine communications as another reason legacy networks should not be shut off abruptly.
“There is no rush to set a deadline; neither is there a requirement in law or otherwise. Government should allow the industry to run the process and report to the regulator, Icasa [on their progress],” said ACT CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi.
According to Batyi, many of state-owned logistics operator Transnet’s systems rely on components that use 2G networks for their communications and it does not make sense for the company to suffer the cost of replacing that infrastructure when it is not broken in any way.
A similar problem exists for the vehicle tracking industry, since some of the tracking devices in circulation also rely on 2G for communication, she said.
“Let the penetration levels of 4G and 5G guide the timelines for the switching off of 2G and 3G instead of imposing a deadline and then rushing everyone off because that way you are going to perpetuate the divide that exists and that is not reasonable,” said Malatsi. – © 2024 NewsCentral Media
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