Sweeping changes to the management of scarce radio frequency spectrum are contained in the latest draft of the Electronic Communications Amendment Bill.
The latest draft bill has proposed the introduction, through legislation, of spectrum trading, a move that may have been introduced following recommendations published in government’s National Development Plan.
The department of communications introduced the Electronic Communications Amendment Bill in parliament to address the shortcomings of existing legislation. At the same time, the act that governs the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) — called the Icasa Act — is being amended to ensure consistency between it and the Electronic Communications Act.
Regulatory consultancy Ellipsis Regulatory Solutions, headed by Dominic Cull, has prepared an overview of the latest draft of the Electronic Communications Amendment Bill, in which it welcomes its provisions, particularly those related to radio frequency spectrum.
“One of the most welcome provisions of the bill relates to reiterating that the letting, sub-letting, ceding, sharing or transferring of radio frequency spectrum licences is permissible, subject to any conditions that Icasa may determine to be appropriate in the course of approving assignment, cession or transfer of spectrum.
“It follows that Icasa will be required to draft appropriate regulations governing the terms and conditions applicable to the letting, sub-letting and transfer of spectrum licences, including an application form.”
It is Ellipsis’s view that “Icasa is already in a position to draft the required regulations, but it has previously shied away from doing so”.
“Hopefully the proposed amendment will provide a spur to this happening: introducing secondary trading in spectrum is probably one of the most critical short-term interventions that can be made to introduce greater efficiencies into the use of spectrum in South Africa.”
The bill also deals with spectrum licence application turnaround times and proposes that Icasa must notify those that apply for spectrum licences of its decision regarding their applications within 60 business days.
These proposed amendments align with some of the suggestions contained in the National Development Plan, which says that streamlining spectrum allocation is imperative.
The plan calls for spectrum to be “fully tradeable”, subject to the original allocation criteria. “Regulators should not be too restrictive in dictating which technologies should use which parts of the spectrum. They should discourage spectrum hoarding, where licensees buy spectrum bandwidth and either fail to use it or use it only in certain geographical areas.” — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
