Vodacom said on Thursday that there is no reason to delay the licensing of 5G spectrum in South Africa, arguing that its urgent allocation is needed if South Africa is going to take advantage of the fourth Industrial Revolution.
Regulators, including Icasa and the Competition Commission, will have to be pragmatic and lenient about a looming expanded tie-up between Cell C and MTN South Africa if the former isn’t going to go to the wall.
MTN Group’s interim financial results for the six months to June 2019 show that its South African business is under pressure as the result of new sector regulations and the weak economy.
The Competition Commission plans to engage with Icasa on the planned licensing of 4G/LTE and future 5G spectrum to ensure there is “not only universal coverage but also (affordable) access”.
On TalkCentral this week, Duncan McLeod and Regardt van der berg talk about government’s spectrum policy direction to communications regulator Icasa.
Released five years after Icasa tried to license access to the spectrum for broadband services, the final policy is not dissimilar to what the communications regulator originally intended.
Communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has asked Icasa to ensure that preferential access to spectrum is given to a new wholesale open-access network while opening the way for spectrum to be released to commercial operators.
Communications regulator Icasa has issued an invitation to apply for a tender to help it value high-demand spectrum bands ahead of a planned assignment of the valuable radio frequencies.
Vodacom reported a 1.2% year-on-year decline in service revenue in South Africa in the three months to end-June, with the company blaming new data regulations from Icasa and a switch in roaming partners.
The department of communications & digital technologies was meant to publish the policy direction on the assignment of broadband spectrum in South Africa last Friday, but failed to do so.