Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko has launched an extraordinary attack on national treasury’s discussion paper aimed at growing South Africa’s economy, accusing the department of tossing a grenade into the telecommunications sector.
Browsing: Icasa
In its policy paper published this week, national treasury devoted considerable space to the telecommunications sector. Though many of the proposals make sense, an anachronism stuck out. By Duncan McLeod.
Government’s planned wholesale open-access network should only get a small set-aside of radio frequency spectrum, with the rest auctioned off to commercial operators, national treasury has said.
Promoted | Mobile and fixed call rates alike should be lower than they were 10 years ago, due to voice deflation in South Africa.
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.