The cabinet has decided to scrap government plans to license a wholesale open-access network in South Africa.
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The regulator is suspending expedited plans, at least temporarily, for licensing a wholesale open-access network.
Communications regulator Icasa has served notice on operators that it will withdraw temporary spectrum allocated under the Covid-19 regulations at the end of November. This is wrongheaded. By Duncan McLeod.
Government’s plan to create a wholesale open-access network “will serve no useful purpose” and could, in fact, harm consumers – the exact opposite of what it’s meant to achieve, the Free Market Foundation said.
As Icasa prepares to release the long-awaited invitation to apply this week for five broadband spectrum bands, a new research report has cautioned the authority to set realistic prices.
Communications regulator Icasa faces its biggest-ever test over the coming six months as it gears up to oversee South Africa’s first-ever auction of broadband telecommunications spectrum.
Could communications regulator Icasa miss its self-imposed deadline of licensing 4G- and 5G-suitable spectrum by the end of the year? There is now a real concern this could happen. By Duncan McLeod.
Icasa plans to issue an “information memorandum” before the end of the year on the licensing process for high-demand spectrum, finally kicking a process into gear that should have been concluded years ago.
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.