Communications minister Solly Malatsi has formally withdrawn the reservation of high-demand spectrum for a wireless open-access network, more than four years after cabinet moved to scrap the scheme, leaving the regulator, Icasa, free to license frequencies that have sat idle since.
The amendment to the 2019 policy on high-demand spectrum was published in Government Gazette on Friday and took effect immediately, the department of communications & digital technologies said. It also withdraws the policy direction that instructed the regulator to license the wholesale network, known as the Woan.
“Spectrum that sits unassigned is not neutral,” Malatsi said. “Every year it remains unused is a year of coverage not extended, congestion not relieved and investment not made.”
“This amendment removes an obstacle. The decisions about how and to whom this spectrum is licensed are for the regulator, and they remain entirely with the regulator.”
A draft amendment withdrawing the reservation was published for public comment in March 2022 but was never finalised, the department said. That settles a question TechCentral raised in July, when it was unclear from the public record whether the 2022 amendments had ever been completed.
The uncertainty had already spilt into Icasa’s planning. The regulator’s International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) Roadmap 2026, gazetted on 24 July, declined to discuss the Woan at all, citing uncertainties that included its absence from Malatsi’s policy direction of 13 March 2026.
Attempt to force competition
The department’s statement does not say which frequencies, or how much spectrum, are now available. In its submissions on the road map, Cell C described the remaining set-aside as 2x10MHz in the 700MHz band and 1x30MHz at 2.6GHz, or 50MHz in total. Icasa’s tables do not label any spectrum as Woan spectrum, but they show unassigned blocks matching those: 20MHz of the 60MHz identified for mobile use at 700MHz, and 30MHz of the 190MHz identified at 2.6GHz.
The Woan was government’s attempt to force competition into the mobile market by creating a wholesale operator from which internet service providers could buy capacity. Icasa set spectrum aside for it in 2020 – a package that then included 30MHz at 2.6GHz and 30MHz at 3.5GHz – and obliged successful auction bidders to collectively procure at least 30% of national capacity from the Woan for seven years once it was operational. The department’s statement does not address what becomes of that obligation.
Icasa suspended the Woan licensing timetable in November 2021, saying the spectrum would remain set aside. Cabinet’s approval of the draft amendments for public comment in March 2022 was widely read as the end of the scheme, but in the absence of a final notice, the set-aside stayed on the books.
Operators have argued for its release. MTN argued against continuing to set aside high-demand spectrum for the Woan, citing the failure of similar models internationally, and urged Icasa to release unused spectrum for commercial deployment. Vodacom said set-asides reduce competition, artificially limit participation and risk spectrum being underused. The SA Communications Forum proposed licensing the set-aside on a temporary basis.
Malatsi’s party, the DA, said in July 2024, shortly after his appointment, that spectrum set aside for the Woan should be licensed as soon as possible.
Wholesale obligations stay
The policy objectives governing the assignment of high-demand spectrum are retained, the department said. They include the obligation on licensees to lease networks and facilities and provide wholesale capacity to other licensees, subject to Icasa’s oversight; universal access and service obligations in rural and underserved areas; the prohibition on any single entity controlling the spectrum; and empowerment requirements.
The amendment also leaves intact a separate requirement, under the Next Generation Radio Frequency Spectrum Policy for Economic Development of 2024, for Icasa to set aside spectrum for the State Digital Infrastructure Company (SDIC). Cell C had asked Icasa whether the Woan spectrum would go to the SDIC.
That entity does not yet exist. The merger of Sentech and Broadband Infraco to create it, approved by cabinet in December 2017, has slipped to the 2028/2029 financial year in the department’s latest annual performance plan. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
