{"id":101202,"date":"2014-04-24T15:37:51","date_gmt":"2014-04-24T13:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=101202"},"modified":"2014-04-24T17:04:28","modified_gmt":"2014-04-24T15:04:28","slug":"iburst-network-safe-from-icasa-wbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wireless\/101202-iburst-network-safe-from-icasa-wbs.html","title":{"rendered":"iBurst network safe from Icasa: WBS"},"content":{"rendered":"

The networking equipment of Wireless Business Solutions (WBS<\/a>) – which operates iBurst<\/a> – is not in danger of being confiscated by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa<\/a>) again, a company spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The feedback echoed an earlier statement from the WBS CEO, Thami Mtshali<\/a>, following a judgement handed down by the Johannesburg High Court that found that Icasa\u2019s seizure of WBS networking equipment was legal.<\/p>\n

WBS said in a statement on Tuesday, 22 April 2014, that it would appeal the judgement.<\/p>\n

Icasa confiscated the equipment of WBS\/iBurst in 6 different data centres on Wednesday, 3 April 2013, saying that it had adopted a hard-line approach to non-payment<\/a> of radio frequency license fees.<\/p>\n

However, at the time, WBS said that it was still in the middle of negotiations with Icasa regarding its outstanding fees and had not even received a proper invoice from the regulator before it attached its assets.<\/p>\n

This lack of accurate bills for outstanding spectrum and licensing fees from Icasa is a widespread concern in South Africa\u2019s telecommunications sector, industry insiders have said.<\/p>\n

Icasa\u2019s seizure of WBS\/iBurst\u2019s networking equipment caused some panic in the industry, with a number of operators worried that the regulator might try to take down their equipment in the middle of a fee dispute or negotiation.<\/p>\n

Following the seizure, WBS obtained an interdict<\/a> to force Icasa to return its equipment and prevent the regulator from further interfering with the provisioning of WBS\u2019s services.<\/p>\n

This interdict, dated 5 April 2013, remains in force for a period to allow WBS to launch an appeal to the High Court ruling which found in favour of Icasa, Mtshali said.<\/p>\n

He added that he hopes the dispute can be solved speedily and guaranteed that WBS business will continue as usual.<\/p>\n

WBS will also continue to pursue \u201ca more amicable and lasting solution\u201d to its dispute with Icasa, the network operator said in its statement.<\/p>\n

More on the iBurst-Icasa saga<\/h3>\n

iBurst vs ICASA battle continues<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

iBurst network damage: photos and cost<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

iBurst wins court interdict against ICASA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

ICASA breaks silence on iBurst equipment seizure<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although the High Court has ruled that Icasa\u2019s seizure of iBurst equipment last year was lawful, WBS says no further disruptions are expected<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":74723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[35,683,18090,8975,19242],"class_list":["post-101202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wireless","tag-headline","tag-iburst","tag-independent-communications-authority-of-south-africa-icasa","tag-thami-mtshali","tag-wireless-business-solutions-wbs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101202"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101216,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101202\/revisions\/101216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}