ICASA has delayed its plans to auction high-demand spectrum.<\/p>\n
“This is just a shift of the timeframe for the award process in respect of the ITA,” ICASA told MyBroadband.<\/p>\n
“This is mainly due to the ongoing court process on the same matter. Depending on the outcomes…\u00a0ICASA will communicate the process moving forward.”<\/p>\n
Published in the Government Gazette on 9 February 2017, ICASA’s notice on the subject was succinct.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Authority hereby defers, until further notice, the Timeframe for the award process published in Government Gazette number 40301 (Notice number 618 of 2016).”<\/p>\n
ICASA refers to a gazette published on 23 September 2016<\/strong><\/a> in which it amended its original invitation to apply (ITA) for the spectrum, extending the deadlines and relaxing the BEE requirements.<\/p>\n The ITA aimed to assign chunks of spectrum<\/strong><\/a> in the 700MHz, 800MHz, and 2,600MHz bands, which it had grouped into four lots.<\/p>\n The Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Siyabonga Cwele, was unhappy with the ITA and sought an interdict<\/strong><\/a> to block ICASA from proceeding.<\/p>\n Cwele received the interdict<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and the court ruled<\/strong><\/a> that ICASA cannot migrate the current non-mobile users in the frequency bands in question without the minister\u2019s participation.<\/p>\n During this fight, cabinet approved the National Integrated Information Communication Technology (ICT) Policy White Paper<\/strong><\/a>, which laid out controversial plans for South Africa.<\/p>\n The policy suggested that South Africa would build a single wireless open access network<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>the possibility of taking back spectrum assigned to mobile operators<\/strong><\/a> for use in the open access network.<\/p>\n Cwele has since said it is not their intention<\/strong><\/a> \u201cto expropriate private property and the investment which has been made by private companies\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe absolutely have got no such intention and this matter was debated at length at cabinet, and we all recognise that we cannot expropriate by default,\u201d said Cwele.<\/p>\n \u201cAll we want to do is that: let\u2019s share our networks. Where we can share, let\u2019s share.”<\/p>\n Cwele said he is open to discussion and clarification, \u201cbecause the aim is not to squeeze out our companies out of the spectrum\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSpectrum is the oxygen of the mobile operators. But we must do it in a manner that will not discriminate others who want to participate in this industry.”<\/p>\n The assignment of high-demand spectrum ideal for 4G networks has been put on hold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":143188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,18668],"tags":[35,18090,39741,6781,4490,4492,39156],"class_list":["post-198266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","category-government","tag-headline","tag-independent-communications-authority-of-south-africa-icasa","tag-national-integrated-information-communication-technology-ict-policy-white-paper","tag-siyabonga-cwele","tag-spectrum","tag-spectrum-auctions","tag-wireless-open-access-network"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198266"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198278,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198266\/revisions\/198278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why the Minister opposed the ITA<\/h3>\n
Now read: Cell C wants Vodacom and MTN to give back spectrum<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"