{"id":381402,"date":"2021-01-04T07:59:43","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T05:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=381402"},"modified":"2021-01-04T08:00:35","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T06:00:35","slug":"telkom-up-to-its-old-tricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/381402-telkom-up-to-its-old-tricks.html","title":{"rendered":"Telkom up to its old tricks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, Telkom launched a legal challenge<\/strong><\/a> against ICASA\u2019s planned spectrum auction, which will give operators valuable radio frequency spectrum for their 4G and 5G networks.<\/p>\n

Telkom argued that digital dividend spectrum is not currently commercially viable and that ICASA\u2019s plans have not taken the lack of competition in South Africa\u2019s cellular market into account.<\/p>\n

Telkom executive Siyabonga Mahlangu warned that if the spectrum licensing process were to continue as is, ICASA would mess up the industry for 20 years.<\/p>\n

The latest legal challenge is nothing new. Telkom has been using regulatory and legal challenges for the last 25 years to keep competition at bay.<\/p>\n

In 1997, for example, Telkom tried to stop competition in the Internet market by claiming that Internet services in South Africa\u2019s fall under its telecommunications monopoly.<\/p>\n

When the regulator (Satra) ruled that no single entity would have control over the country\u2019s Internet, Telkom approached the Pretoria High Court to challenge this ruling.<\/p>\n

Telkom was ultimately unsuccessful in claiming a monopoly on Internet services, but it then proceeded to engage in various anti-competitive activities in the Internet services market.<\/p>\n

The Competition Tribunal found that Telkom had leveraged its upstream monopoly in the facilities market to advantage its own subsidiary.<\/p>\n

Telkom admitted to excessive pricing and engaging in \u201cmargin squeezing\u201d against competitors, which resulted in a R200-million settlement agreement.<\/p>\n

It is now once again trying to keep competition at bay by preventing operators from getting more spectrum.<\/p>\n

Additional spectrum will make it easier for mobile networks to drop data prices and create a more competitive mobile data market.<\/p>\n

Telkom\u2019s main value proposition in the mobile market is lower data prices, and additional spectrum will erode this value proposition. It therefore wants to stop this from happening.<\/p>\n

Expert opinion<\/h3>\n

World Wide Worx CEO Arthur Goldstuck told eNCA that ICASA\u2019s spectrum allocation process document is far from flawless.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t truly open the way to competition, and it does not create an equal playing field either,\u201d Goldstuck told ENCA.<\/p>\n

\u201cTelkom does have a point that we will be stuck with this spectrum allocation for the next 20 or 30 years, so it should be carefully considered.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is, however, a problem. Telkom and the government have held back the broadband industry in South Africa for 25 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWanting to protect the next 20 years while ignoring the ills of the last 25 years is a little disingenuous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Goldstuck warned that while a revision of the current spectrum allocation process is possible, it could delay the handing out of spectrum for many years.<\/p>\n