Cell C\u2019s 45% owner Blue Label Telecoms has declined to reveal where the money would come from for the cellular operator to buy additional radio frequency spectrum this week.<\/p>\n
Spectrum is the raw network capacity operators use to communicate between their towers and mobile devices.<\/p>\n
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) is scheduled to begin the main stage of its spectrum auction on Thursday, 10 March 2022.<\/p>\n
With spectrum suited for cellular networks in such high demand, regulators worldwide use auctions to decide how frequencies should be assigned to operators.<\/p>\n
In South Africa, six networks signed up and qualified for Icasa\u2019s auction<\/strong><\/a>: Cell C, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, MTN, Rain, Telkom, and Vodacom.<\/p>\n At a minimum, the auction is expected to raise R8 billion for South Africa\u2019s fiscus.<\/p>\n Considering that the auction is likely to be expensive, this raises the question \u2014 how will Cell C pay for the spectrum, given that it has reported billions in losses<\/strong><\/a> nearly every year.<\/p>\n Blue Label joint CEO Brett Levy has assured that money would be available for Cell C to bid on the auction.<\/p>\n \u201cSpectrum itself has tremendous value inside any network,\u201d Levy stated.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere that money [to bid in the auction] comes from is too early for me to get into\u2026 But we are absolutely part of the auction and expecting to get our slice of the pie.\u201d<\/p>\n MyBroadband previously reported on industry speculation that Vodacom may fund Cell C\u2019s bid for spectrum<\/strong><\/a> during the auction.<\/p>\n Such a commitment from Vodacom would benefit both operators.<\/p>\n It would also put Vodacom in an excellent position to benefit from the new spectrum auction.<\/p>\n Vodacom already has managed network services and roaming agreements with Telkom, Rain, and Liquid Telecom. Adding Cell C to this list means it will have agreements with all the new spectrum applicants, except for MTN.<\/p>\n Its partnership with Rain provides a blueprint of how Vodacom can integrate Cell C\u2019s new spectrum into its network without regulatory problems.<\/p>\n If Vodacom and Cell C did indeed strike a deal involving Cell C\u2019s spectrum, they would need to keep it secret to avoid potential repercussions related to Icasa\u2019s rules.<\/p>\n Icasa has elected to forge ahead with its spectrum auction<\/strong><\/a> despite legal action from Telkom calling for the whole process to be declared invalid.<\/p>\n Telkom\u2019s concerns are manifold, but one of the most significant is that analogue TV broadcasts still occupy<\/strong><\/a> some of the spectrum being auctioned.<\/p>\n Communications minister Khumbudzo Nthsavheni recently declared that South Africa would finish its migration to digital terrestrial television and switch off its analogue TV signals<\/strong><\/a> on 31 March 2022.<\/p>\n Human settlements minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has accused the partially state-owned Telkom of holding South Africa to ransom<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n The Acting Judge President set the dates<\/strong><\/a> of the High Court showdown between Telkom and Icasa over the auction for 11\u201314 April 2022.<\/p>\n If Telkom wins, it will result in Icasa being forced back to the drawing board.<\/p>\n Ellipsis Regulatory Solutions founder Dominic Cull said this would delay the release of additional spectrum by at least 15\u201318 months.<\/p>\n Icasa is set to begin its spectrum auction tomorrow, with six major South African network operators keen on a slice of the pie. But how will Cell C pay?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":321205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1017,4064,355,35,18090],"class_list":["post-436442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecoms","tag-blue-label-telecoms","tag-brett-levy","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-independent-communications-authority-of-south-africa-icasa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436442"}],"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=436442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436446,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436442\/revisions\/436446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Secret spectrum deal<\/h3>\n
Court battle looms<\/h3>\n
\nNow read: South Africa is switching off analogue TV \u2014 final date announced<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"