Legislation: Spectrum, Woan policy direction gazetted

Government’s long-awaited policy on high-demand radio frequency spectrum was gazetted late on Friday, providing direction at last on the licensing of a wireless open access network. Pam Saxby, writing for Legalbrief Policy Watch, says according to TechCentral, Communications & Digital Technologies Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has ‘asked’ the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) to give the network ‘preferential access to spectrum’ with the aim of increasing competition in SA’s mobile telecommunications market. This is noting that it should be owned by a diverse, demographically representative ‘consortium of persons’, at least 70% of whom should be South African.

While not all ‘additional available spectrum’ will be assigned to the network, allocations to any ‘incumbent operator’ will come with strings attached. These include leasing electronic communication networks and facilities to other licensees and the network on request; providing such licensees with ‘wholesale capacity’ from newly assigned spectrum; buying ‘capacity’ from the network; complying with universal access and service obligations to rural and under-serviced areas before using newly assigned spectrum elsewhere; and complying with broad-based black economic empowerment requirements. No single entity may control any additional spectrum assigned to an incumbent operator.

There appears to be a link between the new policy direction and proposed amendments to Annexure B of the 2015 radio frequency spectrum regulations, which were gazetted last Tuesday. Dated 26 July, Icasa's statement on the changes envisaged simply notes that the decision to amend the annexure was prompted ‘mainly’ by the need to ‘encourage investment and innovation in the ICT sector’ and ‘promote adoption of (the) latest technological gadgets’ operating in the licence-free radio frequency spectrum bands on a zero-protection-from-interference basis. 

Follow Pam Saxby on Twitter (@SaxbyPam)