Legislation: Spectrum allocation to facilitate universal access?

The spectrum licensing process ‘must ensure not only universal coverage but also access, which requires a level of universal affordability and not just technical availability’. This, notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch, was the thrust of a media statement issued on Friday by the Competition Commission following the publication of government’s long-awaited policy on high-demand radio frequency spectrum. Among other things, the policy document gives direction to the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) on creating a wireless open access network. ‘At a time when public finances are under such pressure, it is tempting to try (to) maximise revenues by simply auctioning spectrum to the highest bidder,’ the statement noted – cautioning against ‘such short-term thinking’. The commission believes this ‘would deny SA a unique opportunity to bring about lower data costs both now and in the future’.

In the commission’s view, as a ‘scarce national resource’, high-demand spectrum should be allocated in a manner ‘ultimately benefiting’ the country’s ordinary citizens. To that end, allocations may need to ‘include obligations to ensure affordable data prices immediately’; take account of ‘how relative allocations between operators may shape competition going forward into new generation networks such as 5G’; and include ‘measures to ensure the commercial and competitive success of the wireless open access network, avoiding some of the difficulties faced by other late entrants’. The statement also noted the importance of subjecting the new network to ‘appropriate regulatory oversight’.

The new policy has yet to be posted either on the Department of Telecommunications & Postal Services website or that of the Department of Communications. Nor is it available on the main government website. While Communication & Digital Technologies Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has not issued an official statement on the policy and its implications, according to TechCentral she has ‘asked’ Icasa to give the wireless open access network ‘preferential access to spectrum’ with the aim of increasing competition in SA’s mobile telecommunications market. This is noting that the network should be owned by a diverse, demographically representative ‘consortium of persons’, at least 70% of whom should be South African.

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