A High Court ruling from 2020 that the judge marked as unremarkable may explain why Cell C must transfer control of its network and spectrum licences, but Vodacom and Liquid don’t have to.
According to the notice, Cell C applied to transfer control of its network , service , and spectrum licences to The Prepaid Company, a subsidiary of Blue Label Telecoms and Cell C ’s largest shareholder.
Blue Label and Cell C have repeatedly assured that this was not the case and that they were merely complying with the law. Blue Label’s voting power is currently capped at 49.53% until it gets approval from Icasa and the Competition Commission for the change of controlling shareholding. Cell C explained that this was because the Electronic Communications Act was amended in 2014 to differentiate between ownership and control of a licence:
Regardless of whose name is on the licence, should Liquid’s majority shareholder change in the future, it would also have to lodge a transfer of control application. “It is in my view clear, given the context also, that the prohibition is not only against the transfer of a license itself, but also the change of control of an entity to which a licence has been granted,” Fabricius ruled.
Electronic Communications Act (ECA) Ellipsis Hans Fabricius Headline Individual Electronic Communications Network Servi Individual Electronic Communications Service Licen Cellular
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