Icasa has forged ahead with plans to speed up the local roll-out of 5G infrastructure despite Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams’ earlier hesitation
The Independent Communications Authority of SA has forged ahead with plans to speed up the local roll-out of 5G infrastructure despite Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams’ earlier hesitation.
Although Icasa reports to the communications department, it is a chapter 9 institution and therefore functions as an independent body. On Wednesday, at his medium-term budget policy statement, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni raised the alarm that the country is falling behind in the 5G race, adding that an acceleration of spectrum licensing and a move towards 5G would “make it easier to do business”.
Previous delays in the roll-out of spectrum needed for 4G drove up the costs of operations for the existing network operators. Where spectrum is unassigned, government lost billions of rands in revenue that could have been derived from lease fees and licence fees, among other losses. She added that the spectrum licensing “will benefit the people of South Africa through increased competition, transformation of the sector and a lower cost to communicate”.The regulator warned, however, that “all the bands to be identified at the ongoing World Radiocommunication Conference are not part of this licensing process.
Since March, Keabetswe Modimoeng has been acting as Icasa council chairperson after former chairperson Rubben Mohlaloga was axed following his fraud conviction.
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