Vodacom South Africa is taking legal action against MTN South Africa, Cell C, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) over alleged illegal and secret spectrum pooling arrangements. Vodacom claims these agreements give MTN an unfair advantage in network speed and quality, seeking an interdict to halt the arrangements until the legality of the agreements is decided.
from South Africa’s largest mobile operators, including Vodacom , MTN, Cell C and Liquid Intelligent Technologies, as well as communications regulator Icasa , are facing off in the high court on Thursday as the first part of a controversial spectrum pooling case kicks off.
Vodacom South Africa last year filed papers against MTN South Africa, Cell C, Liquid and Icasa claiming the regulator had illegally and secretly approved spectrum pooling arrangements between MTN and Cell C, as well as between MTN and Liquid. These agreements, Vodacom has claimed, led to MTN’s superior performance in network speed and quality tests and put it at an unfair disadvantage.
“What is at issue in this application is the approval by the first respondent of the ‘pooling’ of high-demand spectrum between MTN, Cell C and Liquid, in secret, in a manner contrary to the requirements of the Electronic Communications Act, and unlawful in other respects,” said Andrew Barendse, managing executive for regulatory affairs at Vodacom South Africa, in a founding affidavit.
According to Barendse’s affidavit, Vodacom became suspicious of MTN’s advantage in network speed-test results after an analysis of several independent tests – including byThe “only plausible explanation”, given the two companies have similar site allocations and radio access network equipment, has to lie in spectrum utilisation, Barendse said.
SPECTRUM POOLING MOBILE OPERATORS LEGAL DISPUTE ICASA Vodacom
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