Government wants to block R12 billion spectrum auction

·26 Jul 2016

The Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Siyabonga Cwele, plans to take legal action to review the actions of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) with regards to its plan to auction spectrum.

Cwele said he has studied the Invitation To Apply (ITA) issued by ICASA on 15 July to auction the high-demand radio frequency spectrum.

The Minister’s decision to take legal action follows two meetings held with the regulator on 15 and 19 July 2016 that failed to resolve the matter.

“ICASA was furthermore not prepared to subject itself to the intergovernmental cooperation governance procedures,” said Cwele.

The position of the government is that it is the custodian of spectrum, which is a national and public resource, and whose utilisation must benefit all the people of South Africa.

“There is presently no policy direction on spectrum that has been issued. The policy process is ongoing but as yet still incomplete.”

He said ICASA has failed to adhere to the prescripts of the relevant policies, legislation, and regulations.

“In addition, a request to ICASA by Government in September 2015 to halt this process after they published the Information Memorandum for International Mobile Telecommunications was ignored,” said Cwele.

The Minister is concerned that ICASA’s invitation to apply for the auction was issued without consultation and prior notification to the government.

A further concern is “the haste with which ICASA is proceeding to dispose of the spectrum”, given that this spectrum will not be immediately available.

“The Minister is acting in good faith to ensure that interested parties who may wish to respond to ICASA’s ITA do not act precipitously by engaging in a process which may ultimately be found to be invalid and therefore suffer unintended consequences as a result thereof,” the department said