{"id":276967,"date":"2018-10-12T06:47:27","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T04:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=276967"},"modified":"2018-10-12T06:47:27","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T04:47:27","slug":"south-africa-to-start-4g-spectrum-auction-by-april-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/276967\/south-africa-to-start-4g-spectrum-auction-by-april-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa to start 4G spectrum auction by April 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa will hold a long-delayed auction of 4G mobile spectrum by April as the government seeks to extend high-speed internet to a greater portion of Africa\u2019s most industrialized economy, said Telecommunications Minister Siyabonga Cwele.<\/p>\n

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The sale is likely to attract interest from wireless carriers including Vodacom Group Ltd and MTN Group Ltd, which have long bemoaned a lack of opportunities to expand services.<\/p>\n

An auction was delayed in previous years by a dispute between the government and the industry regulator over how to proceed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe auction next year will ensure continued investment by the operators, who invest R25 billion ($1.7 billion) a year,\u201d Cwele said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA block of spectrum will also be made available for new entrants into the sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spectrum auction could help reduce prices, the minister said. It would follow two years of policy uncertainty that made investors reluctant to put cash into the industry, Vodacom chief executive officer Shameel Joosub said at a conference in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

Vodacom\u2019s shares have declined 18% this year, compared with a 12% fall on the FTSE\/JSE Africa Top40 Index.<\/p>\n

The government will go on to offer 5G licenses by 2020, Cwele said.<\/p>\n

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Read: Government wants to put a cap on the price of unleaded fuel: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa will hold a long-delayed auction of 4G mobile spectrum by April as the government seeks to extend high-speed internet to a greater portion of Africa\u2019s most industrialized economy, said Telecommunications Minister Siyabonga Cwele.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":84165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[26,28,27],"class_list":["post-276967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276977,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276967\/revisions\/276977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}