South Africa is prioritizing a policy-review process that may result in Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX and other satellite-internet companies being allowed to operate in Africa\u2019s largest economy without ceding ownership, the nation\u2019s telecoms minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies is assessing 19,000 public submissions on a proposal to amend the nation\u2019s Black-economic empowerment regulations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The aim is to determine whether info-tech companies can operate in the country using equity-equivalent programs, instead of a 30% Black-ownership requirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are prioritizing it, you cannot sit on submissions\u201d Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi said in an interview in Johannesburg on Tuesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOnce done, and based on the sentiment, we can make a submission to Icasa to make the final decision,\u201d he said, referring to the regulatory Independent Communications Authority of South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The proposal to amend South Africa\u2019s empowerment regulations is being considered as Musk pushes for his Starlink internet services to be made available in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pretoria-born billionaire has refused to relinquish any equity in the business to comply with legislation that South Africa enacted to redress the economic imbalances wrought by apartheid \u2014 laws Musk has called \u201copenly racist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its submission to the department, SpaceX backed the proposal to amend the regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Satellite technologies that rely on a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites would be a potential game-changer for South African users who\u2019ve historically faced expensive or unreliable Internet options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only 1.7% of rural households have access to the Internet, according to a 2023 survey compiled by the nation\u2019s statistics agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An amendment to the industry rules would allow telecoms companies to invest in projects such as infrastructure, digital-inclusion initiatives or research that benefits previously disadvantaged communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That type of exemption is already standard for a number of industries, including the nation\u2019s auto sector. In 2019, car manufacturers \u2014 including\u00a0BMW AG<\/a>,\u00a0Ford Motor Co.<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Toyota Motor Corp.<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 established a fund that would bring disenfranchised groups into the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A preliminary assessment of the submissions suggests a favorable response to the proposal to amend the regulations, Malatsi said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Any policy amendment will apply to all industry players, including new entrants from Asia, the United Arab Emirates, or the US, as well as long-standing South African businesses such as MTN Group Ltd. and Vodacom Group Ltd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n South Africa\u2019s National Development Plan is targeting easy access to affordable broadband for 100% of the population by 2030. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The government would be naive not to embrace new technologies \u2014 and in particular satellite technologies \u2014 to increase South Africa\u2019s broadband connectivity, the minister said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" South Africa is prioritizing a policy-review process that may result in Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX and other satellite-internet companies being allowed to operate in Africa\u2019s largest economy without ceding ownership, the nation\u2019s telecoms minister said. The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies is assessing 19,000 public submissions on a proposal to amend the nation\u2019s Black-economic empowerment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":808876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1232,18089,18568],"class_list":["post-835524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-bee","tag-dtic","tag-starlink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835524","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=835524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835525,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835524\/revisions\/835525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}