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Communications regulator Icasa final week served discover on telecommunications operators that it could withdraw non permanent spectrum allotted beneath the Covid-19 rules on the finish of November. That is wrongheaded and can hurt shoppers.
Learn: MTN, Vodacom in race to settle SA spectrum dispute
On Monday, August 30, Icasa issued a media assertion saying it had prolonged the “grace interval” by an additional three months, till 30 November 2021, however that this is able to be the final time it did so and the operators that had utilized for and have been utilizing the extra spectrum throughout the pandemic must hand it again.
Icasa first licensed the spectrum on an emergency foundation throughout the arduous lockdown in 2020 after corporations have been pressured to ship their staff residence to work. Organisations pivoted in a single day, with tens of millions of South African workplace employees out of the blue establishing makeshift workstations in spare bedrooms, their kitchens or their dwelling rooms. These employees, till then utilizing devoted company (largely fibre) networks, out of the blue positioned monumental calls for on cell infrastructure as they dusted off information dongles or tethered their PCs to their smartphones. It’s outstanding that the entire train went off as easily because it did, with some corporations’ complete name centres transitioned and distributed virtually in a single day into staff’ houses.
The choice by the regulator to allocate unused non permanent spectrum throughout the lockdown was completely the best factor to do – it alleviated a number of the strain on the cell networks, particularly in suburban areas the place there was a sudden spike in demand. The operators have been in a position to make use of this emergency spectrum to service this demand and hold the financial system ticking over in a time of disaster.
In saying its plans to withdraw the spectrum final week, Icasa mentioned it had already “twice prolonged the length” of the project. “The authority has taken into consideration the present surroundings in relation to the variety of infections, the gradual reopening of the financial system and the regular progress within the vaccination programme. Extra importantly, it’s aware of the necessity to focus its efforts on the everlasting licensing of spectrum,” it mentioned.
‘State of permanence’
Icasa chairman Keabetswe Modimoeng added that the regulator “can’t enable the non permanent spectrum project to imagine a state of permanence. Having allowed operators to make use of the non permanent spectrum for 17 months, it’s affordable that they be allowed an additional three months, till 30 November 2021, as a enough winding-down interval.”
Besides there’s a drawback with this argument. The Covid-19 pandemic is much from over. On the present price of vaccination – and the apparently excessive ranges of resistance to taking the vaccine – there’s each probability that South Africa will expertise a fourth wave in late 2021 or early 2022, scientists and medical specialists have warned. By then, if an inadequate variety of individuals have been vaccinated, which appears doubtless, there’s no figuring out how huge the fourth wave might be. If it’s extreme and protracted, just like the third wave, authorities will tighten the lockdown as soon as once more, forcing individuals out of workplace buildings and again into their by-now-not-so-makeshift residence places of work. And as soon as once more they’ll be inserting increased calls for on cell infrastructure.
By taking again the spectrum assignments simply weeks earlier than a fourth wave is prone to emerge is unnecessary. Actually, if it insists on doing so, Icasa might be appearing towards its personal mandate, which is to manage in pursuits of the general public – of the shoppers of telecommunications companies. That absolutely can’t be the authority’s intention, however it could be the web results of the spectrum pullback choice.
Modimoeng on the weekend instructed broadcaster eNCA (watch the video above) that the allocation of non permanent spectrum has a “direct bearing on the competitors panorama” and warned, with out offering additional particulars or proof, that it’s “tilting” {the marketplace}. He mentioned Icasa had cautioned operators towards configuring their enterprise fashions across the non permanent assignments.
“Licensing spectrum briefly was a rare, unprecedented measure occasioned by an unprecedented scenario in our nation. We’re nonetheless within the pandemic, however in the present day we aren’t in the identical circumstances we have been in on 26 March final 12 months when the arduous lockdown started,” Modimoeng mentioned.
“We have to present as a regulator that we’re conscious of that change in surroundings whereas concurrently attempting all in our energy, day and evening, to resolve this deadlock so the licensing of high-demand spectrum — so an public sale — can happen.”
Starved of spectrum
What Modimoeng didn’t say within the eNCA interview was that these operators have been offering South Africans with entry to more and more speedy cell information regardless of not having the ability to faucet new spectrum sources for greater than 15 years. The final time South Africa awarded spectrum was for 3G companies. That we’ve 4G/LTE and (very restricted) 5G is an affidavit to the intelligent engineering groups on the cell operators which have been capable of reallocate 2G and 3G spectrum for extra fashionable applied sciences. Simply suppose: In the event that they’d been granted 4G spectrum a decade in the past – which is when it ought to have occurred – South African cell protection would in all probability be among the many greatest on the planet in the present day.
It’s largely not Icasa’s fault that the spectrum hasn’t been assigned but – a lot of the blame for that needs to be shouldered by former communications ministers, whose bungling and ineptitude has price South Africa dearly. Broadcasters eMedia Holdings and MultiChoice Group additionally must shoulder a number of the blame for his or her unseemly squabbling that delayed the printed digital migration programme, which suggests South Africa nonetheless hasn’t switched off analogue tv.
As a substitute of taking a tough line now, Icasa should be pragmatic in regards to the scenario, realising that if it takes away this non permanent lifeline earlier than the deliberate spectrum public sale occurs – hopefully later this 12 months – shoppers might be hardest hit. Information costs, which have tumbled this 12 months, could go up once more; Web speeds will definitely go down in areas of congestion. This can’t be the end result the regulator desires, nevertheless it’s the end result it dangers getting.
The number-one precedence proper now should be reaching an out-of-court settlement with Telkom, eMedia Holdings and MTN South Africa, the three litigants which have taken the spectrum public sale course of on evaluate. I hear good progress has been made, although there are nonetheless a few sticking factors. By way of the courtroom course of, the events have till mid-September to achieve settlement. For the sake of South Africa’s improvement, it could be disastrous if they don’t.
South Africa can’t go backwards now. As a substitute of threatening to withdraw the non permanent spectrum – presumably a negotiating tactic to get the combatants to settlement, although I’m instructed it’s not – Icasa ought to prolong it till such time because the spectrum public sale can happen.
Icasa is correct that extending it in perpetuity is just not splendid. However as a substitute of punishing shoppers – and buyers – by withdrawing the spectrum now, Icasa should direct all its energies to reaching an amicable settlement that avoids a protracted authorized dispute by means of the courtroom system, which may take years.
Such an final result can be horrible for the sector, for shoppers and for the South African financial system. And any of the businesses celebration to the negotiations which might be too inflexible of their method – and usually are not keen to concede key factors within the nationwide curiosity – must be criticised severely. Now – and I’m addressing this on to Telkom, eMedia and MTN – is just not the time for slender self-interest.
Duncan McLeod is Editor of TechCentral, on which this text was first revealed right here.
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