Ramaphosa weighs in on 5G spectrum court battle warns against delays

President Cyril Ramaphosa has weighed in, albeit briefly, on the ongoing legal drama between the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) and several telecommunications companies over the fairness of the spectrum allocation process. Ramaphosa made mention of the contentious matter during his much-criticised State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Thursday, 11 February.

RAMAPHOSA HOPEFUL SPECTRUM CLASH WILL BE RESOLVED

Ramaphosa did not spend much time speaking on the ongoing court drama ahead of the auction – which is meant to take place no later than 31 March 2021 – only informing citizens in his address the process is at an advanced stage and the government is hopeful the court battles between Icasa and MTN/Telkom will “provide legal certainty and not unduly delay the spectrum auction process”.

SO HOW DOES THIS SPECTRUM ALLOCATION PROCESS AFFECT DATA PRICES?

South Africans have long complained about the high cost of data in the country and mobile networks have attributed the cost to a years long delay in spectrum allocation by the South African government. Spectrum refers to the radio frequencies used for communication over airwaves by radio, television and the mobile telephone industry.

TELKOM AND MTN ACCUSE ICASA OF BULLYING

MTN, Telkom and broadcaster Etv are all in court challenging the fairness of the spectrum allocation process. Icasa is meant to auction available spectrum in the 700MHz, 800MHz, 2.6GHz and 3.5GHz bands to six telecommunications companies next month. They include MTN, Vodacom, Rain, Telkom and Cell C amongst others.

According to Tech Central Telkom was the first to object to the process in late 2020, arguing that Icasa issued Invitations To Apply knowing that the 700MHz and 800MHz bands which are the “digital dividend bands used by analogue television broadcasters – were not yet available for use by telecoms operators”. Telkom maintained that this prejudiced them in the process.

MTN later launched its own legal action maintaining the Invitation To Appy had created a scheme which prejudiced MTN and Vodacom.

“Given 3 500MHz scarcity and the bias of the existing assignments towards Tier-2 operators, 5G spectrum should be awarded on a level playing field across the industry. The Opt-In scheme creates a playing field that is uneven,” said MTN in the founding affidavit.