At the top of the State of Disaster, which was declared in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full force, ICASA assigned temporary spectrum in a bid to alleviate the pressure faced by network operators.

That temporary spectrum has to be returned to ICASA by 30th November and Telkom is taking ICASA to court because of this.

Telkom’s argument is that giving the temporary spectrum back would disrupt services and harm its customers.

While ICASA has opted for mediation rather than litigation in recent months, this time it’s going to court to fight Telkom.

“ICASA believes that the circumstances and considerations that informed the issuing of the radio frequency spectrum at the onset of the pandemic never contemplated that the spectrum would be licensed on a long-term or semi-permanent basis,” the authority said in a statement sent to Hypertext.

“The Authority will therefore be derelict in its duty if it were, by default, to perpetuate what is now becoming an anti-competitive, unfair, and unjust spectrum licensing regime, under the guise of pandemic relief,” ICASA added.

Furthermore, ICASA says that high-demand spectrum must be licensed without delay as its in the public interest. Of course, ICASA is currently in the midst of a legal challenge regarding the invitation to apply for a spectrum auction of which Telkom is one of the complainants.

With that having been said, this is yet another hurdle for ICASA and long running issue of spectrum in South Africa.

As regards the permanent licensing of high-demand spectrum, ICASA hopes to have that process completed by March 2022. Given that we’ve heard that the issue will be resolved before “X” before, we aren’t holding our breath.

Once more into the fray we guess. One day we’ll have 5G and better connectivity, that day just isn’t today.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]