The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has announced that public hearings regarding the transfer of DFA licenses will take place on Tuesday.

These hearings come after DFA filed an application with ICASA in May. The firm applied to transfer ownership of its Individual Electronic Communications and Individual Electronic Communications Network Service to Business Venture Investments. In addition, DFA applied to have its Radio Frequency Spectrum Licence transferred to Vodacom.

The hearings are set to take place virtually via Microsoft Teams from 13:30 on Tuesday. The meeting can be joined via this link as provided by ICASA.

The transfer of the Individual Electronic Communications and Individual Electronic Communications Network Service is interesting to note as the new company that will acquire this license is the firm that Vodacom announced it was forming last year.

This firm – which was dubbed InfraCo – will be jointly owned by Community Investment Ventures Holdings and Vodacom. This new firm will – it has been said – “build high quality and resilient fixed and mobile networks with and through selected strategic partnerships across the African continent”.

However, there are fears that this new company would make it tougher to access wholesale infrastructure.

“Promised cash injections to advance the rollout of high-speed fibre in South Africa are to be welcomed, but ISPA is concerned about the ability of a traditional closed access culture to be successfully married to an historically open access, entrepreneurial-based culture,” the Internet Service Providers’ Association of South Africa said in April.