Irrational justifications for eccentric decisions have been a hallmark of the government’s response to Covid. The alcohol bans, the freeze on e-commerce during lockdown and the continued enforcement of a curfew are some of the lowlights.
Now the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) has decided to withdraw the temporary spectrum from the mobile industry, marking a new low in pettiness.
Icasa is often maligned for decisions that are not its fault — it merely implements what the government has ruled that it must. But in this instance, the blundering is of its own making.
At the beginning of the lockdown, in no small part to compensate for the failure to allocate any new spectrum in 14 years, Icasa released blocks of these crucial radio frequencies to desperate mobile operators.
The word "temporary" seemed to deter some operators from taking up the offer, including Cell C and Rain. But the other networks gleefully took what they could.
In the absence of the new frequencies they need — and because the government did not meet the June 2015 deadline to switch off the so-called digital dividend 700MHz and 800MHz frequencies used for old-fashioned TV signals — operators have had to refarm their existing frequencies. It’s obviously not operationally optimal, nor is it cheap to do.
The ANC, stuck in its 1970s socialist thinking, is prone to imposing unhelpful measures
While a series of incompetent communications ministers wasted years trying to redirect a contract for the 5-million set-top boxes to the Guptas, the TV signals have remained in use by the TV channels — at least one of which, eMedia, is suing the government to stop those frequencies being auctioned off next year. It appears as if e.tv might be the most affected because of the ANC’s dithering.
When Icasa announced it was finally holding an auction for spectrum in March 2021, it bizarrely tried to impose convoluted conditions such as who could bid first and for which frequency ranges — prompting court action that has pushed this auction to March 2022 at the earliest.
There are several legal actions on the go. Telkom is suing Icasa to stop the temporary spectrum being taken back. It has been joined by Vodacom and MTN. Data-only network Rain is siding with Icasa.
Any world-weary observer of the SA telecoms industry can see further delays coming. Icasa should know better. It is the regulator. Its job is to oversee this fractious industry and its competing commercial interests.
And the ANC government, stuck in its 1970s socialist thinking, is prone to imposing unhelpful measures to regulate competition — like it did when it banned most e-commerce during the lockdown.
If there were ever a bona-fide reason to let the market sift the wheat from the chaff, this is it. Consumers just want cheaper, better broadband. Stop trying to rewrite human nature and physics and just license the spectrum already. Please.
Shapshak is editor-in-chief of Stuff Studios and publisher of Scrolla.Africa
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