It was both a good and bad year for South African telecoms so far, and one of the pluses on the list was Cell C’s WiFi Calling, according to MyBroadband. Calling it a “great marketing initiative,” WiFi calling enables “a simple and cost efficient way to extend operator voice coverage and introduced a more affordable way to communicate when traveling abroad.”
Also this year was the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA)’s spectrum auction announcement, which MyBroadband called a “disruption,” countered by the interdict by Siyabonga Cwele, Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS) applying to the courts to halt the auction. ICASA has said that it is fighting the interim interdict and the case is yet to be decided upon. A positive fallout from the spectrum auction announcement was the approval of the National Integrated ICT Policy, which was “several years overdue.”
The minister, in a media statement/white paper, asked for “a consortium consisting of entities such as current holders of electronic communication services and electronic communication network licenses, infrastructure companies, private equity investors, SMMEs, internet service providers, over the top players and mobile virtual network operators,” which was met with mixed responses. ICASA’s CEO Col. Pakamile Pongwana said the proposals would “take South Africa back to 1994 when the country had one monopoly, and that creating it again makes no sense,” but his statement was later retracted.
A two-day symposium was held to discuss future legislation, and shortly after Cwele appointed new director general Robert Nkuna, a former ICASA councillor, replacing Rosey Sekese, who left earlier in 2016. MyBroadband said Nkuna’s two top orders of business will be to get DTPS working again and to make “sensible decisions” around a new, but “flawed” policy.
November 29, 2016
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