South Africa delays Digital Spectrum policy again
July 24, 2019
By Chris Forrester
It seemingly comes as no surprise to locals in South Africa that once again the country’s government has delayed publication of its long-awaited Digital Spectrum plan.
On June 20th, during his ‘state of the nation’ speech, the country’s president Cyril Ramaphosa promised the new policy covering unassigned high-demand spectrum would be published within 30 days. That promise failed to happen.
Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, South Africa’s minister of communications & digital technologies, said last Friday that the document was going through various processes prior to its publication. The minister has originally been expected to issue the plan to the nation’s ICASA regulator by the end of April, but that date was also missed.
The spectrum plan is needed in order that the nation’s telcos can start planning for 4G telephony, and eventually 5G adoption.
There has been no extension of spectrum for the country’s cellular operators for 14 years.