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ICASA delays spectrum access until 2021

September 7, 2020

By Chris Forrester

South Africa’s much-delayed spectrum auction will see some progress by the end of September when regulator ICASA will issue two invitations to apply for interested parties.

ICASA says the spectrum will then be issued at the end of the regulator’s financial year (March 2021) which is a further 3 months later than the promised December 31st this year.

Vodacom, MTN and Telkom have expressed interest in acquiring more bandwidth, and had hoped to see the Invitations to Apply published by June 2020.

“The publication of the two ITAs shows the authority’s commitment to its plans of releasing spectrum in the 2020/2021 financial year,” ICASA said in its statement. “In light of the time lost as a result of the delay in the issuing of the ITAs, the auction of the high-demand spectrum, which was originally contemplated to take place during December 2020, will be completed by no later than 31 March 2021.”

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