South Africa’s telecommunications operators needs future spectrum public sale proceeds reinvested in digital infrastructure, citing the heavy invoice that operators proceed to hold from 2022.
The Affiliation of Comms & Know-how (ACT) – an business physique whose members embody South Africa’s greatest community operators – needs cash raised within the nation’s subsequent spectrum public sale reinvested within the ICT sector slightly than disappearing into the nationwide fiscus, arguing the present mannequin dangers ravenous the very business it depends upon.
“Spectrum public sale funds and spectrum charges paid by operators ought to ideally be reinvested into digital infrastructure improvement, broadband growth, rural connectivity and initiatives geared toward bridging the digital divide,” ACT CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi has instructed TechCentral.
Batyi stated redirecting spectrum income away from the ICT sector “could cut back the business’s means to speed up infrastructure deployment” and referred to as for mechanisms to make sure such revenues contribute meaningfully to the event of the digital financial system.
The intervention comes forward of communications regulator Icasa’s subsequent main spectrum public sale, earmarked for the 2026/2027 monetary 12 months, which ends in March 2027. The bands anticipated to go below the hammer embody 750MHz, 800MHz, 1.5GHz, 2.3GHz, 3.3GHz and three.5GHz.
Icasa’s final sale, in March 2022, raised R14.4-billion for nationwide treasury, properly above the R8-billion the regulator had projected. Vodacom paid R5.4-billion and MTN R5.2-billion for mid-band spectrum appropriate for 5G, whereas Telkom, Rain, Liquid Clever Applied sciences and Cell C additionally took up assignments.
Heavier invoice
However Batyi argued the headline quantity masks a heavier invoice that operators proceed to hold. “The implementation price related to licence obligations can, in some circumstances, exceed the price of the spectrum itself,” she stated.
That monetary stress has already produced a high-profile casualty. Cell C acquired 10MHz of bandwidth at 3.5GHz on the 2022 public sale at a worth of R288-million however, citing liquidity constraints, couldn’t settle the invoice. After a fee association with Icasa fell by way of, the operator surrendered the spectrum in 2024, and the regulator can now relicense it to a different participant.
Learn: Why the spectrum gold rush could quickly be over
Cell C’s troubles, set in opposition to the multibillion-rand cheques written by Vodacom and MTN, illustrate ACT’s broader concern: that once-off, lump-sum funds place “appreciable monetary stress on the sector and will cut back the capital out there for community funding and infrastructure roll-out”.
ACT needs future processes to contemplate phased fee buildings, permitting operators to prioritise roll-out commitments whereas nonetheless assembly their obligations to the regulator and the state.
Batyi additionally flagged that a number of 2022 obligations, together with protection roll-out, cell digital community operator internet hosting and the zero-rating of public profit content material, have been neither adequately costed nor sufficiently consulted on on the design stage. In some cases, she stated, beneficiaries of these obligations weren’t engaged earlier than the principles have been set.
ACT’s pitch comes at a second when the worldwide mannequin of promoting unique spectrum rights to the very best bidder is itself below overview.
Talking on the Wi-fi Entry Suppliers’ Affiliation’s Wapaloza convention in Johannesburg in June final 12 months, Disruptive Evaluation founder Dean Bubley instructed delegates that spectrum sharing was on monitor to develop into the default licensing mechanism, notably with 6G on the horizon.
“There may be extra demand than there may be provide of spectrum, which suggests sharing goes to develop into extra vital,” Bubley stated. “The thought of unique licences, or new licences for cell community operators, is getting in direction of the tip of the street.”
Dynamic Spectrum Alliance president Martha Suarez, additionally talking at Wapaloza, stated sharing fashions didn’t ship the identical upfront windfalls that auctions do however tended to supply bigger social and financial dividends over time.
“It’s generally accepted that spectrum is a public useful resource that’s managed by authorities or by regulators to take advantage of environment friendly use of it. We had a time – one which now’s passing – the place spectrum was seen as a supply of earnings,” Suarez stated.
‘Digital inclusion’
She warned that treating spectrum primarily as a income line was at odds with coverage targets of digital inclusion.
That’s primarily the argument ACT is now making to Icasa as the following public sale approaches. Batyi stated the regulator’s main goal shouldn’t be income maximisation, however making certain spectrum project helps funding, protection, affordability, competitors and “long-term digital inclusion”.
Learn: Cell C surrenders spectrum licences to Icasa
Whether or not nationwide treasury, which banked the majority of the 2022 windfall, sees it the identical manner is one other matter. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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