Johannesburg – Telkom is considering taking legal action against the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) after allegedly failing to promote competition in the awarding of high-demand spectrum.
Telkom chief executive Sipho Maseko told a media briefing of the company’s interim financial results on Monday that the group has instructed its legal team to consider and advise on its options given that the Invitation to Apply (ITA) disregarded or had given insufficient weight to the promotion of competition as a material consideration in the licensing of high-demand spectrum .
“Whatever action we take will be designed to ensure that there is regulatory certainty, there is fairness, there is lawfulness and also there is the speedy licensing of the high demand spectrum. It cannot be done on an unfair basis, because that increases the level of uncertainty for everybody,” said Maseko.
Icasa, last month, published the ITA for the International Mobile Telecommunications, also known as high-demand spectrum was critical to ensure good-quality broadband services and lower the cost of communication particularly data.
Maseko said although Telkom was planning to participate in the ITA, it should not be construed as tacit agreement to it. He said competition in the mobile sector was ineffective.
“The licensing spectrum is one of the most potent tools in the hands of the regulator to reset the imbalance in market structure and promote competition,” Maseko said.
“We believe that Icasa as the regulator missed the opportunity to use the licensing of spectrum to address the monopolistic nature of the market. In fact, we think they have mistakenly defined spectrum as a market instead of defining it as an input.”
