Fears that the licensing of the second national operator (SNO) will see delays similar to the three years it took to license Cell C in the mobile market have been renewed amid reports that President Thabo Mbeki has intervened in the process.
The Business Day reports today that Mbeki has interceded in a disagreement between the government`s Department of Communications and the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA).
ICASA believes that it is being asked to act outside its powers in adjudicating bids for the 19% of the SNO licence set aside for black empowerment players. Seven empowerment consortia last week submitted bids for the stake according to an invitation to apply issued by the Department of Communications.
A second invitation is to be issued later to foreign telecoms operators and their applications are to be judged in a separate process. The foreign operator will then combine with the chosen empowerment partner and State-owned enterprises Transtel and Esi-Tel to form the SNO.
But ICASA believes the legislation under which it operates does not allow it to consider bids for the empowerment stake in a separate process, but that it is required to choose a single bidder which is a combination of the empowerment and foreign operator elements. The regulator is apparently not processing the empowerment bids it has received until the matter is cleared up, although representatives could not be reached to confirm this.
The Department of Communications, however, is determined that the two adjudicating processes should be kept separate, and it is the resulting spat that has reportedly involved Mbeki. During the licensing of Cell C, the president also intervened in a dispute between the department and ICASA`s predecessor, the SA Telecommunications Regulation Authority.
The unresolved issue has caused concern among members of the empowerment consortia that have submitted bids, and spent millions in preparing the bids.
Eddie Funde, the president of the SA Communications Forum and a former SATRA councillor, is involved in OneTel`s bid, and says a decision to cancel the empowerment bids would be a mistake.
"It would really be a huge disaster and loss for us, in terms of the energy people have put into this as well as money, time and resources. It is hard work to put such a bid together."
Funde says he learnt of the dispute only when the OneTel bid was already being printed and is concerned that it only came to light at such a late date.
He also sees the decision to adjudicate the bids for empowerment and foreign partners separately as a good one, saying it allows the empowerment consortiums the freedom to put substantial plans forward.
It is not known what Mbeki`s position on the matter is.
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