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ICASA completes licence conversions

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 16 Jan 2009

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) will hand out several sets of licences at its offices from today.

The hard-fought electronic communications network services licences (ECNS), the lesser-coveted electronic services licence (ECS) and the broadcasting services licences will be among the permits the authority will dish out.

ICASA says that, since most spectrum licences are renewed on an annual basis, they will not be re-distributed today. The exception being the spectrum licences with changed “obligations”. According to ICASA spokesman Sekgoela Sekgoela, only those licensees whose licence requirements have changed will know that they will need to go and collect them.

ICASA will not post any of the converted licences to applicants. Several companies are reportedly on their way to ICASA to collect their licences, including local telecoms business ECN, which hopes to be the first to take ownership of its credentials.

At last!

The most controversial of the licences to be handed out from today is the ECNS licence, for which local value-added network service providers (VANS) have fought an epic battle.

Last year, general in the battle, Allied Technologies (Altech) took the Department of Communications head-on in a drawn out court conflict. Communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Cassiburi tried to rein in the providers by enforcing her policy of “managed liberalisation” of the telecoms industry.

However, Altech prevailed, gaining all VANS the right to self-provide, or build their own network. The ECNS licence effectively allows them to do so. VANS celebrated the right, while industry watchers and analysts speculated whether smaller telecoms businesses would actually build anything at all.

The ECNS licence is also the first step to gaining another coveted telecoms technology, WiMax. Many of the VANS are hoping to be able to compete for WiMax spectrum, which ICASA says requires the network licence.

However, the ECNS licence is only the first step to acquiring the spectrum; companies will also have to prove a 51% black ownership rating to even participate in the expected WiMax auction.

Related stories:
BS deploys WiMax network
MWeb tests WiMax in Soweto
Neotel goes WiMax

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