Telkom's mobile arm, 8ta, is at a “severe spectrum disadvantage” and is struggling to gain traction in the market.
Telkom was responding to the Independent Communication Authority of SA's (ICASA's) request for comments on its December draft spectrum plan for high-demand frequency. ICASA yesterday withdrew the invitation to make sure the communication department's policy directive is taken into account.
In its submission to ICASA, Telkom says the regulator should not seek to introduce more competition in the market. “Telkom's view is that with four mobile operators in the South African market, there are a sufficient number of infrastructure players.”
Telkom argues that, instead, ICASA should strengthen the competitive dynamics in the market, “especially the new entrant 8ta”, which is “struggling to gain traction in the market due to its higher cost and spectrum limitations”.
8ta, which launched in October 2010, had 1.14 million active subscribers at the end of September 2011.
The fixed-line operator notes that the regulator's ultimate objective in assigning spectrum is to level the playing field to strengthen competition. It argues this “does not mean that all operators need to be treated equally”.
“8ta is at a severe spectrum disadvantage relative to the more established mobile operators. Telkom contends that there is a critical need to rebalance spectrum assignments and create a level playing field for national mobile operators in relation to spectrum assignments below 1GHz.”
Telkom says it or 8ta should be assigned two blocks of 20MHz in the digital dividend band directly by ICASA. Failing which, it says there should be a hybrid beauty contest in combination with an auction.
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