All six businesses that have bid to participate in next month 's radio frequency spectrum auction for mobile broadband services have been reviewed and certified by Icasa, the communications regulator in South Africa.
Despite Telkom existing litigation challenging the regulatory mechanism for licensing the spectrum, Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell C, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, and Rain have all qualified to participate in the auction, which Icasa expects to hold next month.
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On December 10, 2021, Icasa issued a modified invitation to apply, or ITA, encouraging industry players to compete in the auction. They had until the 31st of January to submit their applications.
The pre-qualification stage of the licensing process was completed by all six applications.
“All six applications have completed the pre-qualification stage of the licensing procedure and will now be eligible to compete in the planned auction round in early March 2022,” Icasa said in a statement on Monday.
“The fact that all six applications qualified demonstrates the strength of our telecommunications sector in South Africa,” said Keabetswe Modimoeng, chairperson of Icasa.
“We can formally declare the upcoming March 2022 spectrum auction as an unprecedented milestone in our country’s communications history, as it will be the first-ever spectrum auction held on our soil.”
“As we continue to tackle the ongoing litigation head-on, we pledge ourselves to carrying out this critical public-interest task to the best of our abilities,” Modimoeng added.
“With barely two weeks to go,” he concluded, “we need to witness selfless and responsible corporate citizenship at work.” This appears to be a reference to Telkom, which has vowed to resubmit its plea for an immediate interdict if it feels it has been wronged by Icasa rulings in any manner.
Telkom, which had sought an urgent interdict to halt the licensing process, decided last month not to pursue that appeal and instead asked the high court to examine its objections on their merits. The case will now be heard in mid-April, following the conclusion.