Posted by LA Thornton on Wednesday, March 30, 2016,
ICASA has released a slew of government notices from March-April 2016, which include the following.
- South African Music Regulations, 23 March 2016
- South African Local Content Reasons Document - March 2016
- Local Television Content Regulations, 23 March 2016
- Increased fees associated with spectrum licences effective 1 April 2016
- Amendment to the Guidelines Relating to Type Approval Framework to extend the time for ICASA to process type approval applications from 15 to 30 working days
- Increased admin...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Tuesday, June 30, 2015,
After apparently approving the transfer of control of the Neotel licences in a regulatory vacuum, ICASA finally proposes regulations that will govern transfers of control of iECNS/iECS licences.
The proposed regulations are set out in the amended Process and Procedures Regulations. Significantly, the regulations are being amended to conform to the amendments to the EC Act which came into force in 2014, which require transfers of control, as well as transfers of licences, to be prior approved...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Monday, April 8, 2013,
On 28 March 2013, ICASA published the General Licence Fees Regulations, 2012, repealing the Licence Fees Regulations of 2009.
The new regulations change the way in which licence fees are calculated. The fees used to be based on profit. Now they are based on revenue. In addition, the percentage applied to the revenue is on a sliding scale, from 0.15% to 0.35% for revenue above 1 000 000 000.
The new regulations came into effect on 1 April 2013.
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Posted by LA Thornton on Tuesday, April 12, 2011,
ICASA has finally replaced the old Radio Regulations made prior to the Telecommunications Act, with the Radio Frequency Spectrum Regulations published on 31 March 2011. The Regulations set out application procedures (standard and extended) and forms and application fees. They also incorporate the spectrum licence exemption regulations and set out special provisions for services such as amateur radio, communal repeaters, burlar alarms, and citizen band services. It would appear that these "...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Wednesday, February 16, 2011,
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa amended the regulations regarding annual contributions to the Universal Service Fund on 10 Feb 2011. There are two noteworthy changes from the previously applicable regulations. The first is that the annual contributions will be due six (rather than three) months after a licensee's financial year end. This makes the due date simultaneous with the due date for annual licence fees applicable to service licences. The second is that the...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Wednesday, January 19, 2011,
Did you know that special temporary authorisations are available for purposes of testing, demonstrations and research and development. For more information, contact info@thornton.co.za.
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Posted by LA Thornton on Friday, January 7, 2011,
ICASA published a second draft of "compliance manual" regulations on 20 December 2010, for public comment due 18 January 2011. The compliance manual calls for no less than eight new reports that licensees will be required to submit to ICASA, if the regulations are enacted. These reports include two that will be due quarterly, with respect to compliance with the E-rate regulations and code of conduct regulations. Comments on these draft regulations are due by no later than
31 January 2011. ...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Wednesday, December 1, 2010,
Did you know that all licensees must provide a 50 percent discount to public schools and universities for Internet services, including connectivity charges, charges for equipment and charges for calls to an Internet service provider? For more information, contact info@thornton.co.za.
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Posted by LA Thornton on Thursday, November 18, 2010,
Did you know that all individual electronic communications service and electronic communications network service licensees must file tariffs with ICASA? For more information, contact info@thornton.co.za.
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Posted by LA Thornton on Tuesday, June 1, 2010,
Update: ICASA withdrew the invitation on 29 July 2010.
ICASA issued an invitation to apply for spectrum in the
2.6 GHz and
3.5 GHz bands in separate notices dated 28 May 2010. The applications are due to be filed with ICASA by
25 June 2010. ICASA also published a
Reasons Document and
Regulations on the procedures and criteria for granting licences where there are competing applications.
The ITA for the 3.5 GHz band is to class electronic communications network service licensees for the purpo...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Wednesday, February 3, 2010,
ICASA is absolutely right. It may agree to contractual terms that limit its statutory obligation to regulate interconnection. It legally cannot do so, and as a matter of policy, should not do so. Well done!
But is this stopping the three mobile cellular licensees from reducing interconnection rates? Absolutely not. Under the EC Act, ICASA must make regulations and after that, all interconnection agreements must be vetted by it to make sure they comply with the regulations. However, no reg...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Monday, December 7, 2009,
ICASA published another set of draft facilities leasing regulations for public comment. You can download a copy
here.
In case you were wondering - yes, you have seen draft facilities leasing regulations before, not once, but twice, since the coming into force of the EC Act.
ICASA published draft facilities leasing regulations in Government Gazette 30091 dated 24 July 2007. Those draft regulations were pretty good, eliminating most of the problems with the existing regulations, which had been p...
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Posted by LA Thornton on Monday, November 30, 2009,
In 2009, the Altech litigation concluded, resulting in the licensing by ICASA of hundreds of potential competitors to the dominant incumbents, Telkom, Vodacom and MTN.
Real competitiveness however relies on more than new licences. It requires an effective legislative and regulatory framework, among other things. I would like to take the opportunity of the year end to offer my thoughts on some regulatory priorities for 2010.
Key aspects of an effective regulatory framework include effectiv...
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