Under-serviced area licensees (USALs), that were licensed in 2006, with conditions attached, have submitted an open letter to the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) asking the regulator to communicate its intentions towards them.
The letter was submitted to ICASA chairman Paris Mashile and CEO Karabo Motlana this morning. In it, representatives of these USALs note they were advised on 14 August last year that their applications for USAL licences were successful, pending mergers with other applicants in their areas.
The USALs were given less than three weeks to present documents to ICASA showing how they proposed such mergers. "We haven`t heard from ICASA," the letter states.
The letter also outlines developments that have taken place in the USAL space that could potentially affect their operations. An example is communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri`s May budget speech directive that ICASA implement the merger of all licensed USALs so there is one entity in each province. These entities were to be called Pusanos, she said.
ICASA failed to explain how the second phase USALs - which were already subject to mergers at a local level - were to be integrated into this process, the second phase USALs say.
"The whole purpose of creating the USALs was due to Telkom`s failure to provide telecommunications to the rural and disadvantaged areas. The government decided to create the USALs to provide this. It is now nearly three years since we applied and we still haven`t heard from ICASA."
ICASA spokesman Sekgoela Sekgoela said in June that there were no delays in the licensing of second phase USALs. "The majority of the licences will be finalised in the next two weeks," he said. Sekgoela said ICASA did not have anything else to add beyond previous input on the matter.
Universal Service and Access Agency CEO James Theledi says USALs have to be licensed entities first before they can take part in the Pusano merger process.
One of the proposed models is that they retain their individual structure even as they leverage the benefits of working with similar entities in the province, he says.
Kingdom Communications has indicated to ITWeb that the first phase USALs, which are already operational, have held meetings with USAASA and ICASA on how the Pusano mergers will affect them. Theledi says the matter has not yet been finalised.
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