The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) will receive an additional R300 million in the 2022/23 financial year, to strengthen its regulatory capacity and licensing of high-demand spectrum.
This is according to the Estimates of National Expenditure (ENE) document, handed out to coincide with the 2022 National Budget tabled today.
It says: “Additional funding of R300 million in 2022/23 is earmarked for strengthening regulatory capacity and licensing spectrum for international mobile telecommunications [IMT], specifically wireless broadband services.”
The South African telecoms regulator is gearing up for the long-awaited spectrum auction, which is planned to take place next month.
South Africa’s allocation of spectrum has been up in the air for a number of years, with the last significant spectrum awarded 16 years ago. The last big set of spectrum issued was in the 2.1GHz band, which helped the operators in their 3G network deployment.
Unlike its African counterparts, SA is one of the few countries that have not allocated 4G/LTE spectrum on the continent. This has forced local operators to improvise, with spectrum re-farming and carrier aggregation.
An overview of the entity also shows ICASA plans to issue 13 community television licences per year over the medium-term and monitor 255 broadcasting licences.
“In its efforts to protect consumers against unfair practices by service providers over the period ahead, the authority plans to develop six tariff analysis reports and resolve an average of 85% of consumer complaints. In addition, to increase competition in the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors, various projects are planned over the period, including finalising regulations on the subscription television broadcasting market and developing regulations on call termination.
“To increase access to quality broadband services, the authority plans to implement the radio frequency migration plan and develop a monitoring report on the impact of the deployment of 5G in the ICT sector.”
In terms of expenditure, the ENE indicates this is expected to decrease at an average annual rate of 0.7%, from R524.3 million in 2021/22 to R513.5 million in 2024/25.
This, it says, is the result of one‐off funding of R48.2 million in 2021/22 for the licensing of spectrum. “As the authority requires highly specialised personnel to conduct its work, spending on compensation of employees accounts for 67% (R1.1 billion) of expenditure over the medium-term expenditure framework period.
“The moratorium on the filling of vacant posts is expected to be maintained over the period ahead to remain within the expenditure ceiling for compensation of employees. The authority receives all (R1.7 billion) of its revenue over the medium-term through transfers from the department. Revenue is expected to decrease in line with expenditure.”
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