ICASA revises licence fee draft regulations

After pressure from operators, the telecoms regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has published a revised version of the Draft General Licence Fees Regulations in the country’s Government Gazette. Interested parties have been given ten days, until 20 March, to submit written comments on the revised regulations which suggest considerably lower licence fees than first mooted. ICASA says the lower licence fee proposal will boost competition in the market and will pass savings onto telecoms customers. The authority initially proposed that telecoms companies would have to pay up to 3% of ‘adjusted revenue’ to ICASA as an annual licence fee.The new regulations see that percentage halved to 1.5% and the financial focus shifted from gross revenue to gross profit.