SA cabinet approves amended telecoms bill

The South African cabinet has approved an amended version of the Electronic Communications Amendment Bill, thus paving the way for the allocation of LTE-suitable spectrum and providing the framework for the licensing of a wholesale open access network (WOAN) operator. TechCentral writes that the bill will now be tabled in parliament for ‘consideration and processing’ and will be released to the public after consultation with the regulator ICASA. ICT minister Siyabonga Cwele also revealed that the cabinet has accepted a study conducted by the CSIR into how much spectrum should be reserved for the WOAN, with all excess capacity to be distributed among industry players: ‘The outcome of this process is crucial for the transformation of the ICT sector to remove entry barriers, encourage investments by black-owned, small and large companies, [and] restructure the market to lower the cost of infrastructure investment thereby contributing to the reduction in the cost of communications.’