ICASA starts offering new licenses

The Independent Communications Authority (ICASA), South Africa’s telecom regulator, has started issuing new telecom licenses that permit operators to build their own networks a few days after the High Court ruled in favor of telecom operators to do so.

“The issuance of the new license was the first step that would eventually lead to all service providers getting the license,” said ICASA spokesman Sekgoela Sekgoela on Tuesday.

The new license will be issued to more than 300 voice and data carriers and ISPs (Internet service providers) in South Africa.

ICASA has failed to challenge the Pretoria High Court verdict, which declared that all service providers holding old VAN (value-added network) service licenses have a right to build their own networks.

In the past, service providers were required by the South African government and ICASA to purchase backbone from the government-owned Telkom.

Africa Internet Service Providers Association Chairman William Stucke has called the judgment the most important in South Africa’s telecom history.

The verdict is expected to bring down the high cost of communication and high-speed and high-redundancy Internet access in South Africa.