Local communications regulator ICASA has published a draft amendment to the Universal Service and Access Obligations (USAO) deal that it entered into with the communications providers in South Africa.

The USAOs started life as a set of conditions that each Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Neotel, Sentech and WBS (iBurst) were supposed to be held to when they were granted wireless spectrum licenses. To put the value of the spectrum into perspective, when the 3G spectrum it was auctioned off in the UK, the British government managed to raise £22.5 billion from the sale – money it used to pretty much eliminate the entire national debt, ushering in well over a decade of financial prosperity. While the local operators do pay annual licencing fees for the spectrum to ICASA, it represents a fraction of this amount.

Originally the licensees were given spectrum on the grounds that they also provide broadband access to schools. In the case of Vodacom and MTN, for instance, they were each required to provide broadband access to 5 000 public schools, whereas Sentech was required to give access to 5 000 rural schools. The new draft calls for a reduction of the 5 000 schools each to only 1 500 – to which the providers now have five years to roll out access.

Considering the value of wireless spectrum in the rest of the world, South Africans should feel hard done by that the local networks have essentially got away with ICASA-sanctioned robbery. Not only have they not done what they had been mandated to do initially, they aren’t even being reprimanded for it. Instead, the bar is being lowered to accommodate the networks. Between ICASA and the collective of Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Neotel, Sentech and WBS they should all be ashamed that in the years since the issuance of the 3G spectrum they simply have not been able to get their acts together. More to the point: we, as South Africans who are outraged over our president having spent R250 million on upgrading his house, should be ashamed that there are companies getting away with having essentially pillaged billions worth of spectrum without having done what they were mandated to do.

A spokesperson for Vodacom has confirmed that it has only “connected 703 public schools and we (Vodacom) are working with all the relevant stakeholders to ensure that we meet the new targets.” Vodacom is unable to provide a reason as of yet for why it has only managed to fulfil 14% of the obligation that came with the spectrum it was granted.

MTN confirms that it has “received the proposed amendments on Wednesday 27 November. We (MTN) are currently studying the amendments and their impact and will make further comments to ICASA within 21 days.”

We are still waiting for comment from the other networks and are following up with them and ICASA

(Image – Shutterstock)