Author: Gugu Lourie

South Africa’s telecommunications watchdog – the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) – faces a moment of truth as it finally takes a long-awaited decision to deal with the allocation of radio frequency spectrum to telcos. The watchdog has the unenviable task of deciding which firm gets the much-needed spectrum that telcos require to deploy faster wireless broadband to all South Africans. It is likely that interested parties, some whom have very deep pockets, will fight the regulator in courts if things don’t go their way. Some background: Icasa on Monday published the long-awaited information memorandum relating to the licensing…

Vodafone Group CEO on Wednesday squashed market talk that the South African government was planning to offload its 13.9% shareholding in the local subsidiary, Vodacom to raise funding for power utility Eskom. Speaking to reporters at a media briefing in Rosebank, the boss of Vodafone Group Vittorio Colao said: “I personally haven’t got any discussions on that topic (South Africa government selling its shareholding in Vodacom.) Market talk has suggested that the South African government was in a process of selling its stake to fund Eskom, which is facing major power generation problems and has funding shortfalls that run into…