A decade after it was first mooted, ICASA is probing the process of awarding telecoms licences. (Image created with GenAI) A decade after it first began requesting the policy direction needed to issue new network licences directly, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has indicated in a preliminary view that issuing new licences directly…
ACT CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi South Africa’s biggest mobile operators want to allow each person up to 20 Sim cards per network, four times the limit of five per operator proposed by Icasa. They also accuse the regulator of giving itself powers it doesn’t have. The 20-Sim limit is part of a framework agreement that members…
Anyone activating a Sim card, swapping one or keeping an existing mobile number would have their fingerprint or face checked against home affairs records under draft regulations published by communications regulator Icasa this week. The proposed amendments to the numbering plan regulations, published for comment in the Government Gazette on Wednesday, require an operator, “on…
Former Icasa chairman Paris Mashile Paris Mashile, who chaired communications regulator Icasa from 2005 to 2010 and served it again for much of the 16 years that followed, has died. Icasa announced his death in a statement on Monday. It did not say when or how he died. Mashile was chairman from 1 July 2005…
ICASA chairperson Mothibi Ramusi. (Image source: ICASA) The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies are mourning the passing of former chairperson Paris Mashile. Mashile passed away last week, following “a long illness and hospitalisation,” according to a brief statement on social media. He held various…
Communications minister Solly Malatsi has asked the sector regulator, Icasa, to rewrite South Africa’s 16-year-old rules on how operators share infrastructure and has set out principles for long-delayed regulations meant to speed up the building of broadband networks. The policy direction, signed on 19 October and published in the Government Gazette on Tuesday, asks Icasa…
ICASA seeks to balance innovation, investment, competition and public interest in the rapidly-changing digital economy. (Image source: iStock) The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is expanding its regulatory approach to accommodate the rapidly-changing digital economy, which includes satellite services, data centres, cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI). During Conext 2026, Digital Council Africa’s…
ICASA chairperson Mothibi Ramusi. (Image source: ICASA) The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) wants to ensure its regulations are evidence-based, says chairperson Mothibi Ramusi. This, amid the fresh round of scrutiny of the long-running issue of the cost to communicate in the country; costs which Ramusi said have not declined with the envisaged…
Communications regulator Icasa has given notice that it intends to conduct a market inquiry into the affordability of telecommunications services in South Africa, opening a process that will run well into next year and that revisits ground already covered by the Competition Commission, by Icasa itself and, as of last month, by the communications department….
ICASA has taken on a community station in the apex court. (Graphic: Nicola Mawson | Unsplash and official images) Having lost two previous cases over whether it can condone the late application for a licence renewal, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has taken the matter – which involves a community radio station…
