icasa

Wapa executive Paul Colmer joins the TechCentral podcast (listen below) to unpack why the association has made this call, and why it believes opening up the 6GHz band to unlicensed telecommunications providers could generate huge benefits for the country.

Connection poverty is assassinating a generation of young, entrepreneurial South Africans who represent the future success, or failure, of our embattled nation. It’s also quietly throttling the numerous established businesses, the skills, experience and knowledge their many employees could offer the next batch, and the learnings, revenues, and reinvestments they could make to support the whole event.

South Africans who work from home, study online and try to keep their businesses alive rely on connectivity, without which it all ends. “Digital loadshedding” is small-fry compared with digital fratricide. ICASA is effectively snuffing the concerted and, quite frankly, miraculous efforts of so many businesses, workers and students, who have survived lockdown using nothing but cellular connectivity, by reclaiming 5G spectrum from the mobile networks.

Some ISPs are concerned about the timing of ICASA interim transformation requirements, suggesting that April 2022 does not give them enough time to establish effective agreements. 

WAPA is currently in discussions with ICASA on the End User Charter Agreement. Read more about WAPA chairperson Tim Genders’ communications with the Authority. 

In a letter to ICASA’s CEO, Willington Ngwepe, Genders says that WAPA welcomes the End User Charter Agreement and its implementation into law on 1 March 2019.

“We have advised our members to be compliant with the following:

1. Providing usage notifications

On 20th July we met with the national assembly of the ICASA compliance officers. Eldred Eckermans gave a training session on wireless principles after which we had very interactive feedback. The message was clear, 'clean up your high sites'.