Spectrum auction postponed
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The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) is trying to keep its controversial auction of prime radio frequency spectrum on track, despite the department of telecommunications and postal services' court challenge.
Amendments to the auction invitation published in the Government Gazette on Friday say the auction will now take place in March next year.
The original October 3 deadline for submitting bids had already been pushed out to November 4.
Other new concessions are also aimed at drawing in bidders despite the substantial uncertainties.
The amendment now allows for a refund of the R3 billion deposit that participants in the auction will have to pay.
This will only be refundable if the department wins its case and the auction falls away, says the amendment.
Another change is that the broad-based BEE requirement for bidders has been lowered.
Initially, all bidders had to at least have 30% black ownership. Now a level four broad-based BEE rating will suffice, potentially putting more bidders in the game.
The valuable spectrum is being auctioned off in four lots. Much of it is, however, currently unusable because it is being used by analogue television broadcasting.
Another change to the auction rules foresees this problem persisting beyond 2020 - a signal that Icasa does not expect the long-delayed digital migration to occur any time soon.
Originally, the auction rules held that a winning bidder would have to provide a minimum service, in terms of data speeds, to 100% of South Africans.
Now the amended invitation says that this obligation will be "deferred until such time that the licensee has access to 100% of the spectrum in the assigned lotamp;".