Page 10 - Cell C News Today

Voice-call market now small beer for operators, but mobile minnows are still fighting for every scrap

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) and partially state-owned Telkom have smoked the peace pipe, after talks that led to Telkom dropping litigation over the spectrum auction.

It seems the long-running saga of South Africa’s auction of high-demand spectrum for mobile broadband may finally have ended on a positive note, raising R14.4 billion (about $960.7 million) for the country’s treasury. The is way above the R8 billion ($533.7 million) a lot of analysts, and indeed the government, had been expecting.

The auctioning of the long-waited spectrum involved six bidders including Cell C, Liquid Telecoms, Rain Networks, MTN, Telkom and Vodacom.

South African regulator ICASA has stated that the main stage of its ongoing mobile broadband spectrum auction has already exceeded its initial estimate of ZAR8 billion (US$531 million).

South African operator Telkom has experienced mixed fortunes over the past 24 hours. It has been one of the two early winners (along with fixed wireless access operator Rain Networks) in South Africas mobile spectrum auction but, within the same day, has been forced to delay a planned sale of its tower unit.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is today launching the first of three stages of its much-delayed spectrum auction.

The regulator said the auctioning of the spectrum will involve six bidders, which include Cell C, Liquid Telecoms, Rain Networks, MTN and Telkom.

An IT security manager and company director have been released on bail after appearing in the Palm Ridge commercial crimes court on fraud and money laundering charges related to the loss of millions by mobile operator Cell C.

An IT security manager and company director have been released on bail after appearing in the Palm Ridge commercial crimes court on fraud and money laundering charges related to the loss of millions by Cell C.