KEY POINTS
- Eskom wants South Africa’s telecoms regulator to control prices charged for the resale of network and service licences.
- The utility says limited licence availability has created artificial scarcity, with some licence pairs costing more than R1 million.
- It has proposed returning unused licences to ICASA and creating an automated portal to make available licences easier to find.
South Africa’s state-owned power utility, Eskom, has urged the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to regulate the prices at which telecommunications licences are resold.
The proposal was submitted as part of an inquiry into whether the regulator should issue new individual network operator and service provider licences.
ICASA launched the inquiry following a policy directive from Communications Minister Solly Malatsi, asking it to consider opening the licensing process to new applicants.
The regulator has since published a discussion document summarising submissions received from interested parties. It has given stakeholders 45 working days from October 30, 2026, to submit further comments.
Eskom believes regulating the secondary market would make licences more accessible, particularly to smaller companies seeking to enter South Africa’s telecommunications sector.
Limited licences have pushed up acquisition costs
Companies seeking to build and operate telecommunications infrastructure nationally must hold an Individual Electronic Communications Network Service (I-ECNS) licence.
Businesses that provide communications services over these networks, including internet service providers, require an Individual Electronic Communications Service (I-ECS) licence.
Individual licences permit nationwide operations, while Class licences restrict operators to specified geographical areas.
ICASA has not issued new individual licences since 2010. Although the regulator can invite applications for new service licences, issuing new infrastructure licences requires a ministerial policy direction.
The Internet Service Providers’ Association of South Africa (ISPA) has argued that ICASA should establish permanent Invitations to Apply for both licence categories, supported by the necessary ministerial direction.
This would allow companies to submit applications whenever they need licences instead of relying on existing holders to sell or transfer theirs.
Under the current system, businesses seeking individual licences generally have to acquire them from existing licence holders. This has contributed to limited availability and high resale prices.
Easttel, an individual licence holder providing wholesale telecommunications services, told ICASA that acquiring an I-ECNS and I-ECS licence pair on the secondary market costs more than R1 million.
Eskom wants ICASA to address these high costs through direct regulation of resale prices.
Eskom proposes returning unused licences
Eskom said the licensing framework should account for the possibility that its telecommunications network could eventually be owned and operated separately from the power utility following its full unbundling.
It argued that any independent network operator emerging from the restructuring should have fair access to the licences required to operate.
The utility also warned that lengthy and expensive secondary-market transactions could become an obstacle even if the network remains within Eskom and the company seeks to commercialise its additional capacity.
To increase the availability of licences, Eskom proposed that holders who no longer use their service licences should return them to ICASA.
It recommended giving inactive licence holders a maximum of 24 months to surrender their licences, even if the licences have not reached the end of their 20-year validity period.
Eskom said the proposed 24-month period would be consistent with the maximum timeframe given to new licence holders to begin operations before facing possible revocation.
The regulator could then make returned licences available to new applicants through a standardised and regulated process.
AI-powered portal proposed to improve transparency
Eskom also recommended that ICASA establish an automated, artificial intelligence-powered portal to provide real-time information about I-ECNS licences available for resale.
The proposed platform would collect and display information about licences being offered on the secondary market, allowing interested businesses to identify available opportunities more easily.
The utility said ICASA could also regulate the resale value of licences to reduce costs for smaller telecommunications operators.
It further proposed that the regulator publish information about available licences more frequently or make the details accessible in real time through its licence application portal.
According to Eskom, these measures would improve transparency, reduce barriers to entry and make the licensing system more accessible to prospective operators.
Amazon Leo warns against market intervention
Not all industry participants support greater regulatory involvement in the resale market.
Amazon Leo, the American low-Earth-orbit satellite broadband provider, cautioned ICASA against intervening in secondary-market transactions.
The company argued that regulatory intervention could introduce additional administrative requirements without addressing the underlying reasons why transfers of I-ECNS licences have been difficult to complete successfully.
The competing positions form part of the broader debate over how South Africa should reform its telecommunications licensing system, increase competition and make network infrastructure investment more accessible.
ICASA’s ongoing inquiry will help determine whether new licences should be issued and what changes may be required to the existing framework.
