| Agency Name: | Independent Communications Authority of South Africa |
| Nativename: | ICASA |
| Formed: | 1 July 2000 |
| Preceding1: | South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA) |
| Preceding2: | Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) |
| Jurisdiction: | Government of the Republic of South Africa |
| Headquarters: | Centurion, Gauteng |
| Minister1 Name: | Solly Malatsi |
| Minister1 Pfo: | Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies |
| Chief1 Name: | Mothibi Ramusi |
| Chief1 Position: | Chairperson |
| Chief2 Name: | Ms. Tshiamo Maluleka-Disemelo |
| Chief2 Position: | CEO |
| Child1 Agency: | Complaints and Compliance Committee |
| Website: | ICASA |
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is an independent regulatory body of the South African government, established in 2000 by the ICASA Act to regulate both the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors in the public interest.
Traditionally, telecommunications and broadcasting services operated separately and so has the regulation of the sectors. Broadcasting in South Africa was regulated by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), whereas telecommunications was regulated by the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA). Rapid technological developments have led to the convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications services. This also had an influence on the convergence of regulation resulting in the merging of the IBA and SATRA.ICASA functions under the Department of Communications (DoC). It was initially composed of seven Council members. The ICASA amendment Act of 2006 included the Postal services, previously regulated by the Postal Authority into ICASA's mandate. It increased the Council members from seven to nine to accommodate the new members from the Postal Authority.
The ICASA approved label found on internationally manufactured products implies the products meet, along with the approved stipulated frequency, the strict Radio Frequency Interference standards stipulated by ICASA.
In South Africa, the first radio and television broadcasts were done in 1923 and 1976 respectively. The first Broadcasting Act was promulgated in 1936 and it established the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) solely for radio broadcasting. In 1976, the Broadcasting Act was amended to include television broadcasting. The SABC acted as a state broadcaster and was used as a political propaganda instrument of the government to support its policies. The SABC had monopoly over the airwaves even though there were some free-to-air broadcasting services in the former Bantustans. These broadcasting services (like Radio Bop, Bop TV, Capital Radio and Radio 702) partially overlapped from the Bantustan areas into certain parts of South Africa.
Telecommunications was provided and regulated by a monopoly parastatal, the South African Post and Telecommunications (SAPT). In the late 1980s, certain aspects of the telecommunications market were liberalised. The Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX) and Value-added Network Service (VANS) markets were opened up to competition.
In 1990 the Viljoen Task Group was appointed to investigate the future of broadcasting. At the same time the SABC initiated a process of internal restructuring. The restructuring was aided by the Jabulani! Freedom of Airwaves Conference which took place in the Netherlands in 1991. This conference made recommendations that set the terms of public debate.
In 1991, Telkom SA Limited (Telkom) was established as a parastatal to undertake the provision of telecommunications services in South Africa. It separated from SAPT, which acted as an industry regulator.
In the beginning of 1992, the Congress of Democratic South Africa (CODESA) started negotiations on the future democratic political dispensation of the country, the drafting of the Interim Constitution, the Local Government Transition Act and the establishment of the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act (the IBA Act). The IBA Act was designed to provide, among other things, for the licensing of commercial and community broadcasters (these were not allowed under the apartheid government) and for the transformation of the SABC from a state to a public broadcaster. However, telecommunications reform remained unaddressed at the negotiations and in 1993 the apartheid government proceeded to license two mobile cellular operators (Vodacom and MTN).
After the 1994 elections, the National Telecommunications Forum (NTF), including government, business, labour, user groups and civic organizations was established as the key stake-holder forum which debated the Telecommunications Green and White Papers. South Africa's telecommunications reform process culminated in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The key aspect of this act was the establishment of an independent regulator, SATRA, to regulate the telecommunications sector. Telkom was also granted exclusivity to provide basic telecommunications services for a period of five years with an option for a further year of exclusivity should it meet its roll-out targets.
On 1 July 2000, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) was established. It was established as a single electronic communications regulator in the country in terms of the ICASA Act of 2000 merging SATRA with the IBA.[1]
In 2001, the second wave of re-regulation of the telecommunications industry took place with the passage of the Telecommunications Amendment Act of 2001. This Act introduced some far-reaching changes to the existing regime, for an example, the provision for the Second Network Operator (SNO) as of 7 May 2002. In August 2001, the Minister of Communications issued policy directions which were amended in April 2002, setting out the process in relation to the licensing of the SNO (Neotel) in broad terms. The third mobile cellular telephone operator license was issued on 22 June 2001 to Cell C. On 19 August 2002, ICASA issued new national Mobile Cellular Telephone Service (MCTS) licenses in terms of section 37(1) of the Telecommunications Act to Vodacom and MTN.
In 2002, two new pieces of telecommunications-related legislation were passed, the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECT Act) of 2000 and the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-related Information Act (Interception Act). The ECA of 2005 was passed and came into effect on 19 July 2006.[2]
In 2013, the ICASA led a state-wide campaign to encourage consumers to turn in their illegally-bought cordless phones, which were responsible for clogging the telecommunication networks with improper data properties.[3] The ICASA was also criticized for undermining the issue of high rates of mobile calls, and for not handling the monopolistic hold of MTN and Vodacom on the SA mobile market (91% of market shares).[4] In 2012, the broadcast request of TopTV (broadcaster of adult content channels Playboy TV, Desire TV and Private Spice) was refused by the ICASA.[5] In April 2013, the ICASA allowed TopTV to broadcast between 8pm and 5am in April 2013[6] and then backtracked on its decision in July 2013.[7]
In July 2016, the ICASA launched the 700 MHz, 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum licences[8] but the North Gauteng High Court blocked this auction after Cell C requested further reviews of the process.[9] In March 2021, the High court of Pretoria ordered the ICASA to stop the biddings on the auction of the 5G spectrum that started in October 2020, after Telkom and Etv obtained an interdict in a separate case.[10] In October 2021, the ICASA reset the auction's deadline to March 2022.[11]
ICASA's mandate is to regulate electronic communications (i.e. broadcasting and telecommunications) and postal services in the public interest. It derives its mandate from the following primary pieces of legislation (and subsequent amendments thereto):
Some of functions of ICASA include the following:
Below are some of the relevant sections from the legislations highlighting ICASA's mandate and purpose :-
ICASA is subdivided into various divisions with some listed below:-
ICASA is under the DoC with a council composed of nine members, the chairman and eight councilors appointed by the minister with the recommendations from the National Assembly. Initially, the number of council members was seven and it was increased to nine as per the ICASA amendment Act of 2005 when the postal services were integrated to ICASA.
In February 2000, a little less than five months before ICASA was formed, SATRA declared Cell C as a winning bidder of the third mobile cellular network operator. NextCom, one of the losing bidders, engaged ICASA in a number of court interdicts alleging that the decision to award Cell C was not fair and was influenced by the National Executive. In June 2001, NextCom withdrew from a judicial review that was ordered by the High Court allowing Cell C to continue its operations.[14] Vodacom and MTN threatened to go to court to claim the use of the 1800 MHz frequency band which GSM 1800 license was issued only to Cell C.[15]
The conversion of the VANS licenses issued through the repealed Telecommunications Act to the new ECNS or ECS licenses provisioned in the EC Act resulted in a court interdict where Altech challenged ICASA on its decision to exclude it on the list of the new ECNS licensees. Altech's claim was that all the VANS licensees be granted the ECNS licenses as per the EC Act. The High Court judgment ruled in favour of Altech resulting in all the VANS licensees being granted ECNS licenses.[16]
The listing and unbundling of Vodacom shares raised a number of questions regarding the role and independence of ICASA as the sector regulator. Vodacom exercised its right as granted by the Electronic Communications Network Services license issued by ICASA to unilaterally sell its shares without the involvement of ICASA or Minister of Communications as it was the case in the previous licensing regime. This was not well received by the Trade Union, COSATU, which challenged the decision made by ICASA to clear the Vodacom share transaction. This transaction resulted in ICASA's independence status being questioned as it was influenced by COSATU to rescind its initial decision allowing Vodacom to unbundle its shares.[17]