Communications minister Solly Malatsi signed a policy direction on 19 October and had it published in the Government Gazette on Tuesday, asking the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to rewrite the country’s 16-year-old rules on how operators share infrastructure.
The minister said the rewrite is intended to lower the cost of broadband communication and to speed up the rollout of networks by removing “cumbersome and fragmented administrative compliances”.
Icasa is instructed to prescribe a list of “essential facilities”, the towers, ducts, local loops and submarine-cable connections that operators must make available to each other, and to consider setting wholesale rates, meaning the prices charged for the resale of those facilities. The direction also calls for faster timeframes for negotiating, concluding and implementing leasing agreements, and for stronger monitoring, including a requirement that all agreements be filed with the regulator.
Legal background and upcoming amendment
The Electronic Communications Act has required Icasa to publish a list of essential facilities since 2005, but the Facilities Leasing Regulations of 2010 did not include such a list nor a framework for wholesale rates. The act’s chapter on facilities leasing was amended in 2014 and subsequent court rulings have clarified its application, prompting the need for an update.
Malatsi’s Electronic Communications Amendment Bill, tabled in April, would obligate Icasa to publish the list within 12 months and to set cost-oriented pricing rules for essential facilities within 18 months, using a cost-plus-reasonable-return model.
Beyond duplication concerns, the direction seeks to discourage unnecessary parallel networks where existing facilities could be used, while allowing duplication for legitimate commercial reasons such as redundancy or service differentiation.
Dispute resolution is also addressed. A licensee must declare a dispute with another licensee or a third-party landowner at least 14 calendar days before starting work that requires access. The licence holder may not continue deployment while the dispute is unresolved, although Icasa is asked to consider an urgent interim procedure to decide whether work must be suspended. Landowners cannot be forced into the process; they may be referred to Icasa only with their consent, and compensation disputes are to be settled in court.
Icasa is further tasked with building a central geographic information system (GIS), a digital map of the nation’s network assets, as a priority. Licensees would have to supply their data and update it at least annually, with Icasa verifying the information independently. Non-licensees could contribute voluntarily, and access to the database would be regulated to protect sensitive details.
In April, Icasa released draft rapid deployment regulations that would require operators to submit detailed data on fibre routes, ducts, poles, manholes, base stations and planned roll-outs twice a year. Operators pushed back. Telkom warned that the data could be exploited by “construction mafia associates, anarchists and spies” if exposed, while the Association of Comms & Technology, representing the six largest operators, said the framework adds procedural burdens without solving core challenges.
The direction notes that final regulations are expected to be published in the 2026/27 financial year. It also highlights the fragmented municipal environment: every municipality has its own process and fee structure, permits are slow, and only a fraction have adopted the standard draft by-law for network deployment released in 2023. Operators report waiting six to twelve months for wayleaves, the legal permission to use land for infrastructure, in some metros and have suggested that applications be deemed approved if a municipality fails to decide within 30 working days. The policy direction itself sets no deadlines for municipalities.
Icasa must report annually to the minister on progress, with the first report due within 12 months. While the act requires Icasa to consider the minister’s policy directions, it does not bind the regulator to follow them.
The department received 16 submissions on the draft, most of them supportive, after publishing the draft for comment in March.
