Amendment of licensing regulations

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[1 April 2023]

Here are the finalised Individual licensing regulations:

[5 March 2023]

ICASA is making final changes to the rules for getting individual ECS and ECNS licenses. To do this, they’re asking for more input from interested parties. One key question they’re looking at is what it means to have control of a company with this type of license. ICASA suggests using the definition of control from the Competition Act to decide if a transaction involving the company would be considered a change in control.

[23 August 2022]

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) will hold online meetings to discuss feedback on proposed changes to individual license application procedures. These meetings are planned for September 14th, 2022. More information on how to join online will be released soon.

Schedule of hearings

[15 August 2022]

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is inviting the public to attend virtual hearings on the proposed changes to standard license terms and conditions. These hearings will be held on August 25th, 2022. Details on how to join the virtual platform will be available soon.

Schedule of hearings

[26 May 2022]

See below to view public submissions on the 2022 Draft Individual Licence Procedures:

[26 May 2022]

For your review, the submissions made on the proposed Individual Licence Terms and Conditions for 2022 are listed below:

[27 March 2022]

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is seeking public feedback on proposed changes to their regulations. These changes affect how individual licenses are applied for, changed, renewed, given up, or moved to someone else.

ICASA has published a draft of the updated regulations for your review. If you have comments, you can submit them by email to Mr. Peter Mailula (PMailula@icasa.org.za) by May 15th, 2022.

Draft Amendment Regulations on the Processes and Procedures for Individual Licences March 2022

[23 March 2022]

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is seeking public feedback on proposed changes to the Standard Terms and Conditions for Individual Licences.

These proposed changes are available in draft form for review. If you’d like to comment, submissions are due by May 5th, 2022. Please send your comments by email to padams@icasa.org.za for the attention of Mr. Pascalis Adams.

Draft Regulations: Standard terms and conditions for individual licences March 2022

[13 March 2022]

Draft Amendment Processes and Procedures Regulations for Class Licences & Explanatory Memorandum 31 January 2022

ICASA published draft changes to the Class Licensing Processes and Procedures Regulations on January 31, 2022, for public feedback. These changes aimed to add a new requirement for those seeking to register for a license exemption to resell electronic communication services. However, due to a printing issue, the official announcement wasn’t released until after the comment deadline, which was February 28, 2022.

Specifically, the proposed amendment requires applicants to submit a copy of a signed commercial agreement or lease with either an ECS (Electronic Communication Service) or ECNS (Electronic Communications Network Service) licensee. This doesn’t apply to registrations for private electronic communications networks.

[19 April 2021]

The final class licensing regulations can be found here:

[3 November 2020]

Find the public hearing schedules below.:

Public hearings – Draft Class Standard Terms and Conditions Regulations (6 November 2020)

Public hearings – Draft Class Processes and Procedures Regulations (5 November 2020)

[27 October 2020]

ICASA is planning to hold public meetings to discuss the feedback they received on the proposed regulations for standard terms and conditions. The specific date is set for November 6th, 2020. More details, including the location and how to participate, will be announced in a government publication once the final schedule is confirmed.

[16 October 2020]

ICASA will be holding public meetings to discuss the feedback they received on the proposed Class Processes and Procedures Regulations. The meetings are planned for November 5th, 2020. More information about the meetings will be available soon.

[1 April 2020]

The deadline to comment on the Draft Class Processes and Procedures Regulations and Draft Class Standard Terms and Conditions Regulations has been extended to May 18, 2020 (previously April 17, 2020).

ICASA Media Release

[19 March 2020]

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) released draft updates to both the standard terms applied to class service licenses and the procedures for obtaining them.

Submissions on the draft regulations are due by 17 April 2020 and should be submitted to:

Draft Class Licensing Processes and Procedures Amendment Regulations, 2020:

Draft Amendment Standard Terms and Conditions for Class Licences, 2020:

[12 December 2018]

ICASA changed the rules for renewing broadcasting licenses. These changes benefit state-owned companies by letting them off the hook from a requirement to have 30% ownership by historically disadvantaged individuals (HDI).
Importantly, the public wasn’t given a chance to weigh in on this rule change by ICASA.

Licensing Processes and Procedures for Individual Licences Amendment Regulations, 2018

[1 December 2016]

Please see below for links to the finalised regulations:

[18 November 2015]

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is holding public hearings on the proposed changes to the licensing regulations on November 18 and 19, 2015.

Notice of Hearings

Public feedback on the proposed ICASA amendments:

Draft Amendment Individual Licence Process and Procedure Regs 2015

Draft Amendment Ind Licence Std Terms and Conditions 2015

Draft Amendment Class Licence Process and Procedure Regs 2015

Draft Amendment Class Licence Std Terms and Conditions 2015

[30 June 2015]

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is seeking public comment on proposed changes to regulations for service licenses. These changes affect both the standard terms and conditions of the licenses and the application process itself.

People interested in providing feedback have until August 11th, 2015 to submit their comments. Submissions can be sent to Mr. Peter Mailula by fax at (011) 566-3658 or by email at pmailula@icasa.org.za

The proposed amendment to the Individual Licence Process and Procedure Regulations is noteworthy. This amendment, mandated by the Electronic Communications Amendment Act 1 of 2014, would introduce a process for applicants seeking to transfer control of a service license. Notably, such a process was absent when Vodacom and Neotel applied to ICASA for approval to transfer control of Neotel’s IECS and IECNS licenses.

[1 December 2015]

Herewith the original regulations:

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