| ICASA EXTENDS TEMPORARY RADIO FREQUENCY SPECTRUM ASSIGNMENTS FOR LICENSEES - 26/03/2021 |
| ICASA |
| TELECOM/ICT Policy Makers and Regulators | Africa | South Africa |
| The Council of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa ( ICASA/the Authority) has resolved to review the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) COVID-19 National Disaster Regulations (The Regulations) and extend the temporary radio frequency spectrum assignments issued to licensees for another two months (from 1 April 2021 to 31 May 2021). The temporary release of high demand spectrum (HDS) to licensees aimed to mitigate the impact of the national state of disaster following the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, mainly by easing network congestion, maintaining good quality of broadband services, and enabling licensees to lower the cost of access to consumers. The regulations made provision for, amongst others; the zero-rating of some critical health and education websites in order to promote universal access and service to health information and services, and to support the development of virtual classrooms for learners. In this context, the Authority notes that, as of 25 January 2021, over a thousand web sites have been zero-rated, within the following categories: 651 sites added by the Department of Higher Education and Training; 413 sites added by the Department of Basic Education; 15 sites added by the Department of Health. |
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