Regulatory Framework on Infrastructure Sharing

The sharing of infrastructure is key in achieving South Africa’s broadband goals. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has published a draft Regulatory Framework on Infrastructure Sharing for public comment. 

"The deployment of telecommunications infrastructure is capital intensive and has associated risks with regard to return on investment. The high costs of deploying telecommunications networks have been the main deterrent of operators deploying networks to rural and sparsely populated areas, thus perpetuating the problem of underservice to these areas. In order to ensure that telecommunications infrastructure is deployed across the country and that the cost to communicate is significantly reduced, the costs associated with infrastructure deployment would need to be reduced. One way of significantly reducing the costs is through the sharing of existing infrastructure and future infrastructure deployments by the private and public sector stakeholders. The sharing of infrastructure is expected to drive down the capex and opex of the sharing parties."