Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri has announced that the licence to provide public switched telecommunications services — the second national operator (SNO) — will be granted on Friday September 17.
In an announcement in Parliament she said that WIP Investments Nine, trading as CommuniTel, and Two Telecom Consortium will each hold 24,5% of a new company, SepCo, which will hold 51% of the equity share capital of the SNO.
Transtel and Esitel will together hold 30% of the equity share capital of the SNO while Nexus will hold 19% of the share capital and SepCo will control the board of the SNO.
She said in a statement that the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa “will now manage the integration of the SNO company and the finalisation of the licensing process”.
Noting that in her budget speech in June she had committed herself to announcing her decision on the SNO — which will become the former parastatal Telkom’s main competitor — in August, Matsepe-Casaburri said after protracted discussions regarding the SNO with all the stakeholders she had “applied my mind to the concerns”.
The SNO is part of the managed liberalisation policy “aimed at the reduction of telecommunications costs by introducing competition, providing choice and increasing access to telecommunications infrastructure and services to the public”.
The licence will be subject to the acceptance of the shareholding and control structure of the SNO, the finalisation of and agreement on the business plan, and finalisation of the shareholders’ and subscription agreements.
The remaining unallocated equity shareholder will be announced at a later stage, the minister indicated.
“I will continue with the process of selecting a suitable investor for the unallocated equity.”
Matsepe-Casaburri said the restructuring of the shareholding between the members of the consortium had finally settled the remaining differences between the parties, which had led to Nexus entering into litigation against the government for its previous SNO award decision.
She believes it is possible that Nexus will now drop the litigation although this has not yet been confirmed. — I-Net Bridge