[26 April 2026] ICASA has made copies of written submissions available on its website.

Submissions are split between those supporting new licences being directly issued (LEOs, local associations representing smaller licensees) and those happy to retain the current transfer procedure (incumbent operators) while requiring that ICASA do this more efficiently.

[This is also the first time we are seeing clear evidence of large language models / chatbots being used to generate submissions to ICASA.]

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[28 January 2026] The deadline for responses to the questionnaire published by ICASA has been extended to 16h00 on 16 February 2026.

Questionnaire of the Inquiry into New IECNS Licences – Extension of closing date for written responses

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[28 November 2025] ICASA has commenced an Inquiry into whether it should issue new Individual Electronic Communications Network Service (IECNS) licences. This follows the finalisation of a Ministerial policy direction to ICASA on 22 August 2025.

ICASA Inquiry into issuing of new individual service licences

For historical reasons access to new IECNS and individual electronic communications service (IECS) licences is restricted, with entrants requiring these licences needing to enter into a secondary market transaction to acquire licences, subject to the prior approval of ICASA. The purpose of this Inquiry is to determine whether:

  • the current use of the licence transfer process has been effective and efficient in promoting competition
  • there is demand for new IECNS licences
  • the issuing of new IECNS licences will promote the objects of the ECA and improve competition “in the market of IECNS licences”
  • the issuing of new IECNS licences will contribute to universal access objectives
  • the benefits of issuing new IECNS licences are outweighed by the cost of monitoring and enforcing compliance in respect of the new licences

The process to be followed:

Phase Event Date | Deadline | Period
1 Commencement of Inquiry through the publication of a notice and questionnaire. 25 November 2025
Public consultation period 16h00, 3 February 2026
One-on-one meetings to clarify written submissions (if required by ICASA)
2 Publication of a Discussion Document
Public consultation period 45 working days
3 Public hearings on Discussion Document (if required by ICASA)
4 Publication of Findings Document 90 working days from end of public hearings

A Microsoft Word version of the questionnaire is available here.

All submissions in terms of the questionnaire must be for the attention of the Project Manager, Mr Peter Mailula, by email to iecns-inquiry@icasa.org.za and pmailula@icasa.org.za. As noted above these are due by 16h00 on 3 February 2025.