Wireless Internet Access: Is Screamer Telecoms guilty or not?

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 28 November 2011

The Complaints and Compliance Committee of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is expected to hear the dispute, relating to the alleged unlawful usage of radio frequency spectrum, between the South African broadcasting signal distributor, Sentech, and Screamer Telecoms, a wireless Internet access provider, as early as February next year.

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The above-mentioned dispute has surfaced when ICASA and the Police raided several offices of Screamer Telecoms earlier this year (7 May 2011) and confiscated wireless communications equipment worth millions of rand. It was all done after much speculation has surfaced relating to Screamer Telecoms’ alleged unlawful usage of “…the Sentech 2.6 GHz WiMAX spectrum” (Wireless Internet Access: ICASA must sort out Screamer Telecoms, ADSL South Africa, 18 April 2011). In a bid to move forward with this; Screamer Telecoms, Sentech and ICASA are going “…to hold a “pre-briefing conference” in the next few weeks to discuss how the dispute will be handled by the committee” (Icasa to hear Sentech, Screamer dispute, The Editor, TechCentral, 22 November 2011). It is unclear whether Screamer Telecoms is indeed guilty of unlawfully using radio frequency spectrum within the 2.6 GHz band, but as far as ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa) can see or rather speculate, Screamer Telecoms has indeed been using the relevant radio frequency spectrum in a legal manner, although based on authority given by an alleged dodgy deal that was made with former senior executives at Sentech.

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Needless to say, the key to getting to the bottom of this will be for the relevant committee to consider the legitimacy of the above-mentioned deal. However, it should be safe to assume that Screamer Telecoms’ use of the relevant radio frequency spectrum is/was not done in a manner that show/showed a total disregard for the law. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see what the outcome of this dispute is going to be, especially considering that Screamer Telecoms has made at least some progress in ensuring better service levels, since shocking service levels forced them out of the ADSL market some time ago.

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