Spectrum licence fee changes in South Africa

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has announced price increases for spectrum and general licence fees.

Radio frequency spectrum licence fees and all administrative fees associated with applications and registrations relating to service licences increased by 5.4% on 1 April 2025.

The increase in fees will also include those for unreserved postal services.

The regulator said its tariff increase is based on the consumer price index and the General Licence Fees Regulations.

Spectrum is the lifeblood of any wireless network operator. It is the raw bandwidth they use to communicate between their towers and customer devices like smartphones.

The new unit price per MHz of paired spectrum will increase from R3,125 to R3,263. Similarly, the minimum fee for a satellite hub station will be hiked to R81,558.

In telecommunications, frequencies are often licensed as a paired spectrum, which is the allocation of a block of spectrum in a lower-frequency part of a band and an associated block in an upper-frequency band.

The cost of applying for the amendment, renewal, or transfer of either individual or class licences will also increase.

In the case of individual network licences, transfer and amendment application fees will increase to R82,111, while renewal application fees will increase to R8,211.

For class licences, the initial application for a network spectrum licence has increased to R82,111, whereas the application fees for amending, renewing, or transferring licences have been hiked to R8,211.

Icasa has also increased the tariffs of its broadcasting licence application fees.

Companies offering unreserved postal services will have their registration application fees increased to R3,830 and annual and application renewal fees hiked to R5,107.

Radio spectrum licence fees

Individual licence fees

Class licence fees

Unreserved postal services