SpaceX has questioned South Africa’s telecoms regulator ICASA over its delays in granting the satellite operator a licence to work in the country.
Ryan Goodnight, senior director for market access and development at SpaceX, appeared before the communications regulator last week ostensibly to comment on draft amendments to the Radio Frequency Spectrum Regulations, 2015 and the linked Radio Frequency Spectrum Fees Regulations, 2010, gazetted on May 15th.
Goodnight told the ICASA panel that SpaceX, founded in 2002, has completed more than 680 successful missions and now serves over 12 million Starlink customers, and a clear understanding of which regulatory approaches work. He described the day’s consultation as “a very, very welcome improvement” on the existing regime and commended Icasa for drawing on international best practice.
However, the most pointed request came last: Goodnight asked ICASA to address how the broader licensing and ownership regime intersects with the fee rules, noting that the spectrum regulations impose a minimum 30 per cent equity stake for historically disadvantaged groups but say nothing about how that applies to the new gateway and user-terminal licence categories.
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