Techcentral Podcast

What should one make of the noise surrounding the licensing (or non-licensing) of Starlink in South Africa? And what of the plans to reform the rules around black economic empowerment in the sector? To make sense of these developments – and others – TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod sat down this week with Nomvuyiso Batyi, CEO of the Association for Comms & Technology (ACT), an industry body that represents South Africa’s six largest telecommunications operators: MTN, Telkom, Vodacom, Rain, Liquid Intelligent Technologies and Cell C. In the interview, for the TechCentral Show, Batyi unpacked communications minister Solly Malatsi’s draft policy directive to communications regulator Icasa on so-called “equity equivalents” and why ACT believes there needs to be fairness in the licensing process. If the new rules apply to satellite operators, she said, they should apply to all licensees in the sector equally, including the big telecoms operators ACT represents. In the show, she also discussed: • Whether Starli