by Paula Gilbert, Editor, Connecting Africa 3/9/2021

South Africa’s long-awaited spectrum auction has once again hit a major speed bump after local operator Telkom won a court interdict to stop the auction process, which was supposed to take place at the end of this month.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has effectively been forced to stop its plans to auction spectrum in the 700MHz, 800MHz, 2.6GHz and 3.5GHz bands, intended to be used for 4G and 5G rollout.

After years of delays, ICASA in October 2020 published an Invitation To Apply (ITA) for high-demand spectrum for both the planned Wireless Open Access Network (WOAN) and individual spectrum for operators.

“The High Court has issued an order, without reasons, interdicting and restraining ICASA from proceeding with the auction process pending the final determination of Telkom’s application to review ICASA’s decision to publish the two ITAs. The effect of this order is that ICASA cannot at this stage proceed with the auction process and the timetable for that process will have to be revised,” the regulator said in a statement.

Read more at http://www.connectingafrica.com/author.asp?section_id=761&doc_id=767928&&utm_s

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Vumacam has won a court battle against the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), which accused it of spying on innocent people and selling the footage to third parties.

In a judgement handed down by the Gauteng High Court on 20 August, the court ruled against the JRA, which had refused to grant wayleaves to Vumacam for the expansion of its security camera network in the City of Johannesburg.

Vumacam is a Vumatel-owned security camera company which leverages the fibre network’s infrastructure to deploy a network of pole-mounted street cameras across the city.

These cameras are deployed with the aim of combatting crime in the city, and the company previously told MyBroadband that they have proven very effective in this endeavour.

The JRA had suspended the issuance of wayleaves to Vumacam earlier this year, however, arguing that Vumacam’s goal in installing the cameras was to surveil the movements of innocent people and sell the footage to third parties.

It referred to the surveillance as “spy footage” which is tradeable in the hands of Vumacam, and alleged that the prevention and detection of crime is not the primary reason for the installation of the security cameras across the city.

“The essence of the JRA’s cases is that Vumacam is spying on an individual’s movements and thereby infringing their rights to privacy,” the judgement stated.

Fight over wayleave applications

Vumacam has historically encountered little difficulty in obtaining wayleaves from the JRA for the erection of its pole and camera infrastructure.

These wayleaves were always issued within 48 hours following application, but in April 2019 the JRA began increasing or changing the requirements on an ad-hoc basis.

“This caused some tension between Vumacam and JRA, which was resolved in September 2019. Vumacam was able to secure 64 wayleaves for CCTV purposes between October 2019 and March 2020,” the judgement said.

The JRA’s wayleave department temporarily closed from 20 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 lockdown, and upon reopening on 9 June, it announced that it would not accept wayleave applications for aerial and CCTV installations.

These applications were “suspended until further notice”, an act which prevented Vumacam from further rolling out its CCTV network.

The Gauteng High Court has now ruled that the JRA’s decision to suspend these wayleave applications was unlawful, ordering the agency to resume processing these wayleave applications.

The JRA has also been directed to issue Vumacam with a decision on the outstanding wayleave applications by 27 August.

Read more at: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/security/364646-vumacam-wins-big-court-battle-over-spy-camera-accusations.html?utm_source=newsletter

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PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to submit report about hazardous effects of radiations from Base Transmission System towers and microwaves antennas of mobile phone companies.

A two-member bench headed by Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan issued the directions to the EPA director general in a writ petition seeking an order to stop installation of mobile phone companies’ Base Transmission System towers and microwaves antennas near schools, hospitals and populous residential areas as these transmit hazardous radiations causing serious diseases and health problems.

The high court had already stayed installation of mobile phone companies’ towers near schools, hospitals and populous residential areas across the province and directed the provincial government not to issue “No Objection Certificate” to them till the next order.

During the course of hearing, the bench asked EPA chief Dr Bashir Khan to submit a report regarding installation of such towers near public places. The court also directed authorities to submit report about the towers’ radiations and harmful effects. The court also asked the DG EPA to inform the court regarding radiation proof devices, which can reduce the harmful effects and explain these devices’ effectiveness.

During hearing, Justice Qaiser Rashid observed that though the modern world had provided the mobile phone facility to people, the towers’ harmful radiations were claiming lives. He stated that the court cannot compromise over the lives of people as the Constitution of Pakistan guarantees protection of lives of the citizens.

The bench, however, turned down the request of the mobile phone companies’ lawyers who claimed that the companies were suffering due to the stay order restraining them from installation of mobile towers. The court fixed November 27 for the next hearing of the case.

The petition was filed by Muhammad Naeem, a resident of Peshawar, through his lawyer Noor Alam Khan. The petitioner claimed that his wife had developed cancer due to hazardous radiation from the mobile companies’ towers.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, EPA, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority through its chairman, and chief executive officers of cellular companies were made parties in the petition. About the facts of the case, it said that towers were installed atop buildings and they were dangerous because they emitted microwaves at a frequency of 1900 MHz, which was the intense radioactivity from mobile phones towers that adversely impacted every biological organism within one square kilometre.

It was claimed in the petition that the installation of cellular phone system was causing a number of health problems to people. It said that microwaves from mobile phone towers and microwave antennas can interfere in human body by causing a variety of potential health problems such as headache, memory loss, cardiovascular stress, cancer, low sperm count, miscarriages, disturbance of nervous system and brain tumours.

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