South Africa’s communications regulator ICASA has published draft regulations designed to tighten pricing operations at Sentech, which is the government-owned transmission business. Sentech handles the nation’s transmission of broadcast TV and radio signals.

The publication of the new draft rules, in the government’s official Gazette, follows on from a one-year investigation into Sentech’s pricing structure.

The nation’s public broadcaster SABC has complained for years about Sentech’s fees (and by and large hasn’t paid the bills).

ICASA says that the barriers for entry to any potential rival are so high as to be impossible, and this places Sentech into a monopoly position.

“Sentech has significant market power due to its dominance” in terrestrial television, FM sound broadcasting and AM sound broadcasting, Icasa said in the draft regulations. Without regulatory intervention, Icasa said, prices and service levels are unlikely to be constrained by market forces.

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Tags: icasa, sentech, south africa