companies in South Africa, has warned against the setting of deadlines for the switch-off of 2G and 3G services in South Africa.
“There is no rush to set a deadline, neither is there a requirement in law or otherwise. allow the industry to run the process and report to the regulator, Icasa ,” said Batyi. She said many of state-owned logistics operator Transnet’s systems rely on components that use 2G networks for their communications and it does not make sense for the company to suffer the cost of replacing that infrastructure when it is not broken in any way.
“Right now 2G are the cheapest handsets, you can even get one for R150 – if not less. But the cheapest 4G handset, if it’s not on special, starts at just above R1 000. If you think of our unemployment rate and the people that rely on social grants, there is no way they can afford that,” she said. Communications regulator Icasa must stop approving 2G- and 3G-only devices by no later than 30 September this year.