South Africa Regulator Sees Spectrum Dispute Resolved by August

SOUTH Africa’s telecommunications regulator said it expects to settle a legal dispute with mobile-phone companies over the auction of the new broadband spectrum by the end of August.

“Ongoing settlement negotiations on spectrum litigation are unfolding, well and with a very encouraging outlook,” the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa said in a statement late Friday.

MTN Group Ltd., which has the second-most subscribers in the country, and Telkom SA SOC Ltd. have appealed to the courts about how the regulator is arranging the auction, which was announced in October after years of delays and is expected to raise more than 8 billion rand ($583 million).The legal action prompted President Cyril Ramaphosa to hit out at mobile-phone companies last week, urging them to resolve the matter for the benefit of the country.

Keabetswe Modimoeng, the regulator’s chairman, said in the statement that it welcomes the president’s comments and is “confident