38 No. 37261 GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 24 JANUARY 2014 entrants, and consequently for the regulation of competition, interconnection and facility leasing arrangements. 5.2.3 Licensing The Independent Communications Authority (ICASA) may grant electronic communications network licences and electronic communications services licences. The licences may be granted on an individual or class basis. Individual licences can be granted for networks, as well as services at provincial and national level to licensees operating for commercial purposes. Individual licences are also issued for networks and services for entities in which a public entity owns interest greater than 25% of the share capital. The Independent Communications Authority may only grant individual licences in accordance with a directive issued in terms of Ministerial directives. Class licences are issued upon registration for networks and services of a district municipality or those of municipal scope operated for commercial purpose. This licensing regime came into effect after the enactment of the Electronic Communications Act of 2005 which mandated all licensees to convert their old licences to fit into the horizontal licensing order that was contained in the legislation. 5.2.4 Competition issues 2005 is regarded as the watershed year for the intensification of competition brought about by the Electronic Communications Act (ECA). The Electronic Communications Act intended to promote competition within the ICT sector. The current phase of telecom reforms can be described as one where broadband services are intensified. This is aimed at achieving the National Development Plan's vision. The success of the Broadband Policy and the meeting of its targets will be dependent, amongst other things, on the performance of the electronic communications market. Provisions for competition and the actual competition will be vital in the affordability and the extent of use of broadband services. In the electronic communications sector, the debates about the modes of competition centre on the comparison and the determination of the efficacies of facilities-based competition against services-based competition. The advocates of Facilities-Based Competition claim that in the long term, market equilibrium will be realised when players in the market build their own facilities. On the other hand the advocates of Service Based Competition argue that available facilities, usually of the previous monopolies such as Telkom, should be shared. They argue that competition should be downstream, mainly in the retail market as opposed to the wholesale market. These debates are playing themselves out in discussions about local loop unbundling, regulatory forbearance in mandating access to new broadband infrastructure, the sharing of broadband infrastructure, and wholesale or retail price regulations. 34 This gazette is also available free online at www.gpwonline.co.za