Hollywoodbets Launches an Internet Service provider!
Hollywoodbets has launched an Internet service provider in South Africa called Hollywood Connect, and has applied to the country’s telecommunications regulator to acquire two network licenses.
Hollywood Connect has applied for the transfer of ownership of Individual Electronic Communications Service (I-ECS) and Individual Electronic Communications Network Service (I-ECNS) licences belonging to East Coast Access.
These licences will allow Hollywood Connect to offer nationwide Internet services and roll out its own physical network.
The Independent Communications Association of South Africa (Icasa) published a notice of the ISP’s application in the Government Gazette.
An I-ECS licence lets holders offer Internet services over their own or another company’s network.
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The I-ECNS licence, on the other hand, allows an entity to roll out and operate its own physical network.
Individual licences are required to build networks or offer services provincially and nationally. The alternative, class licences, are limited to a local or district municipal scope.
Hollywood Connect is currently only available in areas across Durban — which is also where Immedia Ecosystem is based.
The acquisition of these licences suggests Hollywood Connect plans to roll out its infrastructure and offer internet services nationwide.
Individual licenses are in high demand and extremely difficult to obtain.
I-ECNS licenses, in particular, may only be issued if the Minister of Communications publishes a policy directive allowing Icasa to issue an invitation to apply.
Currently, the only way to obtain such a license is for organizations to acquire one second-hand. According to the ISP’s Association of South African, these can often cost more than R1 million.
Even state-owned network operator Broadband Infraco had to go out to tender for an I-ECS license because Icasa has not issued new ones since 2010.
A Border Gateway Protocol query showed that the Hollywoodbets’ autonomous system currently advertises 2,042 IP addresses.
Querying the Afrinic Who is database confirmed that these are all the addresses currently assigned to Hollywoodbets’ organization. Hollywoodbets Internet Service Provider
