St Helena is set to take a significant step forward in its efforts towards digital modernisation with the approval of a new Communications Bill by Legislative Council on 18 June 2025. The Bill will become an Ordinance when HE Governor signifies his assent.
This crucial legislation replaces the outdated Telecommunications Ordinance 1989. When brought into force the new Communications Ordinance will establish a complete regulatory code for the management of the entire electromagnetic spectrum for St Helena as well as making wider provision concerning broadcasting and communications more generally. Consumer protection and the protection of vital national interests are at its heart.
This landmark Bill follows years of work, stemming from the Communications Networks and Services Policy first approved in 2020. The Policy, consistently endorsed by the Executive Council, most recently in July 2024, laid the groundwork for drafting a modern law that addresses the complexities of today’s digital landscape.
Key Provisions for a Modern and Fair Communications Landscape
The new Communications Ordinance contains more than 130 sections and is divided into 22 Parts. Some of its key elements include:
- Establishing a Communications Regulator: The Communications Regulator will oversee and enforce compliance with the Ordinance. The Regulator will look to ensure that Communications Service Providers operate in the best interests of customers. There will be a focus on fair pricing, quality, and innovation. To ensure transparency in a less competitive market, the Regulator will require companies to provide clear information and will impose penalties for non-compliance. This will lead to better decision-making and improved service.
- Clear Licensing Framework: The Ordinance together with regulations and codes will create a clear Licensing Framework. This will provide certainty for investors, consumers, and all stakeholders. In addition to these laws all licences, when granted will include conditions and obligations that licensees will have to comply with. The aim is to foster confidence for licensees, for investors and for consumers. It also seeks to protect vital infrastructure, future investments and support network upgrades across the island.
- Universal Service Obligation: A Universal Service Obligation is mandated, ensuring that all St Helena residents have access to affordable communication services, regardless of their geographical location.
- Enhanced Consumer Safeguards and Quality of Service: The Ordinance will strengthen Consumer Safeguards and make arrangements for the introduction of Quality of Service standards. Service providers will be required to establish complaint-handling procedures, protect user privacy, and meet minimum quality standards, with regular performance reporting.
- Power to Impose Price Controls: To ensure fair pricing for consumers, the Ordinance introduces the power to implement Price Controls. This ensures that services remain affordable while allowing providers fair returns that reflect operational costs and risks on St Helena.
- Robust Exit Provisions: To guarantee continuous service, even if a service provider departs, detailed exit provisions are required to be included in licences. Licensees will be required to compile a comprehensive exit plan to ensure smooth transitions of services, assets, and data, protecting users from any disruption.
- Surveillance and interception: Communications networks carry vast amounts of information that can be of interest in criminal investigations. The powers in the Ordinance are carefully balanced and seek to safeguard privacy whilst at the same time giving appropriate investigatory powers. The Ordinance looks to the appointment of a Surveillance Commissioner. Part of the Surveillance Commissioner’s role will be to strike the appropriate balances between the needs of law enforcement and consumers rights to privacy.
Protecting St Helena’s Consumers
At its core, the new Communications Ordinance is designed with the consumer at its heart. It introduces robust regulation to safeguard the public and prevent harm, ensuring fair practices in the communications sector. The Ordinance provides necessary tools, including the power to implement price controls to ensure fair costs and a comprehensive licensing framework that holds providers accountable. These measures will collectively ensure that the island’s communications services genuinely serve the welfare of every resident.
This proactive legislative step underscores St Helena’s commitment to building a robust, equitable, and modern digital future for all its citizens.
Minister for Treasury & Economic Development Portfolio, Mark Brooks, commented:
“This Government is committed to ending the digital poverty and exclusion that St Helena has faced due to our remote location. We have taken decisive action by commissioning the Equiano subsea cable, which connects our island to the transformative potential of subsea fibre infrastructure, and started to realise the benefits when the cable was connected to our island network in October 2023.. With the passage of the Communications Bill, we are demonstrating to the world that St Helena is open for business with a modern, forward-thinking regulatory framework.
St Helena offers unique advantages: lightly used spectrum, an ideal mid-Atlantic location, and a government actively encouraging development as a hub for satellite ground stations and other businesses. This has been a significant journey, and I commend the dedicated work of SHG officials who have helped transform this ambition into reality with this Bill.”
A copy of the Ordinance can be found on the Bills for an Ordinance page on the SHG website at https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/government/legislative-council/bills-for-an-ordinance/.
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SHG
20 June 2025