Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - Telecom operators eyeing additional radio frequencies to roll-out more mobile broadband services have been given extra time by SA’s communications regulator to provide their input on a key draft.
On Tuesday, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) said “it has decided to extend the closing date for submissions on the published Draft Radio Frequency Spectrum Assignment Plan (RFSAP) to 28 January 2015”.
Icasa, in a statement, said the reason for the deadline being pushed ahead is owing to “a number of requests from operators” to do so.
The draft plan was published on 14 November and initially gave stakeholders two weeks to comment. The plan seeks specifying technical conditions regarding the use of frequency bands.
The draft is also targeted at gathering views from stakeholders on rules for services operating in each frequency band.
Icasa’s RFSAP was also published alongside the regulator’s Final International Mobile Telephony (IMT) Roadmap, which “seeks to ensure universal availability of broadband services as well as a vibrant and competitive telecommunications industry”.
“It is Icasa’s view that the growing demand for mobile broadband in South Africa indicates a need for more mobile broadband bandwidth capacity in general,” said the regulator in a statement issued on 14 November.
“It is generally known that many rural areas do not have access to mobile bandwidth indicating a need for a more universal mobile broadband coverage, a need best served by deploying lower frequencies that propagate a wider market,” said the regulator.
Icasa noted that the roadmap further involves the migration of a number of current licensees out of or even within bands identified for IMT services.
More frequencies needed for broadband
Opening up of frequencies is key to rolling out more mobile broadband services in South Africa.
“The frequencies in greatest demand from mobile operators are between 300 MHz and 3 GHz, commonly known as the ‘sweet spot’ because it balances the need for high data transfer rates and desirable propagation characteristics in terms of both in and out building coverage,” said KPMG South Africa in a blog post earlier this year.
“Most mobile operators would agree that an ideal network requires a mix of spectrum bands within the sweet spot, with some high frequency spectrum for high data rate connection micro cells (to cover high density hot spots) and lower frequency spectrum to benefit from better propagation characteristics (to cover rural areas),” noted KPMG.
But broadcasters occupy the 700MHz and 800MHz frequencies, dubbed digital dividend bands, which are planned to become available during South Africa’s switch from analogue to digital broadcasting.
However, South Africa’s digital migration process is stalled owing to broadcasters being divided on issues such as set-top box controls for digital migration.
Time is running out though as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has set June 2015 as a global deadline for digital migration.
