Spectrum allocation: use it or lose it in a clever way?

Screamer was hardly ever professional, I wonder how many customers they still have left. Ontop of everything else their prices are way higher than that of other wisps.
 
the risk posed by spectrum laying fallow.
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Fallow spectrum is not a risk, but a national tragedy. Camping on spectrum should be regarded as treason because it slows down national economic growth, therefore restricting growth in jobs and taking away people's livelihoods, and it deprives people of access to broadband, especially people living in marginal coverage areas.
 
The fact that this is the state of a national resource proves what a disgrace ICASA is. They will have to work hard to regain some form of respectability in the industry. Perhaps this might be a very small step in that direction....although the delay in explanation as to why law abiding citizens are being denied the right to get our rocks off makes me wonder once again. bleh.
 
What's this about giving Sentech prime 800MHz spectrum, whose bright idea was that?
 
j4ck455 said:
What's this about giving Sentech prime 800MHz spectrum, whose bright idea was that?
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I would also love to know that. The way our DTTV migration is going and the date being pushed further and further away....I guess it would be a long time still before they actually have to worry about issuing that spectrum to companies that actually want and can make use of it.
 
unfortunately you are spot on - does not like we will get things done by December 2013 when the 800MHz band is meant to be freed up so....

ocleroux said:
I would also love to know that. The way our DTTV migration is going and the date being pushed further and further away....I guess it would be a long time still before they actually have to worry about issuing that spectrum to companies that actually want and can make use of it.
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Jan

the rules are all set - this is simply to explain to industry how ICASA will be applying them

regulations that set out the formulae for calculating fees are here
 
entrepr said:
Fallow spectrum is not a risk, but a national tragedy. Camping on spectrum should be regarded as treason because it slows down national economic growth, therefore restricting growth in jobs and taking away people's livelihoods, and it deprives people of access to broadband, especially people living in marginal coverage areas.
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Agreed! especially not allowing operators to resell the spectrum if they are not using it. This could support regional players.

j4ck455 said:
What's this about giving Sentech prime 800MHz spectrum, whose bright idea was that?
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Well Sentech is pretty much in charge of that spectrum now so it kinda makes more sense. At least DTT affects them directly then.
 
Bern said:
Well Sentech is pretty much in charge of that spectrum now so it kinda makes more sense. At least DTT affects them directly then.
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Perhaps it's the wording, but I got the impression that skuttlebut is that ICASA wants to dangle an 800MHz platinum carrot in front of the donkey that is Sentech, and then do a bait & switch to get back the 50MHz bronze carrot that Sentech has stashed up its rear end. If the piece of 800MHz spectrum is really for analogue to digital TV and not another MyWireless scheme I have no objections.
 
dominic said:
Jan

the rules are all set - this is simply to explain to industry how ICASA will be applying them

regulations that set out the formulae for calculating fees are here
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Thanks, Dominic. I've updated the article to (hopefully) reflect this.
 
j4ck455 said:
Perhaps it's the wording, but I got the impression that skuttlebut is that ICASA wants to dangle an 800MHz platinum carrot in front of the donkey that is Sentech, and then do a bait & switch to get back the 50MHz bronze carrot that Sentech has stashed up its rear end. If the piece of 800MHz spectrum is really for analogue to digital TV and not another MyWireless scheme I have no objections.
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I'd rather Sentech bugger about with spectrum that won't be available for another number of years (they will not have sole rights to it, just a piece) than wasting the spectrum they are currently sitting on now! With the ICASA use or lose rules possibly active by then Sentech will also be more likely to actually do something, that and gov pressure for their broadband coverage will be hotting up by then.
 
Bern said:
I'd rather Sentech bugger about with spectrum that won't be available for another number of years (they will not have sole rights to it, just a piece) than wasting the spectrum they are currently sitting on now! With the ICASA use or lose rules possibly active by then Sentech will also be more likely to actually do something, that and gov pressure for their broadband coverage will be hotting up by then.
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Makes sense, I just hope that someone in government with half a brain cell decides to leave broadband to commercial operators and not have SoCs like Sentech waste any more tax money.
 
j4ck455 said:
Makes sense, I just hope that someone in government with half a brain cell decides to leave broadband to commercial operators and not have SoCs like Sentech waste any more tax money.
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my understanding is that the operator of the wholesale licences would only be able to operate with an ECNS (electronic communications network service) licence, i.e. no ECS licence with which to provide electronic communications services to the public. ECNS licensees can only do business with other licensees.

agree with your general sentiment but at least this would not be mywireless part II
 
dominic said:
my understanding is that the operator of the wholesale licences would only be able to operate with an ECNS (electronic communications network service) licence, i.e. no ECS licence with which to provide electronic communications services to the public. ECNS licensees can only do business with other licensees.

agree with your general sentiment but at least this would not be mywireless part II
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I am confused - I thought an ECNS license allowed you to provision your own network AND sell directly to the public? Or are you saying this is the case, but for this spectrum they would not be able to? I would still rather get Sentech's 50Mhz in to a wholesaler's hands now who can do something with it and leave the 800 spectrum for Sentech to be dealt with whenever they get around to sorting out DTT (currently not by the 2015 due date). That means we could have LTE using 50MHz (read sufficient) in current coverage areas shared between various retailers meaning it would be worth buying/installing fibre to a much larger number of base stations. This means cheaper, faster mobile internet available over a larger geographic area. WIN.
 
Bern said:
I am confused - I thought an ECNS license allowed you to provision your own network AND sell directly to the public? Or are you saying this is the case, but for this spectrum they would not be able to? I would still rather get Sentech's 50Mhz in to a wholesaler's hands now who can do something with it and leave the 800 spectrum for Sentech to be dealt with whenever they get around to sorting out DTT (currently not by the 2015 due date). That means we could have LTE using 50MHz (read sufficient) in current coverage areas shared between various retailers meaning it would be worth buying/installing fibre to a much larger number of base stations. This means cheaper, faster mobile internet available over a larger geographic area. WIN.
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ECNS licensee cannot deal with the public / provide retail services - that is ECS licence only. For all intents in the lucky-packet licence explosion after Altech everyone got both resulting in the distinction being blurred. Not sure that ICASA gets it at all. Agree with you re Sentech but the politics involved mean it ain't gonna happen.

Although Sentech is of course going to have to start paying spectrum licence fees and not sure how they will manage that...
 
I see, everyone was just given an ECS and an ECNS - that explains my confusion!

dominic said:
Although Sentech is of course going to have to start paying spectrum licence fees and not sure how they will manage that...
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That will be interesting, but it really depends on how those license fees are structured....
 
Bern said:
That will be interesting, but it really depends on how those license fees are structured....
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according to a formula that applies to anyone else - will be very steep for what they have (and considering they are not generating any revenue)

Infraco only has an ECNS...
 
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