Hand it out already
Unused spectrum remains one of the biggest stumbling blocks to increased competition in the South African telecoms market. Apart from ICASA dragging its feet on handing out spectrum, large amounts of allocated but unused spectrum held by organisations such as the military and Sentech can be seen as a wasted resource.
It is in this context that the Internet Service Providers Association of South Africa (ISPA) has called on ICASA to allocate spectrum to increase competition and lower telecoms prices.
"We are delighted that ICASA has now converted value-added network services (VANS) licences into ECNS and ECS licences. Now, however, the regulator needs to turn its attention to issues such as licensing fees, allocation of frequency spectrum, and interconnect fees if it is serious about bringing choice, lower prices and competition to the market," said ISPA’s Mike Silber.
AfrISPA chairman William Stucke said that Government would have two choices when selecting a model to hand out spectrum: Seeing it as a revenue-generating opportunity or looking at it as a way to ensure that local citizens get connected. Government and ICASA were urged to select the latter option.
Stucke added that there needed to be transparency regarding who held spectrum and what it was being used for. According to Stucke, the lack of information in this regard means that a great deal of unused spectrum may be available to be redistributed in a use-it-or-lose-it model.
Stucke also suggested that there should be more open bands which would be likely to spark innovation similar to what is seen in the unlicensed 2.4GHz ISM band. According to Stucke, WiMax is particularly well suited to this as it is more effective than Wi-Fi at handling interference.
Steve Song, Telecoms Fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation, said that interference was the only reason why there was a need for regulation. Song however questioned the way in which spectrum was handed out and supported Stucke’s view of more transparency regarding spectrum ownership and allocation procedures.
Song said that while unlicensed spectrum in the WiMax and 700MHz bands were interesting to explore, it was unlikely to be realized. He said that the fact that WiMax spectrum was licensed allowed for higher power output which is of value to operators.
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