Time to take back the airwaves
THE POOR MANAGEMENT of South Africa’s radio frequency (RF) spectrum is likely to make it difficult for potential wireless operators to roll out WiMax services. Gateway Telecoms COO Mike van den Bergh says there’s a shortage of available spectrum for WiMax services and that regulator Icasa should implement “a use it or lose it” policy for the FR spectrum.
WiMax – the next generation of wireless broadband services – operates in the 3,5GHz band of the RF spectrum and most of that’s already been allocated to established operators, such as Telkom and Sentech. WiMax can also be run in the 2,5GHz band, but Icasa has allocated none of that spectrum.
Van den Bergh says there’s only 200MHz available in the 3,5GHz band, but for an operator to run a proper WiMax service it’s necessary to have access to a band of spectrum in the range of 42MHz to 56MHz. That leaves room for only four, possibly five, operators in the WiMax market.
With a number of ISPs wanting to access the wireless broadband game, the paucity of spectrum is likely to make it difficult. Van den Bergh says some companies looking to obtain individual electronic network communications licences – which allow companies to build their own networks – have based their entire business plan on being awarded access to the spectrum. However, Icasa has already stated there are no guarantees that those seeking spectrum will be allowed access.
Van den Bergh says Icasa must make sure any spectrum not being used is immediately brought back into the available pool. That way potential WiMax operators looking to launch would be able to take any openings up and those already allocated spectrum incentivised to bring services to market faster.
Van den Bergh adds that should Icasa decide to create additional spectrum outside the standard bands that would negate one of the most important benefits of WiMax: the cost benefits introduced by an internationally accepted technology.
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