Spectrum: Use it or lose it
A recent study found that the more connected a country is the more economic growth it can expect.
A valuable asset in connecting people is spectrum which gives operators the ability to wirelessly provide consumers with telecoms services. More spectrum generally means more affordable network provisioning and in turn more affordable services to consumers.
This raises the question of how much spectrum each telecoms provider in South Africa has and how many customers they serve using this spectrum. Or, to put it another way: who makes the most of the spectrum they have been given.
An argument regularly raised is that a use-it-or-lose-it policy should be followed by ICASA which will see operators who waste their spectrum having it taken away and redistributed to companies who uses it more efficiently.
Who has what?
It is not easy to ascertain which companies have been allocated which spectrum, but the following information gives a rough estimate which telecoms providers are sitting with spectrum that is typically used to provide services to consumers.
Vodacom has 22MHz of 900MHz spectrum, 24MHz of 1.8GHz spectrum, 30MHz of 2.1GHz spectrum and 5MHz of UMTS TDD spectrum. This totals 81MHz of spectrum through which the company provides 24.8 million subscribers with basic voice and data connectivity and around 440 000 HSDPA broadband clients.
MTN has the same spectrum allocation as Vodacom and serves 14.8 million voice and data subscribers and approximately 150 000 HSDPA broadband subscribers using this spectrum.
Cell C has a similar spectrum allocation to its rivals with the exception that it only has 20MHz of 2.1GHz spectrum compared to Vodacom and MTN’s 30MHz. It is serving around 4.5 million voice and data clients using its 69.8MHz of spectrum.
WBS/iBurst has been allocated 15MHz of 2.5GHz WiMax spectrum, 24MHz of GSM1800 spectrum and 10MHz of spectrum in the 1787 – 1797MHz frequency band. It currently has 70 000 wireless broadband subscribers and has recently rolled out a WiMax network in partnership with Vodacom.
Neotel has 56MHz of 3.5GHz WiMax spectrum, 24MHz of GSM1800 spectrum and 10MHz of 800MHZ CDMA2000 spectrum. The company only has a few hundred customers on its network, but is rapidly expanding its wireless network and actively growing its CDMA customer base.
Telkom has a wide range of valuable spectrum. The company has 24MHz of spectrum in the 1.8GHz band, 20MHz in the 2.1GHz band, 20MHz in the 1880MHz – 1900MHz frequency band, 20MHz of multi-gain wireless spectrum and 56MHz of valuable 3.5GHz spectrum. With this 140MHz of spectrum the company is only serving a few thousand wireless customers.
Sentech is doing even worse with its 50MHz of 2.5GHz spectrum and 56MHz of 3.5GHz WiMax spectrum. The company has only a few thousand wireless broadband subscribers left, and has been accused by many industry players as wasting the valuable 106MHz of WiMax spectrum it has been allocated.
Companies mum on spectrum usage
Spectrum ownership, however, seems to be a very contentious issue.
All the telecoms providers – including Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Neotel, Cell C and iBurst – were asked what spectrum were allocated to them and how many consumers they served using this spectrum. Not a single provider came back to MyBroadband with this information.
So while many of the providers make a tremendous amount of noise regarding the lack of spectrum, they seem unwilling to be assessed objectively when asked for information which can substantiate their case.
ICASA was also asked for feedback on spectrum allocation, but the regulator did not give any feedback regarding the matter.
This lack of transparency when it comes to spectrum ownership and usage will only serve to complicate matters further and play into the hands of companies such as Sentech which is sitting on a vast amount of unused spectrum.
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