{"id":17969,"date":"2011-01-30T06:18:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-30T04:18:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-01-30T06:18:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-30T04:18:00","slug":"unused-spectrum-in-sa-should-trading-be-allowed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/17969-unused-spectrum-in-sa-should-trading-be-allowed.html","title":{"rendered":"Unused spectrum in SA: Should trading be allowed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The debate over unused spectrum in South Africa has been raging on for years, mainly focusing on Sentech<\/a> sitting on valuable but unused 2.6 GHz and 3.5GHz spectrum while other service providers are begging for spectrum in these bands to deploy WiMax<\/a> and LTE<\/a> networks.<\/p>\n

Consumers and industry players alike have been vociferous supporters of a ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ policy where unused spectrum will be taken away from companies like Sentech and redistributed to operators which will make the most of this valuable resource.<\/p>\n

While Sentech itself is not using this spectrum, another provider Screamer Telecoms, has been using some of the parastatal’s 2.5 GHz spectrum to build a WiMax network.<\/p>\n

The details about the agreement between Sentech and Screamer Telecoms are not known – and is in fact currently being investigated by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA)<\/a> – but it does raise questions about the sub-assignment or sub-leasing of spectrum.<\/p>\n

Rumors in the market suggest that Vodacom and iBurst are currently in discussions about a potential agreement whereby Vodacom<\/a> will be using iBurst<\/a>’s unused 1.8G Hz spectrum in a deal which could run into millions of Rands per month.<\/p>\n

However, iBurst CTO Sasan Parvin said that he is not aware of any discussions regarding a potential deal about spectrum between Vodacom and iBurst, but it does raise questions as to whether such spectrum deals should be allowed.<\/p>\n

Should spectrum trading be allowed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Should companies such as iBurst and Sentech be allowed to trade in spectrum and allow other operators to use their spectrum? According to Ellipsis Regulatory Solutions director Dominic Cull<\/a> the answer is yes, but within reason.<\/p>\n

Cull says that he thinks spectrum trading should be allowed, but added that he would like to see some ‘light touch regulation’ in place, initially at least, to try and prevent profiteering and to require that the primary holder use at least 50% of the spectrum they have been assigned in a particular band (i.e. to avoid a situation where a licensee acts as a spectrum broker).<\/p>\n

There is currently no regulatory framework authorising sub-assignment or sub-leasing of spectrum, but Cull points out that Draft Radio Regulations under consideration by ICASA propose allowing the transfer and sub-assignment of spectrum on a non-profit basis and after receipt of approval in writing from ICASA.<\/p>\n

“Under the draft Regulations a licensee would have to have held the licence for at least a year before they can transfer it,” said Cull.<\/p>\n

However, ICASA spokesperson Paseka Maleka said that the current dispensation does not allow spectrum trading while the ECA also does not permit trading in spectrum. ICASA did look at market sentiment in this regard.<\/p>\n

“The Authority is obliged to work within the prescripts of the law. Nevertheless the Authority sought to gauge market sentiment with a view to make recommendations to the Minister. On the basis of the submissions sent, it would appear that the market is not immediately excited about spectrum trading,” said Maleka.<\/p>\n

Unused spectrum in SA: Should trading be allowed?<\/strong><\/a> << Comments and views<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Screamer Telecoms\u2019 use of Sentech spectrum highlights an important question in the SA telecoms space: Should ICASA allow the trading of unused spectrum?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-broadcasting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17969"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}