{"id":42247,"date":"2012-03-08T11:00:40","date_gmt":"2012-03-08T09:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=42247"},"modified":"2012-03-08T11:24:34","modified_gmt":"2012-03-08T09:24:34","slug":"more-concerns-over-wasting-lte-spectrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/42247-more-concerns-over-wasting-lte-spectrum.html","title":{"rendered":"More concerns over wasting LTE spectrum"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Cell C<\/a> CEO Alan Knott-Craig<\/a> has raised concerns that ICASA\u2019s<\/a> spectrum assignment plans may result in wasting valuable LTE<\/a> spectrum.<\/p>\n

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) unveiled their spectrum assignment plan for the 2.6 GHz and 800 MHz bands in December 2011.<\/p>\n

The regulator plans to exclude existing wireless operators from the process which means that Vodacom<\/a>, MTN<\/a>, Cell C<\/a>, Telkom<\/a> (8ta<\/a>) and Neotel<\/a> cannot directly apply for LTE spectrum.<\/p>\n

New Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig said that based on past decisions by ICASA, he is concerned that valuable LTE spectrum will be wasted.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of the 8 spectrum blocks discussed in the draft ITA the existing network operators can only apply for one [as a wholesale provider],\u201d said Knott Craig.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only is that absurd, but it is quite unusual, as in other markets it has been viewed that it is indeed the existing operators that can utilise the additional spectrum most cost effectively and thus offer services to customers at the lowest prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alan<\/a>

Alan Knott-Craig<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cMore spectrum per operator means better quality, higher speeds and lower prices. More operators and less spectrum for each operator simply entrenches the status quo of iffy service and relatively high prices. Until we all understand that properly, we won\u2019t be joining the high-speed, low-price data world any time soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knott-Craig however highlights that there is still an opportunity to review ICASA’s proposal, and that it is important to ensure that sensible spectrum management principles are adhered to from the outset.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the regulator gets it right, the entire country will benefit. If the regulator gets it wrong, it all goes clunk!\u201d Knott-Craig concluded.<\/p>\n

Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys called on ICASA for certainty on spectrum allocation, and while not bluntly stating that spectrum may be wasted with smaller players he did say that it will be in good hands if given to Vodacom.<\/p>\n

\u201cVodacom is uniquely placed to make use of more spectrum to roll out affordable internet access to more people across the whole country,\u201d said Uys.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will LTE spectrum be wasted?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

LTE will be disruptive<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

LTE networks show strong growth<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig and raise concerns over ICASA\u2019s planned spectrum assignment plan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39375,"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_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[681,355,35,533],"class_list":["post-42247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-alan-knott-craig","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-icasa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42247"}],"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=42247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42249,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42247\/revisions\/42249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}