ICASA’s recent decision to award providers with only 20MHz of spectrum each has been met with sharp criticism from industry. <\/p>\n
A number of WiMax players, including Intel, feel that 30MHz of spectrum is the minimum needed to enable providers to roll out fast, affordable WiMax-based broadband offerings.<\/p>\n
ICASA chairman Paris Mashile, however, has defended the regulator’s decision, saying that a full consultation process was followed after which a decision was made to ensure the optimal allocation of spectrum.<\/p>\n
Mashile said that with 20MHz of spectrum one can produce data rates of up to 75Mbps. Mashile also said that operators can do compression, modulation and other things to make sure the spectrum is used efficiently.<\/p>\n
Mashile challenged critics who said that at least 30MHz of WiMax spectrum was needed for the rollout of affordable broadband offerings. He asked whether these critics considered compression techniques, multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, pico cells, femto cells and micro cells.<\/p>\n
“People most probably want to get to have as much [WiMax spectrum] as they can in order for others not to have [any WiMax spectrum],” said Mashile.<\/p>\n
He said that if the business model proved that 20MHz was indeed not enough then two organisations, each with 20MHz of spectrum, can join forces to provide them with 40MHz.<\/p>\n
Vodacom CEO Alan Knott-Craig was, however, adamant that 20MHz of WiMax spectrum was simply not enough to provide a profitable broadband service. <\/p>\n
Vodacom, in partnership with WBS, has already invested in a WiMax network using a mere 14MHz of spectrum, and the company previously pointed out that the limited spectrum was very restrictive in both pricing and speed.<\/p>\n
Knott-Craig said that it was a well know fact that at least 30MHz of WiMax spectrum was needed to provide affordable broadband services.<\/p>\n
The Vodacom CEO also questioned why valuable WiMax spectrum was not taken back from companies such as Sentech which was not using it to provide services to consumers.<\/p>\n
On this point Mashile said that the regulator was working on a use-it-or-lose-it system. The ICASA chairman would, however, not commit to taking spectrum away from Sentech as government was still planning for it to become the national wireless broadband provider as envisaged by communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.<\/p>\n
Currently Telkom, Neotel, Sentech and WBS\/iBurst have WiMax spectrum.<\/p>\n