{"id":66723,"date":"2012-12-12T13:09:08","date_gmt":"2012-12-12T11:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=66723"},"modified":"2012-12-12T13:19:32","modified_gmt":"2012-12-12T11:19:32","slug":"lite-licensing-suggested-for-sa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wireless\/66723-lite-licensing-suggested-for-sa.html","title":{"rendered":"Lite-licensing suggested for SA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wireless Access Providers\u2019 Association (WAPA) called on the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to follow the example of other parts of the world by implementing lite-licensing in the local wireless access market.<\/p>\n

Lite-licensing is a middle ground between the completely open ISM model, and the current strict, dedicated licensing conditions associated with “closed” frequency bands.<\/p>\n

Lite-licensing will give wireless providers access to spectrum nationally in certain bands by paying a small fee. Another nominal fee may be charged for each base station in their network.<\/p>\n

Most wireless access providers\u2019 in South Africa currently make use of licence exempt frequencies in accordance with the ICASA Frequency License Exemption Regulations of 2008.<\/p>\n

According to WAPA, Lite-Licensing is currently being trialled and employed by progressive institutions as an alternative wireless spectrum management approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cA local lite-licensing regime would improve spectrum efficiency, provide opportunities for new entrants to the market, as well as provide structure and management in the open spectrum space,\u201d WAPA said in a press statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cLite-Licencing schemes provide the registration, coordination and interference protection benefits that a wireless license guarantees, but at a cost and application time significantly lower than traditional wireless licensing,\u201d said the Wireless Access Providers\u2019 Association (WAPA) Chairperson, Christopher Geerdts<\/p>\n

WAPA said that it is willing to work together with the regulator, ICASA, to implement the lite-licencing solution and is uniquely positioned to facilitate the management of spectrum under a lite-licensing regime, without imposing undue financial or administrative burdens on the national regulator.<\/p>\n

In addition, should ICASA and the Department of Communication implement lite-licensing, with WAPA acting as advisor on the regime, there is a possibility that South Africa could export its wireless access framework solution to other African countries in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWAPA urges the Department of Communication to recognise the value of lite-licensing in meeting its policy objectives and for ICASA to implement it as part of the frequency management mix,\u201d said WAPA regulatory advisor, Dominic Cull.<\/p>\n

\"Dominic<\/a>

Dominic Cull<\/p><\/div>\n

Lite-licensing explained<\/h3>\n

Lite-licensing works as follows. A central database keeps track of all current users and also monitors interference readings at each site.<\/p>\n

When an operator wants to deploy a new site, the geographic coordinates of that site are entered into the database and a spectrum-band \u2018licence\u2019 is allocated automatically.<\/p>\n

The operator then registers that site and spectrum allocation and also feeds back interference readings, which are used to verify the integrity of the solution. The licences can be free or attract a fee.<\/p>\n

The process is automated and objective, with interference monitoring taking place through built-in cognitive radios.<\/p>\n

Because the system is first-come, first serve, this approach favours the operators who are actually using the spectrum and leads to very efficient usage of spectrum.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Related articles<\/h3>\n

Wi-Fi will soon surpass wired traffic<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

TV white spaces for inexpensive broadband?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Wireless broadband numbers in SA revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

From wireless cowboys to serious broadband providers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

10Mbps TV white spaces trial network for SA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WAPA calls on ICASA to implement lite-licensing in the local wireless access market<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":59109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[7283,3004,35,533,7277],"class_list":["post-66723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wireless","tag-christopher-geerdts","tag-dominic-cull","tag-headline","tag-icasa","tag-wapa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66723"}],"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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66783,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66723\/revisions\/66783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}