The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has put out its final International Mobile Telephony (IMT) roadmap as it seeks to ensure universal availability of broadband services as well as a vibrant and competitive telecommunications industry and promote investments.
The publication, it says in a statement, follows "extensive public consultation with relevant stakeholders in recent weeks".
ICASA believes the growing demand for mobile broadband in South Africa indicates a need for more mobile broadband bandwidth capacity in general. "It is generally known that many rural areas do not have access to mobile bandwidth indicating a need for a more universal mobile broadband coverage, a need best served by deploying lower frequencies that propagate a wider market."
The roadmap also involves migrating a number of current licensees out of (or within) bands identified for IMT services.
For bands where costs and benefits of the migration were not straightforward, ICASA conducted further feasibility studies to determine the "appropriateness" of migration.
At the same time, ICASA put out its draft Radio Frequency Spectrum Assignment Plan (RFSAP) for IMT.
The draft RFSAP aims to specify the technical conditions on the use of the frequency bands and seeks to get stakeholders' views on the rules for services operating in each frequency band".
Because of the public interest nature of this project, ICASA will publish the RFSAP for 14 days only for comments.
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