While so-called over-the-top players like WhatsApp and new video-on-demand (VOD) entrants are creating an unprecedented demand for data in SA, government has yet to issue policy direction on the assignment of spectrum - a process that has been deferred for years, despite its crucial nature.
With WhatsApp calling - now available for all Android users - bound for what analysts predict will be huge consumer uptake and set to become the latest burden on operators' data pipes, industry watchers warn demand may end up outpacing investment and capacity.
This, despite the tens of billions being invested in SA's mobile broadband infrastructure by key players.
Independent telecoms analyst Spiwe Chireka says OTT players have created "huge" consumer demand for data, which operators have no choice but to provide - whether they reap all the financial benefits or not.
But, says World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck, SA lacks adequate mobile broadband as it is - a fact he says is partly due to government's failure to license LTE and assign spectrum.
The process has been stalled for years, failing to feature on government's agenda - a fact that has been linked largely to the country's harassed digital terrestrial TV (DTT) process.
Spectrum steps
About a week ago, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) published the final Radio Frequency Spectrum Assignment Plan for International Mobile Telephony, government's plan for the assignment of spectrum.
Electronic communications sector specialist William Stucke explains the publications are essentially a collection of documents for a number of spectrum bands. "They specify technical details about how these bands are to be used. This includes the channel arrangements, technical details of equipment in some cases, maximum signal levels, interference mitigation, propagation modelling, migration arrangements, etc. All this is the nuts and bolts of how to use each of these bands."
Stucke says, while this is a useful step towards the realisation of spectrum assignment, it is not something that had specifically held up the process.
Allocating more spectrum in the 2.6 GHz and 3.5 GHz ranges has been on the cards since 2006, but invitations to apply for frequency in the bands were withdrawn in June 2010. Since then, there has been little movement towards auctioning the spectrum.
At the end of 2011, ICASA decided to allocate space in the coveted 2.6 GHz and 800 MHz ranges (internationally harmonised access bands suitable for LTE), but the idea was abandoned again the next year.
Although then communications minister Dina Pule said she would provide ICASA with policy direction for the assignment of high-demand spectrum in May 2012, this did not come to pass and still today, the industry is left waiting for government to issue a policy directive.
Digital delay
While spectrum assignment and digital migration are closely related, Stucke says the delayed DTT process need not hold back the assignment of spectrum. "There is no need to wait for the analogue to digital migration, followed by the digital to digital migration, or 'restacking', before going through the assignment process. In fact, waiting would be a disaster, as that would add several years delay."
He says it would be much better to assign the spectrum now, so that operators have the time to build all their infrastructure, and can simply switch it on when it is vacated by the broadcasters.
"I'd like to see all the spectrum assigned, at the same time, through a proper competitive process, really soon. It's important to have certainty in the market about what spectrum is going to be available when. It's also important that all the spectrum is made available at the same time, including the 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 2.3 GHz, 2.6 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands, so that there is no artificially perceived scarcity."
ICASA and the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services had not commented by the time of publication.
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