Connecting Africa's unconnected cannot be done successfully without access to spectrum. This was the conclusion reached by a panel of experts at AfricaCom 2016 in Cape Town.
"Africa is the most unconnected continent, but most people don't realise that Africa actually has the most identified spectrum that can be used to connect the unconnected," according to panellist Elizabeth Migwalla, senior director and head of government affairs for Africa at Qualcomm.
"So, from my perspective, I think the real key is how to marry technological advances with sound ICT policies so that we can avoid this increasing divide where we only have technologies to serve those that are already connected,"
She noted LTE is essential to getting the unconnected onto the Internet on the continent, but spectrum is needed to roll out LTE.
"More than 20 African countries have some LTE footprint but it is not reaching the unconnected because most of the networks are rolling out on re-farmed spectrum. Operators are having to use what little they already have to roll out this technology and yet the prime spectrum for LTE is actually available over Africa, both coverage and capacity spectrum.
"The potential to use this spectrum exists and the global allocations exist but the missing link is converting that may-be-used spectrum into can-be-used spectrum by specific operators ? which will make the difference in our LTE rollout," said Migwalla.
Fellow panellist, Vodacom executive head of innovation Jannie van Zyl, agreed with Migwalla, saying SA is a good example of this.
"In terms of 3G coverage, we cover 99% of the population. Our LTE coverage at 2 100MHz is 70% of the population yet our whole network is ready across SA to deploy on lower frequencies and at multiple carrier aggregation.
"The moment that additional spectrum is unlocked, overnight we could switch on a near-100% LTE coverage at a very high speed. The only thing holding us back is spectrum allocation. And the spectrum is there; the 700MHz and 800MHz spectrum is there."
When asked what he would hope to see happen in the next year in terms of African connectivity, he quipped: "Locally, I would like to see my department of telecommunications and my regulator not face each other in court anymore."
He was referring to the most recent hold-up for spectrum allocation in SA due to a squabble between the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS) and telecoms regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA).
The DTPS in September succeeded in interdicting ICASA from continuing with a planned spectrum auction which would have given telecoms operators the opportunity to bid on lots of spectrum in the highly sought-after 700MHz, 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands.
Migwalla said it's time for continental-wide discussions and more collaboration between countries.
"One of the key discussions that needs to be had is how we can harness the thousands of megahertz of spectrum that is available in Africa today and use that to connect our populations. My recommendation is that it is no longer each country or each government or each minister in each country deciding how to use that resource, but rather we would do well to harmonise across the continent and create the critical mass to serve the unconnected," she added.
Van Zyl believes the spectrum issue is going to come up over and over until it's resolved.
Leapfrogging
JS Deepak, secretary of the Department of Telecommunications for the government of India, joined the panel to share the successes he had in his own country in terms of streamlining government processes for connectivity.
He noted that like many countries in Africa, India had a successful mobile revolution and managed to leapfrog the stage of development for voice connectivity - going from no connections to almost a billion. Deepak said now the same needs to happen for data, as it does in Africa.
"Most developing countries got 2G, 3G and 4G well after the West had. But since broadband is crucial for various applications from health to education, disaster management, e-commerce and financial inclusion - unless we are able to get quality broadband down to the population, the asymmetry of information which already exists in our societies will lead to an asymmetry of opportunity and increase the digital divide.
"As more applications go online, it is important to have a very robust public/private partnership. Governments need to facilitate through policy which reduces the costs of devices and services and makes broadband affordable. And that is not enough; in rural areas where there is no business case, governments need to invest in infrastructure to carry broadband so that rural populations can get a quality of connection that can support e-education, e-medicine and the like," Deepak added.
"Business as usual is not going to get us to where we need to go. The time has come to have a complete conversation with all of the stakeholders that are involved in 'datafication', because quite clearly there is a role for government, there is a role for regulators, operators, device providers and users themselves," commented Migwalla.
Vanu Bose, president and CEO of Vanu, shared the work his company is doing in Rwanda as an example of where a government is getting it right.
"When it's complete, our network will cover one million people in Rwanda who don't have coverage now; that's one million out of 13.5 million. Why did we start in Rwanda? Because the government is very pro-ICT and president Paul Kagame understands connectivity and education are important for his country. Everyone from the telecoms minister to the regulator are fully lined up behind it and have smoothed the path.
"We went from nothing to a working network in about six months and normally working with governments takes longer than that, even in the US. So if governments have the will to connect the people, they can streamline the process greatly. We have had a tremendous experience in Rwanda and we hope to bring those learnings to other African countries that we go to," Bose added.
Deepak believes that what Africa needs to do in the future is to harmonise the use of spectrum to minimise interference issues and build down the cost of devices through economies of scale.
"I also hope for a transparent mechanism of putting large volumes of spectrum in the hands of operators so that they are able to deliver world-class services at reasonable costs," he said.
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