The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has accepted proposals on frequency allocations and transmission power levels by the radio frequency identification (RFID) working groups of Standards South Africa (Stansa) and EPCglobal.
These recommendations could appear in the Government Gazette as soon as the end of this week for scrutiny and comment by all interested parties, ICASA`s RF specialist for frequency management Abel Thoobe told the Afritag quarterly conference at Carnival City yesterday.
According to Thoobe, the discussion document accepted by the ICASA council includes all the RFID issues raised by Stansa and EPCglobal, particularly around the allocation of frequencies in the 865MHz to 869MHz and 915MHz to 921MHz bands.
"It is now up to the individual vendors and other interested parties to respond and make a contribution, but we should have new RFID regulations by the end of the year," he said.
The news was welcomed by Tom Borkett, executive consultant to the Afritag forum within the Smart Card Society of Southern Africa. He commended Thoobe for stepping in to expedite the process and called on the forum`s members to respond.
"This is a significant step towards revising the RFID regulations in SA to ensure greater alignment with frequency allocations and power output levels in Europe and the US," said Borkett.
The local RFID industry has been pressing for this alignment and greater frequency flexibility to create confidence in local deployment of the technology, as well as enable direct imports of equipment from overseas without modification.
"Alignment with Europe would also enable vendors to import RFID equipment directly without having to adapt it for local use," points out Andrea Sada, systems engineer at Symbol.
Thoobe says depending on the response to the recommendations in the two months after they appear in the Government Gazette, ICASA will hold public hearings to engage with industry players about their needs and concerns.
Once this process is completed, a revised set of RFID regulations will be finalised, gazetted and promulgated into law.
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