Prescription Consulting has introduced the Sydus mobile radio technology, which it says will help South African broadcasters use the GSM network to exploit a gap within the country`s licensing regime.
According to Prescription Consulting CEO Jayson Faber, the Sydus technology allows the use of the GSM network to offer streaming radio broadcasts to consumers for around R2 for between 150 to 180 minutes of listening.
"One advantage is to help a regional radio station to develop a national listenership without having to go through the current licensing laws that can be very costly," he says.
Philly Moliwa, manager of the South African Broadcasting Corporation`s policy and regulation unit, says this is a gap in the current licensing that people are trying to use.
"The Electronic Communications Bill [formerly the Convergence Bill] was supposed to address this issue. It is supposed to allow for the different classes of licences and then the development of the regulations surrounding them so that business models can be built," he says.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications passed the Electronic Communications Bill, which should replace the current Telecommunications Act and elements of the various broadcasting Acts, towards the end of last year. However, it and the related ICASA Amendment Bill have yet to be signed into law.
Faber says the Sydus technology can also be used by other organisations looking to use broadcasting methods to promote events.
"For instance, some of the cellular operators are big into their rugby sponsorships, so commentary on such a game could be broadcast over the GSM network."
Sydus linked up with Virgin Radio last year and together they claim to have a radio audience of more than 19 000 unique listeners with over 110 000 service accesses.
Faber says the technology is faster and requires fewer resources than online streaming.
"The broadcasts are in stereo at almost CD quality using less than 56Kb."
Faber says his company is in negotiations with the network operators to begin offering this service.
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