'No digital dividend'

SA's current broadcasting plan is fundamentally flawed and will scupper any chances of fast, cost-effective broadband for all, industry players have warned.

This is despite the South African consumer having long suffered clogged networks, dropped calls and slow data speeds. In addition, broadband access in rural areas will not be achieved, despite being a key government policy.

Globally, operators are moving to LTE - the latest evolution of wireless broadband. However, South Africans are unlikely to benefit from world-class speeds countrywide due to a flawed broadcasting spectrum plan.

The country is moving from analogue broadcast to digital television, and the process is expected to be wrapped up by the end of 2013. Migrating to digital television will free up large chunks to spectrum - the so-called digital dividend.

This white space can be used to speed up broadband, expanding penetration into SA's rural areas, which have historically been overlooked, while metropolitans reaped the benefits of wireless broadband.

However, the current broadcasting plan negates the benefit of switching from analogue to digital, because it creates a fragmented and inefficient digital dividend, with TV channels interwoven with white space.

The plan must be amended to cluster television signals at the bottom end of the spectrum, freeing up coveted space in the 800MHz band so that operators can roll out LTE, or 4G, cost-effectively.

However, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) doesn't have a plan in place to tidy up the spectrum.

It is currently holding a workshop to allow the industry to air its views on how best to use the white space. Broadcasters want a chunk of the digital dividend for more television channels, and telecoms companies want space at the top end of the spectrum for broadband.

At the end of last month, communications minister Roy Padayachie highlighted the importance of getting broadband to rural areas. He reiterated the department's target of providing broadband access for all “to ensure that we increase penetration to half the population by 2020”.

Padayachie, speaking at the Annual Information Society and Development Multi-Stakeholder forum, said the department's theme for 2011 was “ICT in rural development and job creation”.

However, Padayachie's aim of getting broadband to rural areas will be undermined if SA does not develop a new broadcasting plan.

Geoff Blake, MTN's senior manager of technical regulation, says broadband penetration is currently in single digits. While mass penetration can be achieved in rural areas in a short time, this depends on operators having access to spectrum in the 800MHz band, he notes.

The digital dividend is one of the most valuable spectrum bands that will become available thanks to SA's migration to digital television, says Blake. Allocating spectrum below 1GHz is the first step to reduce the digital divide.

Blake argues the digital dividend must be assigned before December 2013, when analogue broadcast is set to be turned off, so that communications can be rolled out starting in January the next year.

Allocating spectrum to the broadcasters and telcos can be done in parallel with digital migration, says Blake. He argues against switching off analogue and then starting a new process to decide how to use the freed up space six months down the line.

Neotel CTO Angus Hay says ICASA's broadcasting plan is “fundamentally flawed” and needs to be reworked to create a digital dividend free of television channels at the top end of the spectrum range.

Hay says, as a result, there is a real risk that the broadcasting plan won't yield a digital dividend. The term was coined by the International Telecommunication Union to indicate spectrum that is freed up to allow new services.

About 70% of broadband in SA is wireless, and mobile signal has the potential to reach far more people in areas that can't be accessed to create physical infrastructure, says Hay.

However, the way ICASA has allocated spectrum means broadcasters and telcos will end up sharing space in the coveted 800MHz spectrum. Telcos want spectrum in this region to roll out 4G as it is cost-effective and offers greater penetration.

“The fragmented spectrum means that it would not be possible to issue national licences for LTE in the 800MHz band,” says Hay. Although the effect can be reduced if broadcasters and telcos share different geographies, this isn't ideal, he explains.

“We would certainly get some faster broadband, but fewer operators, and some areas would have problems.” As a result, says Hay, only some parts of SA will benefit from the dividend.

Hay says ICASA needs to go back to the drawing board to mitigate the risk of the country losing out on a digital dividend. This issue must be fixed upfront. “You can't just fudge it later.... If there is any possibility of digital dividend planning, it must be done now.”

A balanced plan, that meets the broadcasters' and telcos' needs, must be developed, says Hay. “We need to start planning now while SA migrates from analogue so that the free space is available by the end of 2013.”

Hay suggests a more complex migration, which would allow a digital dividend at the higher end of the band. He says this is an issue that ICASA must “tackle head on”. Hay cautions that freeing up the digital dividend could take many years if the authority doesn't get it right.

Thabiso Thukani, government and industry relations manager for Ericsson sub-Saharan Africa, says ICASA needs to change the way it has traditionally managed spectrum. He says the body must plan so that there is a “sizeable digital dividend” once migration has been completed.

Paseka Maleka, ICASA spokesman, says the authority is still working out what to do with the white spaces interwoven between television allocations. He comments that this is the aim of the two-day workshop.

ICASA doesn't yet have a plan to migrate digital television channels to the bottom end of the spectrum so that they are clustered together, notes Maleka. He says migration may only start once SA has moved to digital television.

Steven Ambrose, MD of WWW Strategy, says SA won't see a digital dividend until 2016 at the earliest. He points out that ICASA hasn't even audited the spectrum that is currently available.

Ambrose says going back to the drawing board will take more time, pushing out the opportunity to benefit from the digital dividend. “No-one is driving this bus.”

The explosion of wireless broadband globally is dependent on the digital dividend, says Ambrose. “It's inconceivable that they haven't thought about it, and if they haven't, then it's a huge scandal.”