Open Spectrum International says it welcomes the Telecommunications Regulatory Association of Southern Africa`s (TRASA`s) draft on wireless policy for southern Africa.
Open Spectrum International, a global policy advocacy project launched to increase licence-exempt access to the radio spectrum, today praised TRASA`s 'Guidelines on Wireless Technologies Policy and Regulation` draft.
In a public statement, Open Spectrum International said it "strongly supported" TRASA`s overall goal to enable SADC countries to extract the maximum economic and social benefits from the use of wireless technologies.
TRASA also aims to facilitate a uniform level of understanding of regulatory matters and to maximise the utilisation of scarce resources in specialist areas of telecommunications.
"We also generally and strongly support your policy recommendations for unlicensed operation," the statement read.
The guidelines set out by TRASA are an attempt to harmonise the regulatory policies of its 14 member countries. The technologies at the focus of the guidelines are small VSAT satellite stations and terrestrial wireless data networks based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, including WiFi.
Because VSATs provide international connectivity while WiFi is a "last mile" solution, these are complementary technologies. Together they enable the quick expansion of low-cost wireless access to the Internet, which TRASA sees as essential for improving the quality of life in southern Africa.
TRASA`s members are Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, SA, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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